FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 6, 2025

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AUSTIN, TX – In case you missed it, this week KERA News published a new report featuring commentary from families, caregivers, and providers in North Texas urging the Texas Legislature to increase wages for community-based direct support professionals (DSPs) who serve Texans with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD). Currently, both budget proposals in the Texas House and Senate fund community-based DSPs at $12.00 per hour, which advocates have made clear is not sufficient to address the ongoing workforce crisis that has destabilized the community IDD care system in Texas.

The new report features the work of Ability Connection – a member of the Time To Care coalition and nonprofit organization based in Irving that serves more than 1,000 Texans with IDD. President and CEO Jim Hanophy emphasized the severe impact of workforce shortages, revealing that the crisis has forced him to close four of his eight group homes.

“We can barely get somebody to show up for $15 an hour…Staffing in those homes was such a nightmare. We were constantly paying overtime and people were working 50, 60 hours a week. And it was just killing us.”

The report alsohighlights the ripple effects of group home closures on other state resources, as well as state data demonstrating that raising DSP wages in other settings have meaningfully impacted staff vacancy rates and turnover among those who serve Texans with IDD:

“An exodus of providers from the system has already resulted in loss of access to care and increased utilization of high-cost institutional settings, including state psychiatric hospitals and State Supported Living Centers.”

“…The state has bumped the base wage for direct care providers at state supported living centers to $17.71 an hour, according to Time to Care. The state reports the wage boosts have helped fill staff vacancies and improved turnover rates.”

Hanophy said the lack of funding from the state for community-based IDD services is already having an impact on providers’ ability to deliver continuous, high-quality care for vulnerable Texans:

“I’ve had conversations with people from other states who have called and said, ‘You know, we’re thinking of taking a job in Texas. My son has a disability. How long would it take to roll over into your program?’ I’m like, don’t come. If that’s your priority, don’t come.”

Allana Banks, who moved to Texas from Missouri wither her son T.J., says the lack of sufficient staff to take care of her son is impacting her daily life:

“Either they will no-call, no-show, or the rate of pay isn’t enough. They’ll say they take the job, but then they may have found something else that pays more, and they don’t come back.”