FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 3, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

“If our state budget is a declaration of our values, right now it suggests that Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those who serve them are, at best, an afterthought.”

GALVESTON, TX – Writing in the Galveston County Daily News on Thanksgiving, Charles Njuguna, CEO of The Center For Pursuit, and Joseph Cooper, CEO of Vita Living, urged the Texas Legislature to raise the hourly wage reimbursement rates for community-based direct support professionals (DSPs) who serve Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Both CEOs, who lead nonprofit organizations serving Texans with IDD in the Houston-Galveston region, called on Texas leaders to address the urgent workforce crisis that is undermining the IDD service system in Texas, threatening the continuity of care for our state’s most vulnerable:

“The direct support professionals who care for disabled Texans are heroes who view their work as a calling, often working 60 or more hours a week to ensure continuity of care for our most vulnerable. Yet, these essential workers are forced to leave the profession in droves.

“Why? The wage reimbursement rate set by the Texas Legislature for community-based support professionals is just $10.60 an hour — the lowest in the nation — resulting in a situation where service providers are operating with an average of one-third of their staff positions unfilled.”

Njuguna and Cooper emphasize that the lack of pay for community-based DSPs in Texas is not just a public policy issue, but a moral issue impacting thousands of Texas families:

“This is more than a policy failure; it’s a moral failure. Families of Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are left with few choices, forced either to move their loved ones from group home to group home, or take on the enormous burden of care themselves, which can disrupt their own lives and work.

“If our state budget is a declaration of our values, right now it suggests that Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those who serve them are, at best, an afterthought.”

Njuguna and Cooper also elaborate on the costly effects that this workforce crisis has on local economies, the state’s economy, families, and individuals with IDD:

“Nonprofits like ours must continually rely on generous donors to supplement low-wage reimbursements while navigating a growing list of unfunded mandates to keep our doors open…

“…Without competitive wages, providers can be forced to rely on public assistance just to make ends meet, transferring costs to local governments and taxpayers and undermining our fiscal sustainability.

“Fortunately, we have a roadmap to resolve this crisis. After the Legislature raised staff wages at State Supported Living Centers to over $17 an hour, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission reported a dramatic drop in employee attrition, resulting in the lowest turnover rates on record.

“Yet, in community-based settings serving Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, staff instability is at an all-time high.

“Our state isn’t lacking resources, with a budget surplus of at least $18 billion as we approach the 89th Legislative Session…

“…The question is not whether we have the means, but whether we have the will. We are hopeful that our Houston-Galveston area legislators, including Sen. Joan Huffman and Rep. Greg Bonnen, who lead powerful budget-writing committees, will step up to address this urgent crisis.”

To read Njuguna and Cooper’s full column in The Galveston County Daily News, please click here.

To learn more about the Time To Care coalition’s work to enhance state support for community IDD services in Texas, please visit www.timetocaretx.org.

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