15 Jan In the news: Disability service orgs push Hochul for investment in direct support staff
‘We don’t have a choice’: Disability service orgs push Hochul for direct support staff COLA, wage enhancement in budget
From www.crainsnewyork.com:
Disability service organizations and advocates have renewed their push for a cost of living adjustment and wage enhancement for direct support professionals to be included in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive budget as high vacancy rates continue to squeeze the industry.
Direct support professionals who work with New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities make an average starting wage of $16.13 per hour at nonprofit agencies, according to the New York Disability Advocates statewide coalition. High vacancy and turnover rates have plagued the sector for decades, but the group argues that New York’s recent minimum wage increase to $16 per hour for the city, Long Island and Westchester, effective Jan. 1, and persistent inflation further jeopardize the industry and its ability to deliver services.
New York Alliance for Inclusion and Innovation chief executive Michael Seereiter told Crain’s that the industry has historically lost workers to other sectors where they can make similar wages in jobs that might be less demanding, such as food service or retail. Now that DSPs start at only a few cents more than the minimum, it could become harder to recruit and retain employees, he said, threatening access to care.
To combat this, organizations are pushing Hochul to include a 3.2% COLA for nonprofit providers and $4,000 wage enhancement per eligible employee in her budget, set to be released Tuesday.
Similar pressure last year yielded a 4% COLA in the last budget cycle for DSPs. While Seereiter said the increase and the 5.4% COLA from 2022 “a huge step in the right direction,” they weren’t enough to patch holes caused by years of disinvestment. According to a July NYDA survey of providers, the annual turnover rate at nonprofit provider agencies hovers at 30% and vacancies in excess of 17% for 2023. The organization estimates that staffing issues cause providers to lose about $100 million annually.
“We are also asking for that direct support wage enhancement to make up for the years in which those COLAs didn’t come,” Seereiter said. “And as a result, the wages and the compensation for DSPs has eroded to the point where we can’t even compete.”
The 3.2% COLA would increase reimbursement rates providers receive over the course of the year by that amount, said Marco Damiani, the chief executive officer of AHRC New York City, which serves about 15,000 people with disabilities annually and employs about 5,000.
“It trends the rates in the budget year in which the COLA was provided, and that means that the overall revenues can be used for a number of things–most importantly wages, but they’re also going to cover economic costs,” he said.
Because they also need to cover operational costs, providers can’t rely on the COLA alone to increase rates for DSPs, he added. That’s where the wage enhancement comes in.
Damiani added that the funding will be particularly vital going forward as more people come to need direct support services. The number of New Yorkers receiving services has increased by about 12% over the last five years, he said. More than 126,000 individuals throughout the state work received services through the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities in 2022.
The state recognizes that an investment in the workforce is needed to create a more sustainable service system. In OPWDD’s 2023 annual report released at the end of December, commissioner Kerri Neifield wrote that the agency’s prioritization of workforce solutions in its five-year transformation plan is a direct response to providers’ and consumers’ concerns.
The report notes that Hochul’s previous two COLAs have given providers about $800 million annually in new funding to ease operating costs and pressures and support frontline staff. Providers have told OPWDD that the 5.4% COLA from 2022 will be used to increase direct care staff wages by an average of 7%.
Additionally, OPWDD has launched initiatives to strengthen the DSP pipeline, such as partnering with Boards of Cooperative Educational Services around New York to incorporate a DSP curriculum into their offerings. The agency is also working with the State University of New York to expand a program allowing DSPs or those interested in careers to secure national certification and college credit toward a certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree.
Seereiter said providers and advocates have been pressing lawmakers to include the COLA and wage enhancement in the executive budget since the summer. He likened the industry’s need for both measures to the growing need for funding for services for New Yorkers with mental illness due to years of disinvestment. Hochul spotlighted the mental health crisis in her State of the State address Tuesday–calling it “the defining challenge of our time.”
“It’s more [a] crisis that’s happening in homes and in apartments across the state, not necessarily showing up on the streets, but nonetheless, it’s the same root cause,” Seereiter said of service disruptions caused by DSP turnover and shortages. “We’ve been putting the hard press out, and we don’t have a choice.”
Avi Small, a representative for the governor’s office, declined to comment on how Hochul is evaluating the proposal as she prepares to release the budget next week. —Jacqueline Neber