ALPINE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Money cuts have forced a Grand Rapids-area adult foster care home to close — and others could follow.
It’s a crisis that threatens the care of some of the community’s most vulnerable people.
“If there was enough funding available this home would not be closing,” said
Gwen and Mark Schmidt ran the Apple Hill Adult Foster Care home in Alpine Township for 20 years before giving up their state license and getting out of the business of providing living space for developmentally disabled adults. As a result, in February, six residents had to find other places to live.
“We had one employee for about a year and the funding kept getting cut,” said Mark Schmidt.
That left just the couple to care for the residents.
“You can’t go out for dinner for two hours on a Friday night,” he continued. “Over time, the cuts in your funding and all that stuff just wears on you and you say it’s just time to move on and retire.”
Monica Anderson’s 37-year-old developmentally disabled and bipolar son had lived at Apple Hill for 10 years. He’s now living in another home and Anderson says he weathered the move better than she expected.
“Still, it was very difficult for my son to deal with because these people felt like mom and dad to him,” Anderson said.
Anderson told Target 8 Apple Hill was a good place for her son. He kept on his medication and attended a day program which he considered his job. He also told his mom that the day he moved he was “leaving [his] home.”
Gwen Schmidt said the move was hard for her and her husband, too.
“I’m not supposed to have this attachment to them and yet there are individuals here call us mom, call us dad and some call us by our first names. It’s very emotional,” she said tearfully.
Target 8 Investigators quickly found that what happened to Apple Hill AFC is an extreme example of what’s happening to long-term care across the state.
“I’m actually not afraid to call it a direct care crisis,” said Scott Gilman, who runs Network 180 –- the Kent County portion of Michigan’s mental health system. “Providers themselves are actually closing because they don’t have much of a profit margin to start with.”
Federal Social Security disability payments cover each residents’ basic living expenses. The state government pays extra, depending on each disabled resident’s specific needs for care beyond a bed and meals.
But over the last few years, the state has cut that hourly rate by a little more than a dollar an hour, according to Gilman. On top of that, Michigan raised the minimum wage, leaving homes with no way to cover the gap.
“So when the cost of their employees go up for people with disabilities, they can’t necessarily pass their costs on to them like a typical business would,” Gilman said.
That means the mental health system can’t even pay minimum wage to people who care for some of Michigan’s most vulnerable citizens. Gilman told Target 8 some of the lowest-paid health workers are taking care of people with some of the most complex needs – and caring for them around the clock.
“So absolutely, it’s upside down,” Gilman said.
A coalition of assisted living homes and others trying to get cut funds restored did a survey in May 2015 and estimated during one week, the system was short 2,600 care givers. Job turnover is huge, and Gilman said they’re having trouble opening new homes because they can’t recruit workers.
That coalition is going to try to get the Michigan legislature to restore the dollar per hour that was cut.
“Honestly, it’s questionable even if the dollar an hour is going to do what we need it to do,” Gilman said.
For Monica Anderson — who had to move her son to another home — it’s a call to action.
“For all those parents out there, we need to speak up, we need to be their voice,” she said.
