Jan 8, 2009 9:00 pm US/Eastern
N.J. Lawmaker: Cut 5 Institutions For Disabled
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ―
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Assemblyman Louis Greenwald.
CBS
A powerful state lawmaker wants New Jersey to close five of its seven state-run institutions for the developmentally disabled and offer them more community-based services.
Assemblyman Louis Greenwald introduced a bill Thursday that proposes reducing the populations at the institutions by 80 percent within five years, leaving two open to serve the northern and southern parts of the state.
"The time has come for us to end this warehousing of human life," Greenwald said.
The Cherry Hill Democrat's plan calls for moving most of the more than 2,500 residents into community housing, or offer their families the financial means to have them live at home.
"A huge number of individuals living in developmental centers today would prosper in a community setting, yet we still spend millions of dollars to keep them institutionalized -- it doesn't make sense," he said.
The plan does not specify how many new community living facilities would be created or where, but Greenwald says officials will explore alternatives for the disabled and cut in half the roughly $640 the state spends daily per institutionalized resident.
It also aims to reduce the state's waiting list for community services for the disabled -- which has about 8,000 names -- and redirect the 30 percent of the Division of Developmental Disabilities' $1.4 billion budget that is dedicated to eight percent of the disabled population that lives in the institutions.
State Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez, whose department oversees the division, said the agency was looking at Greenwald's proposal. However, it already had its own plan under which 176 people had been moved out of institutions and into the community over the past two years.
The proposed closings are drawing fire from unions who represent thousands of state workers at the facilities.
"There is no way that any community service provider can produce what an institution produces; we have psychiatrists and doctors on staff, and you have people with multiple physical problems," said Carolyn Wade, president of Local 1040 of the Communication Workers of America, which represents about 2,500 state workers at the centers. "Why is (Greenwald) going to disturb those who are receiving services, disrupt thousands who are waiting for services, all while putting thousands of people out of work?
The idea has both supporters and detractors among advocates for the disabled.
"Would you go into a hospital and say 'intensive care is very expensive, lets scatter these patients around,"' said Robin Sims, whose severely autistic 25-year-old daughter, Heather, has lived at the Hunterdon Developmental Center since age 14. "We're talking about medically fragile, behaviorally challenged people that the community cannot accommodate and cannot serve."
Patricia Davis Johnson of Newark says her 37-year-old son, Reggie Davis, had been institutionalized since the age of 17 at the New Lisbon Developmental Center, but has been thriving since moving to a community group home in Vorhees 15 months ago.
"He has more self security, and affirmation of his manhood, and he loves who he is and doesn't feel badly about it," she said.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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