State spends $30M on OT pay, labor at homes for disabled
AUSTIN — The Texas Health and Human Services Commission spent almost $30 million in seven months on overtime and contract labor at its institutions for people with disabilities because the state can’t find enough people to work at them.
The cost of overtime pay and contract labor will likely hit $50 million this fiscal year, for the third year in a row. Union officials say that raising wages for entry-level workers who now make about $11 an hour would help tamp down turnover and reduce costs.
“It goes to show the state wastes a lot of money making people work so much and burning them out,” said Seth Hutchinson, an organizer with the Texas State Employees Union.
Between Sept. 1, 2017, and March 31, 2018, taxpayers paid $13 million in overtime to employees at the 13 state supported living centers. Most of the employees who received overtime were direct care staff, whose work includes feeding residents, bathing them, teaching them life skills or taking them to activities.
An additional $16 million during the same period went to staffing companies, mainly for medical care providers such as psychiatrists and nurses.
Health and Human Services spokeswoman Christine Mann said the state is working hard to resolve the problem by attending job fairs, working with jobposting companies and hiring candidates on the spot, as long as they pass background checks. They’re also looking at using more telemedicine and academic partnerships, she said.
“But to ensure we maintain
continuous quality care for individuals at our state operated facilities, we have to allow for staff to fill in where needed by working overtime,” Mann said.
The state living centers have been the focus of intense scrutiny for years, with lawmakers, disability rights advocates and family members of residents facing off over whether the centers should be shuttered. Advocates say more people should be moved into community homes, which are less restrictive and generally located in traditional neighborhoods. Family members say their relatives receive stellar care at the centers. Lawmakers have been split on the issue, and efforts to shut some of the centers down have failed.
Meanwhile, the living centers — the oldest of which is 100 years old — are plagued with crumbling infrastructure that the state spends millions of dollars each year to repair. Some buildings have been closed because they are structurally unsound. Over the last few years, lead has been discovered in drinking water because of old pipes.
A settlement agreement with the U.S. Justice Department nearly a decade ago ordered the state to move thousands of people into group homes and improve services for the residents who remain. Today, about 3,000 people with disabilities live at the state supported living centers. Those residents are among the most difficult people to serve, as most have complex medical or behavioral problems.
There are currently 2,000 open jobs at the 13 living centers. Meanwhile, annual turnover for direct care employees is 54 percent.
Hutchinson said he’s not surprised the state is paying so much for staffing. The pay for state employees is too low, he said. Right now, entry-level direct care staffers make about $23,000.
Hutchinson suggests the Legislature give center employees the same kind of raises it gave to Child Protective Services workers a few years ago. In 2017, some CPS workers got a $12,000 salary increase, a move that significantly slowed turnover. The Legislature also gave the agency money to hire hundreds of new workers.
“It’s really just a simple matter of putting a lot more resources into and hiring a lot more people all at once,” he said.