FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 30, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

SAN ANTONIO, TX – Writing in the San Antonio Report this week, community leader and local attorney Henry B. Gonzalez III urged state leaders to step up and deliver a much-needed raise for community-based direct support professionals (DSPs) who serve Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Gonzalez detailed the daily tasks of the unsung heroes of the Texas workforce, who – for less than the average fast food employee – take on the important responsibility of caring for vulnerable Texans:

“There are some true Texas heroes who don’t get a plaque at the Alamo, don’t have buildings named after them and don’t even get paid what they deserve to take on the tremendous responsibility of caring for some of the most vulnerable Texans among us.

These heroes are the direct support professionals who care for Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Direct support professionals take on a seemingly insurmountable list of tasks including nursing tasks, administering medications, tube feeding, skin care and hygiene, and managing seizures, incontinence and maladaptive behaviors – sometimes at risk to their own personal safety.”

Henry B. Gonzalez III

Highlighting the state’s $18 billion budget surplus, Gonzalez pushed state leaders to deliver emergency funding to stem the immediate crisis facing community-based DSPs working in group homes throughout Texas, which are witnessing an unsustainable trend of staff vacancies due to insufficient wages:

Over the last 13 years, wages for community-based direct support professionals in Texas have increased by less than 9%. Meanwhile, inflation has increased by more than 37% over that same time period.

You don’t have to be an economist to understand that this is an unsustainable trend, and it’s the most vulnerable Texans who stand to suffer the most.

It’s time for Texas to demonstrate the leadership we are known for and deliver emergency funding now to stem the crisis impacting the direct support professional workforce by raising the average starting salary to at least $15 per hour. This is a more than reasonable step, given Texas is anticipated to have a more than $18 billion surplus in the next biennial budget, not including the current balance in the State “Rainy Day Fund” which currently stands at over $23 billion.”

To read Gonzalez’s full opinion piece in the San Antonio Report, please click here.

###