Disasters Haven’t Abated but Cash Has, Groups Say

A non-profit group known as the Disaster Preparedness and Response Program of the Human Services Council of New York City has helped coordinate nonprofit organizations, ensuring the groups didn’t duplicate services. But earlier this month, the group – like many others recently – closed its doors. Are budget cuts to blame?

In an article in the New York Times, April Dembosky says the closure of the 9/11 United Services Group came after the state declined to renew its financing. It was one of several disaster programs affected by budget cuts this year.

“Memories seem to be short in terms of what is necessary when there’s a disaster in the city of New York,” Nancy Wackstein, board chair of the Human Services Council, told Dembosky. “This is not only about a terrorist attack. This is about hurricanes and coastal flooding and things like that.”

According to Dembosky, the council’s disaster response program was first financed by the State Office of Homeland Security, then by the State Department of Health. In a contract ending in 2007, the Health Department granted the council $380,000 for the disaster response program.

“But the Spitzer administration, in an attempt to improve budget transparency, discontinued a $27 million pool that the council’s money came from. Only $10.9 million and 22 programs were written back into the budget, leaving 36 programs without an allocation,” Dembosky writes. “The council’s disaster response program was one of them.”

“It was a limited-time contract,” Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the State Division of the Budget, told Dembosky. “It was not intended to be an ongoing funding stream. They completed the work they were contracted to do.”

Several other community-based programs that work in disaster preparedness are also facing significant cuts, including the American Red Cross in Greater New York, Safe Horizon, a victims’ services group, and New York Disaster Interfaith Services.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/nyregion/26disaster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin