State and union staff warn 50% cut to SACU would displace residents, strain crisis care
Loading...
Summary
Frontline staff, union representatives and Disability Rights Oregon told the Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee that proposed cuts or a rapid transition of the Stabilization and Crisis Unit would displace residents and reduce Oregon’s crisis capacity.
At the public hearing on Senate Bill 5526, numerous employees of the Stabilization and Crisis Unit (SACU), union representatives and advocacy groups opposed a proposed reduction to SACU funding that would reduce the program’s size and move some state‑operated homes to private providers.
Bradley Capps, a SACU worker, told the subcommittee he was in “deep opposition to the proposed budget cuts presented to SACU” and said cutting SACU in half “would reduce roughly 50 more crisis beds from Oregon as a whole.” Christina Seinsdricker Brown, who identified herself as a direct support crisis specialist and president of SACU Local 1246, said the reduction came after staff had recently been told SACU would expand, and called the proposed cuts “devastating.”
Disability Rights Oregon’s Ben Gurewitz urged caution and said the department had not engaged in comprehensive planning for transitions. “Before individuals are safely transitioned out of the SACUs, there needs to be a multiple disciplinary team for each individual,” Gurewitz said, noting legal advocates must be part of individualized transition planning and that the state should maintain current service levels until thorough planning occurs.
Many SACU staff and leaders described the program as uniquely trained to support people with high acuity and complex behavior who have been unable to remain in community placements. Heather Clawson, a direct support crisis specialist, said SACU staff are trained at significantly higher levels than many community placements and that the unit’s lower turnover provides continuity of care.
Employees and union representatives described a lack of stakeholder engagement in planning. An AFSCME representative told the committee that a consultant report had been produced at substantial cost but that the broader set of stakeholders had not been given adequate opportunities to participate, and urged the Legislature to fund SACU at its current service level while convening a deliberate transition process.
Speakers warned that closures and rapid transitions without funded community placements and adequate workforce development would push some residents into homelessness, incarceration or repeated unsuccessful placements. “To reduce funding to SACU would, without question, diminish individuals' quality of life,” said Chris Edwards, who described decades of experience supporting the population and warned that closures would be “detrimental to their life, as well as their life expectancy.”
Ending: Witnesses urged the subcommittee to preserve SACU staffing and beds at current levels, ensure comprehensive per‑person transition planning and invest in community providers before any large‑scale reductions in SACU capacity are implemented.
