Speaking through a translator, Russian emigre Sonya Brezman doesn’t mince words about L’Chaim’s impact on her life.
Without Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ San Francisco program that serves 350 Russian-speaking seniors like herself, “I would die tomorrow,” said the 89-year-old widow and retired economist from Ukraine.
That unflinching statement brought a personal dimension to the state’s gargantuan financial crisis, which threatens to slash funding to JFCS’ L’Chaim Adult Day Health Center and many other programs and agencies serving some of California’s neediest residents. Hundreds of poor, elderly and unemployed members of the Bay Area’s Jewish community are among those who could be hurt.
Gov. Gray Davis has proposed a 15 percent across-the-board spending cut in the state’s Medi-Cal health program for the poor as he struggles to close a whopping budget deficit of up to $35 billion.
Officials at local Jewish service agencies and advocacy groups fear that cut and others under debate in Sacramento could exact a huge human toll on their clients.
Anita Friedman, executive director of the S.F.-based JFCS, described the proposed cuts as the “most threatening” she’s seen in her two decades as the JFCS director.
Participants at L’Chaim’s Judah Street center, she said, “depend on us and we don’t want to fail them.” The proposed state cuts translate into a $500,000 slash in funding for L’Chaim.
“The program saves lives,” she added. It offers food, companionship, medical care and activities for four hours daily to elderly emigres who go home to mostly empty apartments.
“The Jewish community does a lot to care for its vulnerable people,” Friedman said. “[It] probably does more and better than any other community in the country, but we can’t do it alone without a government-community partnership.”
For the Jewish community as a whole, the threatened reductions are jeopardizing senior programs, citizenship classes, medical care and job-placement services for needy and frail constituents.
Anxiously watching the budget wrangling are officials at JFCS offices on both sides of the bay, the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville, the Jewish Home in San Francisco and the S.F.-based Jewish Vocational Service.
“Anyway you slice it, the cuts are going to be ugly and going to be painful,” warned Gia Daniller, the government relations director at the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco. Her agency is helping to coordinate lobbying efforts, including a two-day advocacy trip to Sacramento on May 19-20.
The state’s fiscal year starts July 1 but observers say it’s unlikely any budget will be finalized by then.
Some of the proposed cuts have united advocates across ethnic and religious lines. That’s the case for a plan to end funding for a program that helps elderly and disabled immigrants become citizens and qualify for government benefits. Locally, it assists 1,000 Jewish newcomers annually.
“We’ve formed a nice sort of interfaith, intergroup coalition,” said Daniller, noting that those groups recently persuaded top state legislators to back away from making midyear cuts in Medi-Cal and citizenship assistance programs.
Advocates complain that many of the proposals are penny-wise and pound-foolish. “If you close down adult day health centers and citizenship programs, those people ultimately have no alternative than to end up in [more expensive] emergency rooms,” said Friedman.
At L’Chaim alone, she noted, the governor’s plan could force the center to end either the morning or afternoon session or severely cut services.
Neither option is appealing, said Friedman, who has testified at recent hearings in Sacramento about the dire consequences she foresees.
“It’s not just bad for clients, it’s dangerous.”
The L’Chaim center is just one of the JFCS programs that serve an estimated 50,000 needy people annually in San Francisco, the Peninsula and North Bay. Another program — JFCS provides at-home medical and social services to 200 frail clients — faces a $200,000 funding cut under Davis’ current plan.
“We provide medical care, social services to the poorest of the poor,” Friedman said.
At L’Chaim, many elderly participants show up in their Shabbat-best clothes for the daily program.
Wearing fuchsia-colored lipstick to set off her silver blouse and matching shawl, Brezman says her social life revolves around the warm meals, classes and fellowship at the Sunset District center.
“Here at L’Chaim, they don’t feel like they’re immigrants,” says recreation coordinator Natasha Marselly, translating Brezman’s words. “They feel like they’re part of society.”
On a recent morning, Brezman played bingo and joined in an exercise class that included a Russian version of the hokey-pokey. Other clients peddled stationary bikes, had blood-pressure checks and participated in an English class before sitting down to a chicken and rice lunch.
“We really have clients who are hungry at home,” explains program director Anna Borovik. Most of the center’s clients are widowed, in frail condition and subsisting on monthly Social Security checks of about $780. Their average age is 83.
“They’re really happy here,” said Borovik. “They don’t get much love anymore. We know what happened to them yesterday. We know what happened to them in World War II. We’re like their family.”
Elsewhere, the Reutlinger Community gets about $1.5 million annually to care for 30 frail patients covered by Medi-Cal. The governor’s plan translates into roughly a $200,000 reduction in funding, according to manager Dan Alger.
“The idea of making a cut in this area is really absurd,” said Alger, noting that staffing levels for the home’s 167 patients in skilled nursing and assisted living are mandated by law. “There’s no fat because they’ve never allowed it in the first place,” added Alger, who pointed out that several hundred nursing facilities statewide have warned that they will go out of business if Medi-Cal funding is cut.
At his center, “the reality is we’d have to look at donations,” which are already helping to subsidize Medi-Cal payments, he said.
“We’re trying to work aggressively through the political system,” Alger added. A recent meeting in Sacramento included a rare alliance of nursing home operators, labor leaders and patient advocates all warning about the cuts’ potentially disastrous results.
At the Jewish Home in San Francisco, administrators said it was too early to say exactly how the budget crisis would affect its 430 residents, more than 80 percent of whom are Medi-Cal recipients.
While the Home is developing various scenarios, “we’re sort of in a no-man’s land at this point,” said Daniel Ruth, the executive director. With the level of cuts for the next fiscal year still unknown, Ruth likened the process to “throwing darts at a dartboard in the dark. You don’t know what the bull’s eye is you want to hit.”
But financial concerns recently prompted the Home’s directors to stop a shuttle service that transports 30 elderly clients to and from a day-care program.
At JFCS of the East Bay, officials are unsure about the status of $65,000 in state funds that help provide mental-health counseling, including services for refugees and immigrants from Latino, Afghan, Bosnian and other communities.
“It’s the multiple streams of funding that we’re worried about,” said Ted Feldman, the executive director, noting that the bad economy is affecting federal funding and philanthropic support as well.
State officials have told administrators at Jewish Vocational Service that they will seek federal funds to continue a $200,000 job training and placement grant serving 200 people. The money previously came from the state’s coffers.
“The demand on JVS is greater than it’s ever been,” said Abby Snay, the executive director, adding that a quarter of a million jobs were lost last year in the Bay Area.
The S.F.-based agency is serving 4,000 people this year, and reports a more than 70 percent increase in clients since the start of the economic slump.
Echoing the sentiments of fellow social service providers, Friedman at JFCS said: “You have more people who need help and fewer resources to help them.
“It’s not a good combination.”