This past Wednesday, I made a trip to Sacramento with three residents of our Father Alfred Center (FAC) recovery program.  We travelled to Sacramento to talk to lawmakers about the importance of a fair state budget that supports low-income families, people with disabilities, seniors, and people who are working to get back on their feet in the wake of the “great recession”.

Two of advocates had travelled to Sacramento last month to help advocate for a fair budget.  The other advocate, who grew up in Sacramento and whose mother lives only blocks from the Capitol, had never been to the Capitol before.

Our advocates spoke about the  increased numbers of people we’ve seen in our free dining room, medical clinic, and our Tenderloin Technology Lab.  They also talked about the experiences of their brothers in recovery at FAC who are trying very hard to find work but are facing the challenges of being unemployed in a weak economy.  They talked about the importance of having a safety net to help people when times are tough.

After one of our meetings with legislative staff, one of the FAC residents asked me, “do you think those people knew that we’re in a drug and alcohol rehab?”  He was concerned that the legislator’s staff might have written them off because they’re in recovery.  One of the other guys responded, “I’m proud of being in recovery and I don’t care who knows it.  Being in recovery is hard work and it’s something to be proud of.”

It was a pleasure for me to see our advocates supporting each other as they supported a California budget that will help California’s working families, seniors, people with disabilities, and people who have fallen through the cracks in the safety net. I’ve learned from them that one important component of recovery is giving back to the community. Our advocates did a wonderful job of giving back by speaking up on Wednesday.

On Wednesday August 11th, State Legislators & other politicians in Sacramento met with everyday people to discuss alternative ways to balance the CA budget with out cutting money from vital social programs. Residents at Father Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, residents went there with the Jusice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy program and The Health and Human Services Network to show the face of those in treatment.

HHS Came to the talks with three stated goals.
• “To Invest in and protect the health and human services vital to California’s economy and families.”
• “To champion alternatives to dismantling our health care and human services including targeted state revenues and federal recovery funds.”
• And finally, “To reform and re-invent the states broken budget process.”

Father Alfred Center Residents who attended spoke on a number of issues related to these goals.

For example, California currently imposes a lifetime ban on food stamps for individuals who are convicted of drug related felonies (even those in recovery). One resident who spoke at the event told me, “Food Stamps help Stimulate the economy among other things. By keeping them from those seeking treatment, the economy is denied that stimulation effect.”

Other ideas proposed were a nickel tax on all alcoholic beverages sold in CA, and a tax on imported oil.

When I asked her to comment Colleen Rivecca of St. Anthony Foundation’s Jusice Education, Volunteer and Advocacy program told me:

“One of the budget balancing strategies in the Governor’s Budget Proposal is to cut the benefit levels for people receiving SSI/SSP grants. SSI/SSP recipients are low-income blind, elderly and disabled people, and they are ineligible for Food Stamps. People receiving SSI/SSP have already received 3 grant level reductions within the past year. The guys talked about the growing numbers of seniors and people with disabilities that they see every day while working in at St. Anthony Dining Room – they said that these people are already struggling to make ends meet, and a further reduction in their benefits would make it even more difficult for them to survive.”

A lot of good ideas were exchanged at the meeting, and as always Father Alfred Center Residents and St Anthony Foundation was there to do their part.

Tomorrow is the big day, St. Anthony Foundation is gathering with anti-hunger advocates from across the state and heading up to Sacramento.  Each May St. Anthony’s Advocacy Coordinator, Colleen, rallies the troops, bringing staff, guests and volunteers to speak with policymakers about hunger legislation that effects low-income and homeless people.

To prepare Colleen holds educational seminars regarding the upcoming legislation and cuts that are being proposed.  She breaks down the budget and legislative process and helps St. Anthony guests form their testimony to share with those they will be meeting with in Sacramento. This experience empowers guests and staff,  bridging the gap between people affected by policy and those that make it.

St. Anthony Foundation receives no government funding and that gives us a special  fiscally-untangled voice when speaking out about cuts to services.  Sine we do not stand to receive or lose funding we are able to speak directly and clearly to the issues.

Stay tuned to the blog to see photos and recaps of the action!

It is with generous support from MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and California Hunger Action Coalition that St. Anthony Foundation is able to participate in Hunger Action Day.

This is the day I’ve been dreading since January: the day that Governor Schwarzenegger releases his revised budget proposal for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The “May Revise”, as it’s called, just went live about an hour ago.  With only an hour of analysis under my belt so far, I can simply tell you this: it’s bad!

The Governor proposes the following:

When I read through this list of cuts, I don’t just think about dollars and programs, I think about the people who will be affected.  When I think about the people who will be hurt, I think about St. Anthony Dining Room.  Who are the people we provide free nutritious meals to on a daily basis?  They are the same people who are represented in the cuts list above: the elderly, the disabled, low-wage workers, immigrants, people with mental illness, and struggling families.

All of us, rich and poor, housed and homeless, old and young, suffer when the most vulnerable people in our community suffer.  We at St. Anthony’s will continue to analyze the May Revise and will continue to advocate for fair budgets!  Watch this space for further updates.

Balancing the budget on our backs makes news. When the news was broken yesterday that an additional 10% tax will be placed on Californians’ income you could hear the panic in the headlines, in small talk of distraught folks on their morning commute, and in disgruntled cocktail hour conversations.

When it’s on the backs of seniors and people with disabilities it makes rumbles, but rarely conversation and not headlines. People in California who depend on Social Security Income have lived in the same wage since 1996. Imagine that. Living on the same income that you made 13 years ago, with the cost of food, medicine, transportation going up and up each year. To add insult to injury not only has there been no inflation adjustment, but this year alone benefit levels have been cut three times.

Our 10% tax hike, after the money is done plugging this mess of a budget gap, will be returned. And no, it is not ideal, it is not something most of us want to deal with especially around the holiday season. But, perhaps it can be an eye opener, a little jolt to wake us up to the reality that so many people who are dependent on the safety-net face every budget season. They are the first in line to bear the burden of our state’s economic instability.

So when we do face these cuts and are forced to make difficult decisions now we will all have a better understanding, empathy, and perhaps even a stronger drive to speak out for those who feel the pain of these cuts the deepest.

Two of the most popular topics for conversation in the St. Anthony Foundation Dining Room are sports and politics. Today’s blog entry on the state budget will capture that spirit, because the easiest way to understand what’s happening with the state budget negotiations is to compare them to a football game.

This week, the Democrats threw two incomplete passes: one Wednesday (with a vote on alternate cuts package that failed) and one Thursday (with a vote on cash flow bills that failed). This means that we have returned to the line of scrimmage: advocates for social and health services have neither gained nor lost ground, but we have lost two precious days of negotiations.

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg gave a hint at the behind the scenes demands by the Governor and the Republicans when he stated,

“We don’t take pledges in our caucus like some do but if we did it would sound like this: We are not going to eliminate CalWORKs, we are not to eliminate Healthy Families, we are not going to eliminate IHSS and and we are not going to eliminate CalGrants. We are not going to eliminate the safety net. You need to know where we are not going to go.”

What does this mean for advocates who want to take action against harmful cuts to health and social service programs? As the legislature returns to square one (or third down, or whatever), so must we! We need to make calls, calls, calls!

This weekend, call your legislators and the Governor and tell them that you support a budget that uses revenue enhancement measures to mitigate the worst of the proposed cuts to the safety net. This information sheet makes it easy to know who to contact, and what type of message needs to be delivierd to particular legislators.

Let’s set aside a few minutes this weekend to call our state leaders and tell them some decisions are inconceivable when measured against the human toll left in their wake.

The state legislature is expected to vote on the Budget Conference
Committee’s version of the budget today. As you may know, the Budget Conference Committee’s plan makes cuts (but not as drastic as the Governor’s plan) but avoids some of the worst cuts by raising revenue. (For a comparison of the Governor’s and the Conference Committee’s plans, go to:  http://bit.ly/ABxNo)

The Conference Committee plan is certain to fail if the bills don’t receive 4 votes from Assembly Republicans (54 votes out of the 80 member Assembly) and at least 2 votes from State Senate Republicans, (out of the 40 member State Senate) assuming all Assembly and Senate Democrats approve the plan, including just declared former Democratic Assemblyman – now independent – Juan Arambula.

Advocates have been working very hard to increase the political pressure on the legislature and Governor to consider revenue increases and to avoid the worst of the cuts. Civil disobedience yesterday in front of the San Francisco state building led to 17 arrests for blocking traffic. The protesters were seniors and people with disabilities who oppose cuts to health care and SSI. Similar protests took place in LA and Sacramento yesterday, and more advocates will converge on the Capitol today.

If you want to advocate for a fair budget, here’s how:

Sign this petition from California Labor Federation:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stop_corporate_tax_cuts_petition

Contact the Governor’s office and tell him that you want a fair budget. Tell them you support revenue increases as a way to enable some restoration of funding for vital health and human service programs.
http://gov.ca.gov/interact

California’s $24 billion budget deficit and the cuts being proposed in by Governor Schwarzenegger are of much concern to the folks at St. Anthony’s. While St. Anthony’s does not accept any government funding for it’s programs and services the impact will be felt hard here. Our guests will have less support in their communities and our programs and their staff will serve even more people to make up for the closure of near by services.

One program we’re already seeing a demand for is Father Alfred Center, our year-long drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Many of the men who come to Father Alfred Center for help are participating in Proposition 36, the 2001 California voter approved law that defers first time drug offenders to substance abuse treatment instead of prison.

Yesterday the Budget Conference Committee in Sacramento voted to stop funding Prop 36 entirely. If approved by the Assembly and State Senate many programs that are qualified to provide treatment will close.

This does not mean that those first time offenders would go to prison instead as Prop 36 is not a program, but a California law. This prevents judges from placing first time offenders in prison as they must defer to treatment.  If this cut is approved it would mean they would neither receive treatment or prison.

Those unable to pay for treatment themselves will have to wait in even longer lines, longer than the three months many are waiting now. Many will die of addictive illness while waiting to get help.

We’ve recently added more beds to Father Alfred Center in preparation, but it won’t make up for all the other beds in programs that could possibly close.

As St. Anthony Foundation’s Advocacy Coordinator, the California state budget has been weighing heavy on my mind. The budget proposals released at the end of May were frightening, and signaled the possibility of the absolute devastation of California’s publicly-funded safety net. I’ve been talking about the budget almost nonstop since the proposals became public. I’ve also been helping our St. Anthony Foundation family get up to speed with all the news and start speaking out in order to help prevent the cuts.

Last Thursday’s (June 11, 2009) news that the California Budget Conference Committee had rejected some of the proposals that would hurt low-income Californians was hopeful. It is important to take a moment to be grateful that the elimination of the CalWORKs and Healthy Families programs are off the table (for now), but it’s also important to make sure that this small victory does not lull us into complacency. I am encouraging our St. Anthony Foundation advocates to use last Thursday’s news as an opportunity to enjoy feelings of hope and inspiration and to get recharged for the next stretch of difficult advocacy work that lies before us.

St. Anthony Foundation will be participating in California Church Impact’s Most Urgent Witness Rally in Sacramento next Tuesday, June 16. This rally will be an opportunity for advocates from around California to converge at the state Capitol and urge our legislators and Governor not to make budget decisions that will hurt the very people who need the most help right now: uninsured kids, low-income seniors and disabled people, working moms receiving CalWORKs, Medi-cal recipients, families experiencing domestic violence, frail elderly who need in-home care, and people living with AIDS who need assistance with life-saving medication. If you can’t join us in Sacramento, please consider calling or emailing your legislator and the Governor and telling them about your budget priorities.

Mark Leno took advantage of his place on the budget conference committee to propose eliminating the costly finger imaging system through the budget process rather than through the legislative process. The removal of the finger imaging system will take place if Governer Shwartzenegger signs off on the budget in the next few weeks.

It seems that two solid weeks of hearings about devistating cuts to health and human services prepared the Budget Conference Committee to make the decision it made today – to get rid of the costly and inefficient finger imaging system as a way to help balance the budget without restricting Californians’ access to the social service programs they need now more than ever!

Mandatory finger imaging for food stamp recipants was put in place by legislation in 1996 but did not get implemented statewide until 2000. Even though the legislation did not include it, SFIS takes a photograph in addition to a finger image. The process, designed to deter welfare fraud, created detering barriers to many low-income Californians who qualified for food stamps.