How Housing and Human Services will close the budget gap

Reduce staff in caseworker and administrative support positions

Offer early retirement to senior staff

Cut $1.6 million in federal subsidies to child welfare service, child-care subsidies and job training

Freeze hiring in all but the most critical positions

Convert existing contracts to fee-for-service agreements

Freeze purchases of non-essential equipment

Reduce time children spend in county custody and levels of care provided to those children where possible

Improve efficiencies throughout the department

Boulder County Housing and Human Services plans to lay off as many as 25 of its 150 employees, offer early retirement to another 45 employees and cut spending on job-training programs, child-care subsidies and child-welfare services in an effort to close a $4.5 million budget gap, the department announced Thursday.

The cuts are necessary because requests for assistance have risen dramatically while funding from the state has decreased, the department said in a news release. Applications for Temporary Aid to Needy Families are up 62 percent over the last year, while applications for food stamps are up 58 percent. The county cannot reduce spending on those programs because they are mandated by law.

"The economic situation has gotten so bad and the demand is so high, and all the different funding sources have been hit," said Housing and Human Services spokeswoman Ana Mostaccero.

Caseworkers account for 22 of the potential layoffs, and administrative staff for another three. Mostaccero said the department might be able to reduce the number of layoffs if more people take early retirement.

The department also plans to cut $600,000 in spending on child-welfare services, $613,000 in child-care subsidies and $400,000 in job training. The money that's being cut came from TANF funds that now will be used for welfare payments instead of programs.

As recently as 2008, the department had a $14 million reserve in federal TANF funds, but a state law passed that year required counties to spend down their reserve, Mostaccero said.

The county already had tightened eligibility requirements for child-care subsidies and frozen new enrollment in the program to cut costs there, and the county commissioners had appropriated an additional $1 million in general fund money to make up for state cuts as part of its budget process for 2010.

County Commissioner Cindy Domenico said Boulder County is in the same position as human services agencies around the state.

"We're still evaluating the impact," she said. "We think we can absorb this, but it's hard. We'll evaluate every opportunity we have to do backfill, to see if we can address these needs."

Mostaccero said people who need core, mandated services like food stamps and welfare can continue to apply and receive help, and the department will try to minimize the public impact of the cuts.

"We're hoping to work more efficiently and use more technology," she said. "We're going to take extreme care that people get the services they need."

What will suffer, Mostaccero said, are "accessory" services. There will be less training for foster families, for example, and fewer job opportunities for people participating in workforce training.

Broader impacts are unavoidable, said Terry Benjamin, executive director of the nonprofit Emergency Family Assistance Association, which provides food aid, emergency shelter and rent and utility assistance for some 4,500 Boulder County families a year.

"When Human Services sneezes, every single social services agency gets a cold," he said.

When case loads increase, Benjamin said, caseworkers inevitably stick closer to their job description and are less likely to notice other problems and get families additional assistance.

"The people who will be unserved will turn to organizations in the community," Benjamin said. "If the needs are legitimate -- and I believe they are -- they always show up somewhere else."

Contact reporter Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 and meltzere@dailycamera.com.