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With Sacramento County’s approval of major budget cuts in June, how have things changed for the county department that works with the homeless and other low-income populations?

The Sacramento Press sat down with Bruce Wagstaff, director of the county’s Department of Human Assistance, to ask him how the budget cuts have affected the department and its work. Wagstaff provided details about the cuts and DHA’s role to manage homeless shelter beds.

He is also concerned about possible state budget cuts that could harm DHA.

Sacramento Press: Can you briefly explain the purpose of DHA?

Bruce Wagstaff: It provides services for the lowest-income individuals in our county through public assistance programs like CalWorks, Medi-Cal, food stamps. We also do homeless assistance programs. We do senior nutrition.

With the economy being what it is, our data suggests that we touch -- through our various programs, one way or the other -- one out of every four residents of this county. And that’s kind of staggering, when you think about it. You go into our intake offices...and you’re seeing the effects of the economy firsthand. Caseloads are going way up. Our intake offices are really crowded. We’re also having to close some of our sites because of our budget reductions.

SP: A total of 154 shelter beds were cut when the Board of Supervisors adopted the county budget on June 17. Has anything changed since then?

BW: Frankly, due to the result of some really legendary work that folks did to try to address this -- notwithstanding any further cuts that might come down -- we have found a way to essentially mitigate the impact of the reductions on the shelters. It’s by doing several things: [One of the things is] looking at the stimulus dollars. [DHA is also able to mitigate the impact of the reductions on shelters] because the board gave us some money. The board gave us some economic development funds. Plus, we moved money around within the existing system.

The nutshell is this: On the shelter side, we think that we’ve been able to mitigate the reduction on the shelters. Where we have a hole, frankly, is in the winter shelter. So, here’s the deal: If we were to continue the winter shelter at Cal Expo, we think we have enough funding for one month. And we haven’t decided what month that would be. However, we have to have more discussions because we may decide, let’s do it somewhere else besides Cal/Expo.

I’m hopeful that by the time the winter comes along, we’ll be able to say something different, pending further cuts. This is not a done deal yet. Plus, we’re waiting to see what happens at the state level. My department is very heavily impacted by what happens at the state level. I just have to emphasize [that] further cuts could be coming. Among other things, the [Board of Supervisors] is looking to find $10 million to give to the sheriff. I am saying: I don’t know where [the $10 million] is going to come from. So, we’ll have to see. But I’m just very pleased the description I’m giving right now is much different than when we went into this.

But I’m pleased to say that the Mather Children’s Services program -- which was going to be totally eliminated -- will not be. It will probably be operating at a reduced level -- pending further cuts.

SP: Can you explain overall how your department was affected by the recent cuts?

BW: We certainly have been impacted. The homeless area is a big one. We also had to make significant reductions in our General Assistance program. General Assistance is for, largely, single adults who aren’t eligible for other public assistance programs. We reduced the amount of cash that those clients will get. The department has also had major staffing reductions at the same time that caseloads are growing to unprecedented levels that we’ve had to adjust to.

SP: How many staffers?

BW: Twenty-five people will be laid off. But on top of that, we’ve unfunded close to 200 positions that were left vacant. So basically, we put a hiring freeze on the department last year. And those positions have been unfunded, basically. So, it’s not just the people being laid off -- which is very unfortunate. I wish that number [of layoffs] could have been zero. But also, we lost all these positions. By doing that, we kept our layoff numbers down. So, that’s certainly been an impact.

In my department, only about 7 percent of the funding comes from the county. So, when we have to take big cuts in the county general fund, they’re focused in a relatively narrow part of the department. So, a lot of my public assistance money, for CalWorks and Medi-Cal and things like that, comes from the state and the [federal government]. So, when they ask me to take general fund reductions, it’s in homeless programs, in senior nutrition, in volunteer programs.

We’re also waiting to see what the state does because there have been major reductions proposed in the CalWorks program, and that could affect us hugely.

Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.