Federal Panel Told Disabled Services Are at a Crisis Point in Orange County

About 50 advocates for disabled people in Orange County told a federal panel Wednesday night that they foresee a crisis in services without more money.

“The state has abandoned . . . responsibility,” said Derek Loft, former director of the Santa Ana-based Sutton Foundation, which provides housing for 42 disabled adults and may have to close without more money.

The advocates and parents of disabled people testified at a public hearing convened by a federally funded watchdog group, the Area XI Developmental Disabilities Board. The board is threatening to sue state officials over what it says is inadequate funding for services to the disabled.

Rhys Burchill, director of the board, said it will consider the testimony at its April 10 meeting and decide then whether to sue.

The level of state funding in the last four years has violated “the human, civil, legal and service rights” of handicapped people, the board said in a letter it sent to the state Department of Developmental Services.

That department sent one representative to the meeting in Tustin. She read a prepared statement and refused to answer questions from anyone, including board members.

The statement said the state “has and will continue to meet its obligations” to disabled people.

According to state figures, more than 95,000 people in Orange County are mentally or physically disabled. About 25% live in community care facilities, while the balance live with their families.

In Orange County, the high cost of housing has forced an estimated 300 community care homes for the disabled to close, Burchill said.