* With more than 200 Chicago shootings since the year began, this is very bad news, indeed…
The mounting toll from the Illinois budget impasse is now reaching vital programs that effectively keep youth out of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. On Feb. 15, Children’s Home + Aid will suspend crisis intervention services for runaways and youth at risk of delinquency in Englewood and West Englewood.
The services are delivered through the state-mandated Comprehensive Community-Based Youth Services (CCBYS) program, which has been operating without payment since July 1. Children’s Home + Aid was on track to serve an estimated 70 youth this year through the CCBYS program on the South Side of Chicago. The suspension follows months of CCBYS program reductions by providers across the state, a direct result of the budget impasse.
“This is the first of many program suspensions we are forecasting around the state,” said Andrea Durbin, CEO of Illinois Collaboration on Youth, a statewide network of organizations delivering programs, services and advocacy for at-risk youth and families. “Providers tell us they are expecting to make significant cuts in services and staff in February and March. These are the same providers who have been working in good faith since July 1 to meet the needs of kids and families in crisis in every county in Illinois. But without a budget or the possibility of payment any time soon, we will see more and more of these program suspensions and eventually every CCBYS program will close.”
The consequences of the suspension of the CCBYS program in Englewood and West Englewood – communities in Chicago marked by unemployment and violence – are significant and sharply undercut commitments from Gov. Rauner and the General Assembly to increase community-based services. Youth will be turned away from successful, low-cost community programs, and increase the pressure on already strained and expensive systems such as the justice system, schools and child welfare.
CCBYS provides crisis intervention and family reunification services for almost 7,000 youth, aged 10-17, statewide, roughly 3,000 of whom are runaways, locked out of their homes, or otherwise at-risk. These mandated services are provided through CCBYS at an average cost of $1,883 per youth, per year, far less than foster care. As programs suspend operations due to lack of funding, those youth served by CCBYS will be referred directly to DCFS, and many will be pulled into the foster care system.
“DCFS only has about 2,350 youth, aged 10-17, in out-of-home care now,” said Durbin. “The child welfare system is simply not equipped with enough hotline workers, investigators, case managers, or foster homes to respond to an influx of adolescents coming from the CCBYS program. The lives and safety of children and youth will be at risk.”
The fallout from the budget impasse is growing, according to an ICOY survey of CCBYS and Homeless Youth providers across the state carried out at the beginning of January. Forty percent of those CCBYS providers responding have reduced staff and decreased or restricted services since July 1. Among Homeless Youth providers responding, 50% have cut staff and 36% have decreased or restricted services; one program has closed. Based on the survey, ICOY projects significantly more cutbacks, including closings, as soon as February and March.
The likely damage to the most vulnerable youth and families, while actually increasing long-term financial costs to the state and local communities, comes as Gov. Rauner has pledged to reduce the Illinois prison population by 12,000 men and women over the next decade, focusing on rehabilitation programs rather than incarceration.
The budget stalemate also threatens new legislation that went into effect Jan. 1 designed to support at- risk youth with services that can keep them out of the juvenile justice system. Under P.A. 99-254, alleged delinquent minors under 13 are meant to be provided CCBYS services, rather than be held in a detention center. Another new law, P.A. 99-456, calls on community providers to assist schools with interventions to minimize student suspensions and expulsions. Now, with resources squeezed, there are questions about whether the legislation can be effectively implemented.
“The Governor and the General Assembly have had some great ideas about shifting youth from high-end care to community-based services,” said Durbin. “But the lack of a state budget is placing children and youth at risk, starving community-based providers, and haphazardly forcing program closures and suspensions. It’s difficult to see how we make progress as a state under these circumstances,” she added.
Like I said earlier today, you also gotta walk the walk.
…Adding… From Emily Miller…
Hi Rich.
The bevy of press conferences held by the governor and minority leaders last week addressing issues ranging from government takeovers of CPS to public pension reform gave the press a chance to forget the ongoing damage the budget impasse continues to have on real people across Illinois.
Friday, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois closed 30 programs, cutting off services for 4,700 Illinoisans, and laying off 750 staff. In response, the governor said he was “frustrated,” but did not seem any more willing to make getting to a fully funded budget his number one priority.
Without a budget, Illinois continues to operate like a plane on autopilot running on fumes, and children and families are the ones getting shoved off to lighten the load.
Here’s this morning’s dose of devastation: by now you’ve probably seen the press release from ICOY announcing the suspension of a program called CCBYS that provides crisis-intervention for at-risk youth on Chicago’s south side. These are kids who have been locked out of their houses, who have fled dangerous homes, or who are at risk for being placed into the juvenile justice system.
This is not a “Chicago issue.” CCBYS programs exist in every county in this state. Each day the governor and lawmakers fail to agree on a budget, children in every house and senate district come one step closer to being left alone with no one to help them. By February and March, the program will be a shell of what it was, and eventually, without funding, every CCBYS program will close.
Until now, CCBYS providers have been able to step in and advocate for the safety and well-being of those children. Children in immediate physical danger received compassionate, professional and immediate care that kept the number of CCBYS cases referred to DCFS for further intervention down to about 11 per month. There’s no immediate formal plan in place to deal with those children, but ultimately it’s a DCFS issue, and the program closure will increase the referral of these types of cases by 2,200%, according to a memo ICOY released earlier this year. In case people need reminding, that hotline referral number is 1-800-25-ABUSE.
And here’s the thing- it’s not rocket science. This is what happens when you don’t have a budget for seven months. We were warned that children would be hurt if a budget was not prioritized. We knew that the children abandoned when CCBYS programs closed would end up costing the state even more when they’re placed in foster homes or institutional settings.
In fact, ICOY issued a memo in September, during our third month without a budget, warning that children would be hurt, citing not only the financial cost of this program suspension, but also the dangerous physical and psychological cost to Illinois children closing these programs would have.
But instead of passing a budget, the governor and leaders continue to sit back and play games that, for them, have only political ramifications. For Illinois children, the games grown-ups are playing are life-threatening.
Last Friday Illinois walked away from 4,700 vulnerable Illinoisans. This morning, Illinois abandoned 34 children in one neighborhood. Anyone who doesn’t get that the children and families in their neighborhood are next isn’t paying attention.
Emily Miller
Policy and Advocacy Director, Voices for Illinois Children
Co-Coordinator, Responsible Budget Coalition
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:21 am:
From the article: “The likely damage to the most vulnerable youth and families, while actually increasing long-term financial costs to the state and local communities,…”
****
Someone needs to ask the Governor, point blank before ck cuts the questions off, “Is this part of your world-view of what local control means???”
- Honeybear - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:22 am:
tink….tink…..tink, tink….Rauner is chipping away at the dam. Big chunks are coming now. Congratulations Governor, your plan is working.
- Dan Johnson - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:29 am:
It isn’t an impasse. It’s the consequence of a tax cut.
That’s what the Governor campaigned on. This is the consequence of his policy.
- DeKalb Guy - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:32 am:
Meanwhile, the governor has hired a new chief of staff for Mrs. Rauner. The fact she is accepting a new chief of staff is disturbing given she is the head of an organization being hurt by the governor’s actions. (And before someone says previous first lady’s had chiefs of staffs, I would point out we previously had decent social services in this state. I would choose spending money on social services over a first lady chief of staff.)
- Rich Miller - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:37 am:
===I would choose spending money on social services over a first lady chief of staff===
Well, you don’t get to make that choice and it’s a false choice anyway. There is no budget, remember? Salaries can be paid, but social service bills can’t.
- Pawn - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:41 am:
Rockford Register Star gets it: http://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20160123/our-view-it-takes-more-than-few-arrests-to-improve-public-safety-in-rockford
This is basic cause and effect. We may not like the effects that are headed our way, but this is the path we are on right now. Today.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:41 am:
I have been wondering, as the impasse drags on - should we start a running “jobs lost” count (like a body count in a war)? To help our “jobs Governor” keep track? Those numbers are fairly easily ascertained.
Similarly, one could start a running tally of residents underserved/unserved/abandoned/however you would characterize those who depend on State services which are no longer accessible….
The “Cost of the Turnaround Agenda.”
- OutHereInTheMiddle - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:42 am:
Where the hell are the newspapers in all of this. The support infrastructure of our state is being systematically strangled/starved into oblivion. Why aren’t newspapers running stories that aggregate all of the services that have been cut off and all of those close to collapse? Oh yeah, because we’ve laid off the reporters and you can hear a cricket chirp in the newsrooms.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:42 am:
As to the First Lady’s COS- couldn’t she publicly say, that until the budget IS resolved, she is willing to do her part, and “sacrifice” having a COS???
- anon. - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:45 am:
What was the result of the vote to override BRs veto of the social services appropriation?
- Dee Lay - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:48 am:
Thanks for your work and words Emily.
It’s a shame someone is holding the tongue of your colleagues at Ounce of Prevention.
- burbanite - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:50 am:
I could be wrong but I don’t think you can vote to override just part of what the Gov. vetoed. ie. social services appropriation was part of budget.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:53 am:
== The likely damage to the most vulnerable youth and families, while actually increasing long-term financial costs to the state and local communities,… ==
Reading this makes me sick to my stomach.
Rauner has had it in for programs like this (including Cease Fire) since he’s been in office.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:54 am:
anon@9:45 am:
My observation is that it is not as simple as a one bill, veto, then attempt to override. The budget Rauner submitted, was re-worked by the ILGA, sent back to him, and he vetoed the whole thing, then back-pedaled only on K-12 funding. This is also the timeframe when Rauner issued an Executive Order for a spending freeze. What happened next over the course of months, were lawsuits, court orders to fund specific programs for a variety of reason, and “piecemeal” budget bills that covered specific portions of the budget.
As many of last week’s and this week’s news reports are stating, many social service providers will be shuttering even more programs starting in Feb/March 2016. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the opening to a compassionate compromise to get another “piecemeal” bill through following the State of the State address to help keep these vital services, that we as a State, contracted to perform.
http://uchicagogate.com/2015/02/07/bruce-rauners-spending-freeze/
- W.S. Wolcott - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:57 am:
As time crawls on - I’d say the effect of having no budget is starting to make itself clear, and more so, everyday. It is also quite clear who is shouldering the burden as this wears on. As an honest question, what impact has the lack of a budget had on members of the Civic Club and the like?
- DeKalb Guy - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:02 am:
Rich, I am, unfortunately, well aware it is not my choice. It is perhaps better to say I would prefer the governor choose to give up his crusade and pass a budget which will fund social services and other important items. We are literally spending more money than we are taking in, which will make any spending now either require greater cuts and/or greater revenue increases later. Spending money on a non-essential such as a first lady chief of staff contributes to the money spent that will have to be accounted for later. So while my comment may have been simplistic, it was meant to convey I think the governor is making poor choices.
- Prisoner of Cook - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:05 am:
Anon221:
The budget passed by the GA was a group of more that a dozen appropriation bills; the Governor signed the K-12 bill and vetoed the rest. The Madigan/Cullerton veto-proof majorities never attempted to override knowing there never was enough revenue to support the spending.
- DeKalb Guy - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:06 am:
When I say pass a budget, I mean work with the legislature to pass a budget. I don’t want someone to think he can pass it all by himself.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:15 am:
Prisoner of Cook- not quite… remember Dunkin???
http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/1089974/house-fails-pass-bill-childcare-eligibility-rules
So, even if you have what has been driven into the ground as a “veto-proof majority”, it’s not.
The “Greek chorus” needs to step up! http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-01-24/tom-kacich-unlikely-legislators-will-take-control.html
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:18 am:
- anon. - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 9:45 am:
What was the result of the vote to override BRs veto of the social services appropriation?
A much better question would be to ask why did the entire House GOP caucus, many of whom have been strong defenders of these social services in previous years, vote against funding them this year and would have voted against the override? What changed?
- crazybleedingheart - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:18 am:
== should we start a running “jobs lost” count (like a body count in a war)==
Why the metaphor? Why continue to fuss about jobs and economics?
Let’s call this what it is:
An actual body count from preventable deaths.
The governor doesn’t think government should be in the business of public safety, the one true purpose of government according to most conservatives.
He is willing to put your life at risk.
He is happy to spend untold lives of the underclass. Makin’ it rain.
What’s the play?
- anon - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:19 am:
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.” — Nelson Mandela
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:21 am:
There is a startling headline on the news feed right now
“Nearly half of young black men in Chicago are neither in school nor working says Urban League report”
This violence problem has roots in multiple causes. It’s terrible.
- cdog - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:21 am:
I have never understood the abandonment of living children by the conservative pro-life individuals and groups. Where are the pro-life types now? Don’t these lives matter, too?
Just another discrepancy between the conservative walk and their talk. /ht Miller
- cdog - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:25 am:
OTHITM@ 9:42 am “Where the hell are the newspapers in all of this.”
I felt the press was not good for Rauner this weekend. I suspect there is some serious damage control going on among the minions and the Raunerbots. The minions are probably “requesting” that in order to get campaign resources, the Raunerbots need to make some flowery supportive statements publicly. “You watch.”
- Former Hoosier - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:27 am:
Dear Ken Dunkin, Get the picture yet? For the Governor, black.lives.don’t.matter.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:28 am:
cdog- The saddest, and most inhumane, responses are still out there, everyday- “If you couldn’t afford to have kids, you shouldn’t have had them!”
It makes me sick when I read or hear comments like that. It’s a Dark Ages mentality, to even put it kindly. You would think, that as a “civilized” species, we would be more evolved or enlightened.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:28 am:
Madigan has 71 Democrats in the House.
He only needs 60 now to pass a reasonably balanced budget and force Rauner to show everyone what sort of leader he is. Heck, Madigan even said at one point that the final budget might not negotiated with Rauner. Still, he does nothing.
Those commenting on Madigan’s ability to pass a budget or funding to stop these closures are not unreasonable - they are merely echoing Madigan’s own words.
- crazybleedingheart - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:29 am:
Yes, we have more segregation, less investment, and more unemployed black youth than NY, LA, and many other major cities. Obviously our bar has fallen below mere disinvestment in the future, to refusal of emergency service.
But, again, these closures are not just Chicago closures. They’re statewide.
- Former Hoosier - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:30 am:
cdog @ 10:21- Did you read the piece by a nun who said many who call themselves pro-life are not that at all. She said they are only pro-birth since they are unwilling to back and fund programs which help the most vulnerable on an ongoing basis.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:40 am:
Anonymous - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:28 am:
“Madigan has 71 Democrats in the House.”
****
Personally, I am not echoing Madigan. There are more than just 71 legislators in the House. The silence by those who could have made a difference is deafening. Yellow is yellow anyway you look at it. But, perhaps, yellow is “gold” to those who are content to sit by and be silent.
- Anon - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:42 am:
Before he was elected Rauner said he would Use aocial services as a wedge between Democrats and unions, that crisis leads to opportunities, shortnterm pain for long term gain. Rauner’s obsession is crushing unions. He doesn’t care about the suffering HE has caused. The most vulnerable are the means to an end - nothing more. We all need to address this for what it is and say ENOUGH to Rauner and the Republicnas who are willingly following him.
- Anon - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:44 am:
And sorry for the typos!
- cdog - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:49 am:
Former Hoosier, I missed that. It is a very solid argument, AND a spiritual truth.
Anon221, I sometimes have to be in the same room with poisonous people like that. I try my hardest to avoid it but if in the same bubble I try to very gently give them the old mirror, ruler, and curb. Intercession gives hope.
- crazybleedingheart - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:50 am:
I posted this on the LSSI thread last Friday, but it bears repeating, today and in the future:
“It’s clear that Rauner wants to shut off the spigot just long enough for the nonprofits to fold so that he can bring his private-industry friends in to do the job, poorly and at untold cost. Then, whoosh, the cash will flow again.”
Who needs in-home elder care nonprofits when those people can just be forced into GTCR-type nursing homes?
Who needs temporary crisis housing for youth when they can be permanently processed into the private-care scam?
Sure, it’s still state (well, often federal) dollars that pay for these for-profit money holes. But because there’s no transparency and no collective bargaining and you can use nesting russian doll levels of shell corps, you save cash on lawsuits and labor and can turn a pretty penny by getting tax dollars to operate human kennels until it eventually almost catches up with you right before you unload.
- crazybleedingheart - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 10:51 am:
None of that will become obvious within 4 (now 3) years, so…SUCCESS
The WSJ is gonna love it
- Anon221 - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 11:18 am:
cdog- ” Intercession gives hope.”
Very true. I’m glad that Hope is still in the “box”.
- sideline watcher - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 12:13 pm:
To those who believe that a reasonable budget can be passed with 30 and 60 now that its January, please note that the Governor will veto it unless he gets his agenda items. That means that you still need 36 and 71. That exists in the Senate. 71 doesn’t necessarily exist in the House.
Also, he’s made it next to impossible for any conservative—be it a conservative Democrat or a Conservative Republican to vote for a tax increase in this political environment.
You can literally go down the membership rolls in both chambers in both parties and count who would vote for the taxes to get us out of this. Everyone knows who they are and who is actively campaigning on not doing it. There’s no secrets anywhere. Until Republicans stand up to the Governor of their party nothing will change. Nothing.
So far its only been Sam McCann. And he’s gonna pay dearly for that. And for the record I think for this point Ken Dunkin is irrelevant. We need some Republicans to stand up to him. You can’t blame the failure of Democrats all on Ken or Jack or Scott and give the entire Republican party a pass on their yellow and red lights.
So…what now?
- sal-says - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 1:39 pm:
How long can this continue? Until IL is destroyed?
‘Crimes against humanity’ are certain acts which are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population or an identifiable part of a population which includes statement: …other inhumane acts may reach the threshold of crimes against humanity if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice.
- Tucker - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 5:07 pm:
Yep, the Courts will be ordering all these kids into DCFS at a much, much higher cost for taxpayers. 1.4%?
- Mama - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 5:52 pm:
“If you couldn’t afford to have kids, you shouldn’t have had them!””
Why punish the child for his parent’s short comings? You are forget about the children who do not chose the life they were born into. Stop punishing the child.
- Mama - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 6:01 pm:
“We need some Republicans to stand up to him. You can’t blame the failure of Democrats all on Ken or Jack or Scott and give the entire Republican party a pass on their yellow and red lights.
So…what now?”
Sideline 12:13 pm, good points. Wished I knew how to get these adults to start acting in the best interest of the people, and stop acting like children.
- Property of IDOC - Monday, Jan 25, 16 @ 6:53 pm:
Anon221@10:40
The silence, by those who could have made a difference, is deafening…yellow is yellow.
Literally, yellow is the color of cowardice .
Lust for rauner’s money and promises.
Fear of rauner’s retribution.
Yep, yellow is yellow.