Cuts threaten home for abused, neglected kids

Diyeso-Lewis House could run out of funds ‘by the end of June’

MANCHESTER — TLC, a nonprofit home for children who are victims of neglect, abuse and family crises, is in danger of shutting down due to slashed town funding, program leaders say.

The budget shortfall for the Diyeso-Lewis House of TLC Foundation Inc. “has us staring down the barrel of a gun,” organization board of directors member T.J. Barber said Friday. “By the end of June, we could be out of money.”

Founded in 1987, the residential program has served a total of 173 Manchester students whose parents were abusive or unable to care for them due to mental health, substance abuse, incarceration and other causes, according to TLC. The home on North Main Street currently houses three students, who get tutoring and counseling while attending local schools, Barber said.

TLC’s previous annual budget of $188,821 was cut to $68,800 in the current fiscal year, town human services Director Joel Cox said. Mayor Jay Moran said it’s too early in planning for the 2021-22 budget to say what will happen, but town leaders will consider restoring funds to the organization.

“The board of directors truly understands the great work that TLC has done over the years and still does today,” Moran said.

“We have had to make tough decisions,” he said. “We will consider their request in the budget process and do the best we can to assist them.”

The program gets no state funding, Barber said. That separation allows TLC to serve only Manchester students, he said, but it also means the program relies almost exclusively on municipal funds.

Still, TLC saves Manchester taxpayers money, according to the organization’s presentation to the board of directors in January. If students were sent to programs outside the district, costs to local schools would include transportation and wages for specialists such as $117 an hour for a psychologist and $100 an hour for a behavior analyst, according to TLC.

TLC Executive Director Liama Holmes told the town’s board of directors at that meeting that most residents have been marginalized children of Hispanic and African American descent, according to meeting minutes.

Moran asked Holmes if TLC seeks grants and does fundraisers. She said grants have come through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and other sources, but the organization was unable to hold a fundraiser in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to meeting minutes.

The program can serve up to eight students, Barber said. Staff work with parents and in some cases, students are returned to their homes. In other cases, that is not possible, he said, and some residents have remained with the program through high school and the first couple of years of college.

Many local educators are involved in the program, either as board or staff members. Hassan M. Sultan, family resource center coordinator at Keeney School and a part-time TLC staff member, said that because of the dire finances, he and other staff members have agreed to delay their wages until April to keep the program running. In the meantime, TLC has received help from PowerUp Manchester, which contributed personal hygiene products, laundry detergent and food, he said.