Treatment Programs, Jobs to Be Cut : Services: Two drug and alcohol clinics will close Nov. 1 because of a $1.9-million loss in state and federal funding.

Orange County health officials say they will close two of seven drug and alcohol treatment programs, slash contract programs and cut 48 jobs because of a $1.9-million loss in state and federal revenue.

After Nov. 1, hundreds of patients will be shifted to clinics farther from home and up to 1,200 addicts seeking to enter treatment each month will be turned away, said Bill Edelman, director of the county’s division of drug and alcohol services. Some who rely on residential treatment will end up on the street.

“Everybody here is going to be homeless,” said Melissa Buchanan, 32, one of six residents of the county’s only home for HIV patients recovering from drug addiction. The home, Start House, is expected to lose about two-thirds of its $94,000 annual budget and must close its doors.

“This is going to have a devastating impact . . . on people,” Edelman said of the cuts. “I can paint a tragic picture of people who need help and can’t get help.”

The Golden West Clinic in Westminster and the 17th Street drug-free program at the county’s main health clinic in Santa Ana will be closed. The Newport Mesa Clinic on Red Hill Avenue in Costa Mesa will be cut from seven full-time staff members to two, said Timothy P. Mullins, county mental health director. The county’s methadone clinic at the 17th Street program will remain open.

Contract providers, taking a hit of $370,000, will see their programs slashed or gutted, administrators said. Phoenix House in Santa Ana, for example, will lose $45,600, forcing it to eliminate five beds for adolescents. Start House will lose $63,000.

“It’s a fatal cut,” said Bruce Robbins, executive director of Straight Talk, a nonprofit agency that runs the 15-month-old home.

The cutbacks result from a lawsuit by a methadone clinic, settled late last year, that forced the state to widen the type of drug and alcohol treatment services provided to Medi-Cal patients, including methadone users. That meant less general fund money was available to counties for certain other services and caused a reduction in Medi-Cal reimbursements and federal matching funds, Mullins said.

State officials said Wednesday that Orange County has little reason to complain. Despite the effects of the lawsuit, the county received an overall increase this year in drug and alcohol funding, said Marci Fong, a spokeswoman for the state agency. Its state and federal allocation was $15.9 million this fiscal year, beginning in July, as opposed to $15.8 million last year, Fong said.

“They are getting funding from other sources to keep these programs alive,” Fong said, adding that the county can expect to benefit further from an increase in federal block grant funds expected by next January. “It’s a matter of shifting the pots of money.”

Mullins and Edelman said they have no extra money to divert. Although the reductions will be discussed at a county budget hearing Sept. 19, “there’s no chance this is going to change,” Mullins said. The only hope is that more money for these services will be restored by the state Legislature next year, he said.

These programs, Mullins said, “keep families together, help [clients] stay out of trouble with the law, keep them as taxpayers. Without treatment, all of these things are at risk.”

Debbie Coven, a USC social work intern at the Costa Mesa clinic, said about half the 140 clients are adolescents, many of whom have no other “positive connection” in their lives. Although youngsters who can no longer be seen there will be referred to other clinics, these may be too far away, she said.

“You’re going to see kids go into the prison system,” she said. “This is the only thing keeping them OK and not in trouble. . . . It’s a thin line, but at least it’s something.”

Coven said social workers are in a quandary, not knowing whether to take on new clients if the program is going to be drastically reduced.

Overall, Mullins said, 24 jobs in drug and alcohol programs will be left vacant and another 24 filled positions will be eliminated. Some employees will be offered other jobs, but some undoubtedly will be laid off, he said.

Clients in residential treatment say they don’t know where they will go if they lose their beds. Buchanan and her companions rely on Start House for everything, from emotional support and 12-step meetings to practical help in acquiring bus passes. If not for this place, she said, she might be back to living in motels, working as a prostitute, shooting speed and heroin.

“I wrote to the President,” she said, begging him to intervene. “I’ve watched too many people die needlessly. People can live a normal life with HIV. . . . I think this program saved my life.”