Metro Social Services Gets 3% Cut

Metro Social Services is getting a 3-percent cut in next year’s budget. The department handles services ranging from nutrition advice for seniors to the Homelessness Commission.

A 2004 audit of the department determined that it should cut its 200-person staff to 35 and start to outsource services. Director Gerri Robinson says the contracting out of services has begun and that staff is down to about 100-employees.

Robinson says while services provided by contractors such as Mid-Cumberland are often cheaper, they may not be better.

“If you look particularly in the area of personal care delivery, the salary structure for Mid-Cumberland staff is much lower than for Metro Staff. We pay a living wage. The problem comes in the turn is almost 50-percent. And so it means you’re constantly training people.”

The department received 450-thousand dollars to fund the Homelessness Commission, 175-thousand short of its request. Councilman Erik Cole is on the commission and says the extra money was to fund independent evaluations of the commission’s pilot projects.

“From my perspective, we just started these pilot projects. And so we can evaluate them once we’ve got them up and running and gotten them moving. The housing component is still not in place. We’re still waiting on MDHA to get that bid out and actually get some housing for some of the people in the program, and until we do that,

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency will build 5-units of housing for up to 20 chronically homeless individuals as one of the pilot projects the commission is funding.