State Budget Crisis Closes Agency Serving 7,000 Disabled : Health care: Nonprofit center closes after $6 million it had borrowed runs out. Its clients are now living on the generosity of private caretakers, and could face eviction.

About 7,000 handicapped adults and children in Orange County were left without support and services Friday when the nonprofit agency here that funnels state money to them shut down.

With its funds exhausted, the Developmental Disabilities Center of Orange County, at 530 S. Main St., closed its doors at 4:30 p.m. because the state budget has not been signed. The center had borrowed $6 million after July 1, when the state failed to produce a budget, but that money has been spent, officials said.

Handicapped persons are now living on the charity of their private care homes and could face eviction. But officials said Friday they expect no one to be displaced immediately.

“I haven’t heard of anyone who is going to” evict a disabled resident, said Dwight Tate, chief counselor for the Developmental Disabilities Center. “But at some point, the people running these facilities simply run out of money.”

Tate said that when private care providers run out of money, the care of disabled residents will be imperiled.

The center pays 300 private care providers in Orange County who take in about 2,400 developmentally disabled residents, Tate said. Other disabled persons, who live with their parents, use many services provided through the center, he said.

“We have nurses who go to some homes to give people a break in caring for (developmentally disabled) children,” Tate said. “That is called respite service. We also pay for occupational therapy” for the developmentally disabled.

The developmentally disabled are persons who are severely affected by mental retardation, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism and other related conditions.

The state law that created services for them established a series of nonprofit regional centers to disburse the state aid. The center here in Orange is one of 21 in the state; all are closing either this week or next because of no state funds.

The state money pipeline dried up July 1, when the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson failed to agree on a new budget. That stalemate continued Friday.

“I’ve been in this field (of work) about 19 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Tate. “This is very disturbing. Some of our clients’ health and safety is going to be jeopardized.”

Elaine Bamberg, chief executive officer for the center, said: “We’ve tried to arrange for emergency backup systems. We’ve worked with our local provider groups to help find someone a home (if a disabled person is evicted), but there is always the potential that someone will fall through the cracks if we’re not here to help.

“We get over 1,500 phone calls a day requesting information and assistance. Some are emergencies. Now there will be no one to answer those calls,” she added.

Davida Gregory, co-owner of an Irvine private care home where four disabled young women live, said she is worried about the closure of the center and the halt of state money to pay her. But Gregory said she and her husband will do everything they can to keep providing for the women, whose ages range from 17 to 22.

“We feel we have a moral and ethical duty to these kids,” she said. But she noted that she and her husband are now facing bills for food and clothing for their tenants without any state payments. “This is very hard on small operators like us,” she said.