The Illinois Department of Human Services’s proposed $87 million budget cut for services for people with developmental disabilities living in group homes could result in fewer residences being available, according to one nonprofit housing provider.

“We have tried to work (with the state) in good faith” said Lore Baker, president and CEO of the Association for Individual Development (AID), but the reductions they’re planning — based in some cases on data that’s 10 or more years old — are not reasonable or fair.

Among those who are going to be hurt are local residents, like Jim Gould’s son, David, 30, who lives in an Elgin group home.

“There are things a 2-year-old does that he can’t do. There are things he does that are age appropriate. His skills are all over the place, but he needs 24-hour care and supervision,” Gould said.

But based on the state’s new scoring system, the number of hours of care David receives is being reduced by 18% reduction, Gould said.

His son’s needs “haven’t changed,” he said. “Why should the number of hours of support he receives go down? It’s not like AID can say his hours have been cut so we’ll leave him alone for those hours. They still have to provide the same level of care, but they won’t get reimbursed.”

AID is fighting to stop the budget cuts proposed for Community Integrated Living Arrangements (CILAS), which are group homes to which professional support staff members are assigned to help people with varying levels of developmental disabilities.

Last year, the state revamped the CILAS calculator used to determine how many hours of assistance a support staffer provides to each person in a group home, Baker said.

“The formula was reworked and modernized,” Baker said. “When they ran those (new) calculations and sent out information to providers in the community who are supporting these folks, it cut millions of service hours out of the system totally.”

The hours reduction lopped $87 million from the state’s budget for the group homes at the same time the state added $72 million to cover increases dictated by the mandatory minimum wage increase that took effect Jan. 1.

“I’m not a mathematician, but that math doesn’t add up,” Baker said. “It feels like a shell game. You are putting in with one hand and taking out with the other hand.”

Daisy Contreras, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said in an email that standardizing how rates are calculated was done so there is equality for every person in the system. Hours will increase for some people and decrease for others but every CILA resident will receive more funding overall to ensure they receive what they need, she said.

“IDHS has paused any implementation of the hours adjustments, after already implementing the higher rates, for 15 months and continues to meet with stakeholders to determine the best way to move forward,” Contreras said.

While AID supports increasing wages for staff members, it’s hard to understand how the state can justify cutting the number of service hours they’re willing to fund, Baker said.

Beyond that, her organization has concerns about the data being used to determine those hours, she said. One evaluation uses a score from data that, in 70% of cases, is 10 years old or older, Baker said — a problem the Division of Developmental Disabilities acknowledges.

Information from the most recent evaluations isn’t being used because of a software problem, she said.

AID has 152 people in group homes located in Kane and Kendall counties, where staff members are assigned. Of those people, 58% have scores based on data 10 years or older, she said.

The state won’t make any cuts until March but so far officials have not addressed the problems in how numbers have been calculated, Baker said.

“We’ll have to make a decision once we have a definitive knowledge of what is actually going to be implemented,” she said. “We’ll have to look at each home to see if we can run it. We may have to decide to close homes.

“No provider wants to do that because we’re a mission-driven organization. It will come down to can we afford to support the people who live in these homes.”

Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.