Health Agency Re-Hiring After Getting Funding Restored
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Those who help the homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill are celebrating funding restoration by Illinois lawmakers--and one major agency is already planning to rehire laid-off staffers.
State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz says lawmakers restored $61 million in cuts that had been made in the fields of mental health, substance abuse and homelessness.
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She said the effect of the cuts would have been devastating. Feigenholtz, whose 12th District represents Chicago's North Side, says lawmakers were able to help by implementing internal fund transfers, without raising any new taxes.
Clinical Vice President of Haymarket Center, Dr. Dan Lustig, said he'd already laid off 40 staffers and closed up 100 beds in his facility at 120 North Sangamon, just west of Chicago's Loop. Before the money was restored, he was facing a 21 percent cut in his operating budget.
He said he may still be looking at a 6 percent cut, but says he'll begin rehiring staff as soon as he gets specific funding outlines from the State Human Services Department.
He says he hopes to get back up to 450 beds.
