Drug Treatment Centers Upset Over Big Funding Cut
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Illinois drug treatment providers are trying to rally public support against an 80 percent cut in state funding, effective March 15.
The chair of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Treatment Association warns the state funding cuts will require an end to treatment for 55,000 clients, and the loss of 5,000 addiction counselors and support staff.
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Peter Polanka says word of the 80 percent funding cut came in a Friday phone call from Illinois Human Services Secretary Michelle Saddler.
Daniel Lustig, the vice president of the Haymarket Treatment Center in Chicago, says he's facing a state funding cut from $8 million a year down to $2.3 million.
Lustig says this will mean laying off at least half of his 400 staffers and discharging many homeless addicts who will likely end up in the county hospital or jail.
"I have got several programs that clients come from the Department of Corrections,'' he said. "When I am not able to stabilize them and offer them treatment, where are these clients going to go? They are going to get their drugs. They are going into their communities and into homes to get that money."
Polanka warns that crime rates, domestic violence and traffic accidents will explode across Illinois, and Gov. Quinn will have to answer for the consequences.
