A top aide to Parris N. Glendening acknowledged yesterday that the governor's plan to eliminate a state disability program could force people onto the streets and said the administration is trying to find ways to prevent that from happening.
Carolyn D. Davis, a deputy chief of staff, said the administration intends to work with state and Baltimore housing officials to determine whether existing rent subsidy programs can help keep recipients from losing their apartments when their monthly benefits end July 1.
But Ms. Davis told members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee that the governor has no specific plan in mind and does not intend to appropriate more money for the purpose.
She said Mr. Glendening continues to believe that Maryland can no longer afford the $35 million Disability Assistance and Loan Program (DALP), which pays stipends of $157 a month to about 21,000 poor, unemployable Marylanders.
"Even though we can't afford DALP as it is currently structured, we're not prepared to let people fall through the cracks," she said. "We have listened [to the criticism] over the last couple weeks. We're exploring options to make sure people don't lose their housing."
Housing Secretary Patricia J. Payne said her agency already offers a rent subsidy program that is administered by local governments. It is budgeted for $1.8 million next year, down from $2 million this year.
Local governments, she said, could make assistance to former DALP recipients a high priority, but she acknowledged that such a program usually attracts more applicants than there is money to go around.
Ms. Davis also announced that the administration has reversed its decision to abolish a related program that attempts to identify DALP recipients with long-term disabilities who may qualify for more generous federal disability benefits.
And she reaffirmed administration plans to restore a scaled-down version of a health care program for DALP recipients that Mr. Glendening initially proposed cutting.
Advocates for the poor said the replacement program would serve fewer people and would be financed largely through reductions in the amount of money the state pays some clinics that serve DALP recipients.
Health Secretary Martin P. Wasserman said this year's $13.5 million health care program anticipated treatment for 10,000 recipients but that only about 4,000 will actually be treated.
By demanding that clinics renegotiate their contracts and give back some of that money to the state, the funds can be used to help finance a new $6.9 million program for next year, he said.
Jeff Singer of Health Care for the Homeless said the clinics cannot afford such reductions and will lay off employees. They also will curtail outreach programs to identify people who need medical services, along with their programs to help patients with nutrition, housing and other problems, he said.
Eliminating DALP, advocates testified, will cause more people to become homeless and result in more crime, more panhandlers, and more expensive treatment in hospital emergency rooms. And it will probably end in the deaths of some former recipients, advocates said.
Members of the Senate panel were sympathetic but stressed that they have no authority under Maryland's budgetary process to restore a program the governor has cut. Only by cutting spending elsewhere in the budget and then persuading the governor to reappropriate those savings for a specific purpose can a program such as DALP be saved, they said.
"We can't do that," Sen. John A. Cade, an Anne Arundel County Republican, told advocates for the homeless. "We can create some moral suasion. We're doing that. That's why we're having this hearing. But your argument is with the administration."