Minutes 12-02-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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VOTE: UNANIMOUS d. Presentation on Economic Pressures on the Department of Social Services, Request for Additional Funds, and Approval of Budget Amendment#3-A The Board received an update on current economic pressures and considered a request for additional funds for crisis services to support families served by the Department of Social Services (DSS) and to approve Budget Amendment#3-A to transfer $100,000 from the Social Justice Reserve Fund to the Department of Social Services for General Assistance for client payments. Nancy Coston said it has been quite a year for the department. She said the shut down and sequestration caused anxiety for the department and its clients. She said the agency receives a lot of federal funding, so government shutdowns and sequestration makes them vulnerable. She said Medicaid serves 12,000 people in Orange County, which amounts to $104 million paid directly to medical providers. She said the Medicaid program is not affected by the sequester or the shutdown; however the state has been looking for ways to cut the Medicaid budget. Nancy Coston said the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a block grant of federal dollars that is used to pay for the child welfare program and to pay the cash payments. She said the shutdown caused uncertainty about whether the state would be able to issue checks, and a decision was made to suspend all programming for the Work First families. She said this was extremely stressful for these families, although the department was eventually paid back. She said sequestration is also cutting into the very successful adolescent parenting program. She said the goal of this program is to keep young parents in school, and to delay pregnancy. She said a stop work order was issued for this program, and that was very disruptive. Nancy Coston said the most disruptive piece during the shutdown was the childcare program. She said this is a $4.1 million program, and there was a possibility that the state would be unable to pay back money spent on this program. She said the decision was made to continue the childcare program, which was eventually reimbursed. She said sequestration is already cutting money from the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), which pays for child welfare and adult protective services, as well as part of the home and community care block. She said Orange County has rolled the dice a bit, and none of these services were disrupted by the shutdown, although there have been cuts from the sequestration. Nancy Coston said there have also been problems with the food and nutrition program, which had to endure a cut of$36 per family. She said the department has also been doing automation implementation for N.C. Fast. She said it has been very difficult at times, and the department has used food banks, but it has also been necessary to use County funds. She said the cost to alleviate a family in crisis is higher this year. She said the cap used to be $200, but this will not help most people get out of a crisis, so it has been necessary to spend more. She said a cut was made last year by targeting only people with children, but there are so many people impacted that this has been changed back this year. She said efforts are being made to help some of the others. She said there were more homeless prevention funds in previous years because of grants, but this is now gone, and the funding is mostly County money. Nancy Coston said her department has also provided assistance to the victims of the flood in Chapel Hill last summer. She said the purpose of tonight is to provide and update, and to ask for additional funding due to these unforeseen crises. Chair Jacobs said he and Commissioner McKee decided this issue was important to have at the beginning of the agenda so that the public could be a part of the audience. Commissioner Rich asked how the County can get this information out to the media and the public. Chair Jacobs said this was discussed at agenda review, and one idea was to do some press releases that profile people using the services. He said this would make it more personal. He said this could also be shared with congressional leaders, such as Congressman Price, to show the human costs of the sequestration.