nonprofits

Face the Facts: Funding Needed for Connecticut Nonprofits

Barry Simon, CEO of Oak Hill Group Homes, talks about nonprofits’ need for funding.

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Lawmakers in both parties agree that nonprofits are a critical partner in our state when it comes to delivering things like social services, certain kinds of healthcare and helping residents with special needs.

Many of those nonprofits are now saying legislators can do more in this two-year budget cycle to help fund them.

NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Barry Simon, CEO of Oak Hill - which is the largest provider of private services for people with disabilities in the state.

Mike Hydeck: First and foremost, for people who are not familiar with Oak Hill, and they don't have an idea of what services you provide, tell them what the organization is about.

Barry Simon: We are specialty health care and special education agency. We provide everything from group homes for intellectual developmental disabilities, assistive technology, mental health services, substance abuse services. And that special education is in 11 classrooms throughout the state. 60 some odd group homes in DD, about 10 residential programs in mental health and substance abuse. So we're the largest purchase of service provider for the state.

Mike Hydeck: That's a big facility. Overall, how many employees do you have total?

Barry Simon: So right now, we have about 1,500 employees. Normally, we have about 1,700.

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Mike Hydeck: Okay, so you're down. Alright. So I read an op-ed that you wrote, saying in order for Oak Hill to keep the level of services and maybe fill those positions if need be still, that you think lawmakers in his budget should fund, over the next two years, a 7% increase and a 9% increase. Now, we talked about this a moment ago, when you hear that, if somebody reads your op-ed, and they're just a person in a normal job, say, 'look, I only get 2% maybe a year, if that.' How on earth can you ask for a 7 and 9%? It seems like a big number, but there's got to be a reason for that.

Barry Simon: Absolutely. So we are a rate taker, we're not a rate maker. So as our costs go up, so does the need for giving wage increases to our staff. So we've gone 17 years without any increases to anything that would cover gas, electricity, oil, you know, all of the things that take to run the business. And over those 17 years, we've had a couple of wage-only increases. So at this point, and going through COVID, you know, there's been a lot of inflation that has happened.

Mike Hydeck: So gas prices, the price of food.

Barry Simon: Yeah. But for our employees as well. So when they're, you know, when our employees are making $15, and now over the past few years, they're up to $17 an hour, it's rough to make it in, you know, today's world. So those percentages are really making up for the fact that we've had zero for so long, and that we've got current inflation.

Mike Hydeck: So now, some of the budget considerations, the governor's budget, I think either keeps funding flat or maybe 1%.

Barry Simon: Yeah, so the two proposed budgets are out there. The current governor's budget has us in for two years at zero and zero, and the legislative budget has us in for one and zero. And so that's really challenging for our workforce. And we have, you know, I like to say that last year, the year before, our workforce were heroes when it came to the legislators and the governor talking about the value of our employees being both partners with the state, but also in those group homes. And they've gone from hero to zero pretty quickly, almost literally.

Mike Hydeck: So now the latest Republican budget coming out of the Senate was 2.5%. Still nowhere near 9%. Where do you go from here? Are you talking to legislators? What happens next?

Barry Simon: We're constantly advocating with legislators and with the governor's office, because really, as they're negotiating this budget, you know, we hope that not only do they see our employees as valuable, providing services that the state asked for, but they're also citizens. They're taxpayers. These dollars are a wonderful use of tax dollars getting back into the economy over and over again. And so I can create 200 jobs tomorrow, if I could raise the wages to get people to want to be working in our programs. And that's economic stimulus for everybody.

Mike Hydeck: Well, there's a stress component involved to the people that are helping people with disabilities. Trying to get nurses employed anywhere right now is difficult. What are some of the hurdles you've incurred to try to get here now? And is it going to get any better, do you think?

Barry Simon: Yeah, you know, I think everybody's heard what's going on with nurses. And so the wages that nurses get have gone up tremendously. You know, over the past few years, we've had to raise our nurse wages by almost 20%. And that's still at the low end of market when it comes to, you know, nurses' wages compared to hospitals and all that kind of stuff. And our nurses are incredible. I mean, they're in the homes all the time, helping staff to care for and oversee our care plans. They're in our school overseeing the really medically complicated students that we have in our school as well. So they're essential and they're even required. We have to meet, you know, the state oversees all of our programs such that they put requirements down in order for us to keep our licenses. So when you have to meet those requirements in order to stay viable, you have to keep those people in place. And so it's a real juggling act to meet the state requirements, but then have the state not meet your requirements of keeping your work.

Mike Hydeck: So it seems like Senate Republicans are at least hearing what's going on and the percentage they proposed is a little bit higher. Do you have any meetings planned with the governor or any other legislators to try to convince them?

Barry Simon: Yeah, so through our trade association, we have been really, the Connecticut Alliance for Nonprofits, we've been pushing on the governor and the legislature to be understanding why this is so important, why we are a critical partner with the state and why our employees matter. Both as citizens who you know you can raise up, but also in providing those key services for the state.

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