Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Health And Social Services topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Proponents urge workforce standards board for home care; providers warn of costs and delegation of authority
Summary
Supporters, including SEIU members and direct support professionals, urged the committee to advance LC 38 to address staffing, training and turnover in home and community-based services; provider groups countered that the board could be costly, delegate legislative power and would not itself fund wage increases.
Proponents told the Senate committee that LC 38 would create a workforce standards board to set minimum working standards for home- and community-based services and to recommend funding needed to implement those standards.
"We represent 65,000 public and care workers across Oregon," said Melissa Unger, executive director of SEIU Local 503, in testimony urging the committee to advance the board as a mechanism to stabilize a workforce she said faces poverty wages, burnout and high turnover. Direct support professional Aster Nickerson described unstable schedules, injury on the job and the harm that inconsistent staffing causes people with developmental disabilities.
Union leaders and worker advocates emphasized that the board would not itself impose an immediate wage mandate; rather, they said it would convene workers, employers and consumers to set standards and recommend funding. "A workforce standards board matters because it creates that voice," Joy Willman, vice president of SEIU Local 503, said.
Provider associations told the committee they broadly support investing in caregivers but criticized LC 38’s structure and scope. Phil Bentley, CEO of the Oregon Health Care Association, said Oregon already has high regulatory standards for senior care and that LC 38 risks "vesting unelected stakeholders with the power to make law" by delegating substantial authority to a board. Bentley cited affordability concerns for private-pay consumers and referenced a Department of Human Services/PSU study that legislative materials described as identifying large funding needs to reach target wage levels.
Amanda Dalton, representing the Oregon Resource Association, told the committee the core problem is chronic underfunding and cited a $530,000,000 funding gap for home and community-based IDD workers identified in the 2025 study; she urged the legislature to prioritize direct wage investment rather than creating a potentially unfunded board.
Witnesses across panels offered quantitative context: speakers cited turnover estimates ranging from about 33% to 50% in group homes, more than 11,000 substantiated cases of abuse/neglect/licensing violations since 2020 reported by facilities in testimony, and current Medicaid reimbursement rates for some assisted living care of roughly $65 to $150 a day versus private-pay averages cited near $200 a day. The committee closed the LC 38 public hearing after questions and moved on to additional measures.
