As the president of the Board of Directors for the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living I write this as a plea rooted in a hard and painful truth. A truth that is playing out right now in the homes and lives of our neighbors.
In Harrisburg, a state budget has been delayed. We are told it is a simple matter of negotiation, a political squabble, a partisan standoff. But this is not a game. For the people of the Lehigh Valley, this delay has a profound and immediate human cost, a consequence measured not in dollars and cents, but in dignity and despair.
LVCIL relies on state funds to provide our essential services. The failure to pass a budget means our base funding is not coming in. As a result, LVCIL has laid off 14 people, representing nearly half of our staff. Fifty percent of the hands that help, the voices that guide and the hearts that care are now silent.
These are professionals who provide vital services that empower independence every day, including securing accessible housing, obtaining and maintaining employment, navigating complex transportation, supporting personal care and ensuring full participation in community life. Now, that critical work has come to a screeching halt.
The consequences of this impasse are devastatingly concrete for our most vulnerable residents. LVCIL has been forced to shut down all of its core services, which assist hundreds of people each week including:
•Information and Referral: This crucial, one-on-one contact, providing resources for everything from food banks and shelters to technology accommodations.
•Peer Support: The daily individual and group support that people with disabilities rely on for guidance, coping mechanisms and human connection.
•Independent Living: Training that helps people manage new apartments or learn skills they missed in school, all of which improve self-worth and life progression. Our nursing home transition work stopped, potentially forcing individuals to live their lives in costly, institutional settings against their desire to be independent. Community living is far cheaper for the state.
•Advocacy: People lose support for self advocacy and assistance from a trained advocate who can deal with wrongful denials of Social Security or illegal discrimination. Silencing LVCIL’s presence in community groups silences a voice for systems advocacy.
•Transition Services: Youth transition support is also severely minimized, leaving young people without vital resources at a crucial time in their development.
Most of the calls we receive daily are for housing support. Finding affordable and accessible housing in the Lehigh Valley is already extremely challenging, and people with limited resources rely on us to help. The abrupt halt of these services puts people at risk for homelessness and food insecurities. People who have been working on applications for low-income housing programs are being put further back on waiting lists.
The budget impasse also forces us to shut down other vital programs:
•Community Inclusion for Young Children: This program supported parents of young children with disabilities with individual support, training, and peer connection.
•Supported Decision Making: We had to stop our project promoting SDM as a superior and less restrictive alternative to guardianship. Halting this work stalls significant legislative progress we’ve made to recognize SDM as a legal alternative, as 31 other states have done.
The human toll extends to our remaining staff, who are experiencing intense fear and low morale, scared that they will be next. Our affiliate, the Bucks County Center for Independent Living, had to lay off its entire staff of five. We’ve even had to delay mileage reimbursement and some employees made the hard decision to continue working without pay.
Some will look at this situation and see only a line item on a spreadsheet. But what we are witnessing is the highest cost of all. We are seeing essential support that safeguards health, independence and dignity stripped away.
Make no mistake, the fiscal cost to the commonwealth will only rise. The layoffs trigger unemployment obligations and the loss of community-based services will inevitably shift our neighbors into far more expensive systems of care, such as institutionalization or repeated emergency room visits.
People with disabilities are the largest minority that exist in our society. It is a group anyone can join at any time. Every single one of us, if we live long enough, will eventually be a part of it. This is not a left or right issue. This is not a top or bottom issue. This is a human issue. It is a test of our character, a test of our compassion and a test of our resolve.
The time for waiting is over. The time for action is now.
First, I urge you to take political action. Call and write your legislators. Tell them to pass this budget, so we can get back to the work of building a community where every life is supported, every voice is heard, and every person is treated with the dignity they deserve.
Second, we need your direct help. If you believe in the right to independence, if you are moved by the thought of a neighbor losing their home or essential support, please consider making an emergency donation to LVCIL today. Until the budget is passed, your support is a lifeline. Thank you.
This is a contributed opinion column. Michelle Mitchell is president of the Board of Directors of the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.