Developmentally disabled workers caught by state furloughs

<p>Wesley Levy is due for a day off work on Wednesday and he is peeved about it.</p><p>“I am being forced to do something I don't want to do and I don't like it,” said Levy, 41, a lean, raven-haired man who takes the bus to his $4.37-an-hour job at the FoodMaxx store in Roseland.</p><p>“I love it here,” said Levy, who handles routine tasks, returning items to the shelves, cleaning the produce department and retrieving shopping carts. “If I didn't have this (job) basically I would be sitting at home doing nothing.”</p><p>Levy is one of about 300 developmentally disabled workers who will be involuntarily idled on Wednesday, the first of four mandatory shutdown days for Becoming Independent, the Santa Rosa nonprofit that serves disabled adults.</p><p>The shutdowns, officially designated as vacation days, are part of the plan approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to offset a $26 billion state deficit.</p><p>Statewide, the four extra days off for Becoming Independent and other nonprofits serving the developmentally disabled population will save the Department of Developmental Services about $16 million in the fiscal year ending June 30.</p><p>Overall, the department — which serves more than 240,000 developmentally disabled people — cut $334 million from its budget, which totaled $4.7 billion last year.</p><p>Each shutdown will cost Becoming Independent workers a day's wage, which is based on the person's abilities and averages $11 for three hours of labor. It doesn't seem like much money, but it hurts people who already live on an economic margin, said Cami Weaver, the local agency's executive director.</p><p>“It's a tough group to pick on,” Weaver said.</p><p>Most disabled men and women live primarily on government disability payments, which typically cover their housing, food, utilities and other essentials, she said. </p><p>Levy pays $351 a month rent for his one-bedroom apartment, accounting for more than half of his $629 monthly disability check.</p><p>Working five days a week at FoodMaxx and on litter abatement crews gives him an additional $130 every two weeks.</p><p>“Without the paycheck I would have a hard time surviving,” said Levy, who lives by himself. His pastimes — building model airplanes and playing video games — also depend on the work income.</p><p>Also to be idled Wednesday and three other days — Dec. 28, March 31 and April 5 — are about 150 disabled people enrolled in Becoming Independent's day programs in Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Sonoma.</p><p>“How do I feel about? It sucks,” said Lisa von Kleist, 49, who works as a janitor at Becoming Independent's Santa Rosa campus. </p><p>Kleist, who helps support a family of five in Rohnert Park, makes $8 an hour cleaning floors and bathrooms five days a week. It might be considered a “dirty job,” she said, but “it's the people working with me who make it a joy to come to work.”</p><p>Kleist said she understands the need for state budget cuts, but questions why some of it is coming out of the pockets of her disabled peers. “It's not fair,” she said.</p><p>Levy takes it personally. “I didn't tell God I wanted a disability,” he said. “I didn't wait in line.”</p><p>Developmentally disabled people are “an easy target” for budget cuts because they are a minority with little clout, said Linda Johnson, Levy's mother. “There's no one to yell and say ‘you can't do this,'” she said.</p><p>The current cuts may be small, but Johnson, a Palm Drive Hospital board member, wonders if, in the absence of protests, they will grow next year.</p><p>Weaver sent a letter last month to 125 local businesses that employ Becoming Independent workers advising them of the four new closure days.</p><p>“Earning money and being able to participate in the local economy by spending earned dollars is absolutely where our participants want to be,” she wrote.</p><p>Workers can't get to their jobs because Becoming Independent's transportation services and work site supervisors will be idled.</p><p>Weaver said she refuses to call the four days holidays, as the Department of Developmental Services describes them. “Nothing about them is a holiday,” she said.</p>