The providers of non-profit services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New York are once again pushing state officials to ensure programs are fully funded for the state’s most vulnerable residents.  The push this year has taken on a greater degree of urgency, however, amid the COVID-19 pandemic as care providers have been…Read More…

ALBANY — Family members and service providers supporting some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers say they were blindsided by a proposed $93 million cut to funding for New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Providers say the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities alerted them to the reduction, described as an…Read More…

Vaccinating 19 million or so New Yorkers was never going to be an easy task. States across the country have struggled with the rollout of the distribution to end the coronavirus pandemic. Supplies have lagged far behind demand.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo has blamed the federal government for the supply bottleneck. New York is going “week to week”…Read More…

ALBANY — Although the overall budget for the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities is expected to increase nearly 3 percent, those who provide direct services to people with disabilities say the cuts are falling on them. The latest cuts add insult to injury to a sector that has not seen a cost-of-living increase…Read More…

Dec 10, 2020 More than 1,000 people participated in a virtual statewide rally Wednesday calling on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reconsider budget cuts for services for people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) faces nearly half a billion dollars in funding cuts…Read More…

Dec. 10, 2020 Following a decade of budget cuts, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is proposing yet another round of slashes to service providers that care for New Yorkers with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the 2021 budget — a move that caregivers say will devastate them and the people they care for.  In an effort…Read More…

Dec. 09, 2020 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Thousands of New Yorkers joined a virtually rally Wednesday to urge the state, specifically Gov. Andrew Cuomo, from cutting funding for programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Save Our Services virtual rally had speakers from across the state — some parents of…Read More…

Nov. 26, 2020 ALBANY — As state agencies are being directed to cut their spending, service providers and activists are pleading with officials to preserve funding for critical programs for the homeless, developmentally disabled and other vulnerable New Yorkers. Support service providers — which have already had to manage the prospect of the withholding of…Read More…

Nov. 11, 2020 The New York Disability Advocates—a statewide coalition of seven nonprofit provider associations whose members serve more than 140,000 New Yorkers with disabilities—last week released the results of a survey finding that 80% of responding health care providers for the intellectual and developmental disability community say incoming budget cuts will result in their closure or a reduction in services. The coalition surveyed a sample of agencies representing over 38% of the residential support system in the state. Read the full article here: https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-pulse/80-disability-care-providers-say-cuts-will-result-their-closure-reduced-servicesRead More…