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Health and Human Services Agency recommending the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign a Letter of Support in endorsement of the County Welfare Directors Association of California advocacy for the budget request of $51,000,000 of State General Fund for one-time bridge funding for In Home Supportive Services Administrative Costs for the Fiscal Year 2024-25.
FUNDING: State General Fund.
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DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND:
IHSS is a county-administered program that ensures eligible older adults, blind, and/or disabled individuals remain in their homes and receive consumer-directed assistance with activities of daily living to avoid costly institutionalization. As of December 2023, over 750,000 older adults and persons with disabilities were authorized to receive in-home care from nearly 600,000 trusted IHSS caregivers in California.
There is an increasing demand for IHSS as California’s population ages. Adults ages 65 and older are projected to reach 25 percent of the State’s population by 2030. The recent expansion of the Medi-Cal program to include full coverage for undocumented adults will enable even more older Californians to access home-based care to live safely in their homes and communities, but also will create further demand for IHSS services. Unfortunately, IHSS staff caseloads in most counties are very high and continue to grow. County IHSS staffing relies on a combination of state funding and federal Medicaid matching funding to meet federal and state program mandates. Funds are administered through the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) but the funding falls short due to inaccurate estimation of the actual number of people IHSS serves and the cost of staffing. In 2017 and 2018, CDSS, in consultation with county human services agencies and CWDA, updated the budget methodology to fund county administrative activities associated with the IHSS Program. However, that updated methodology never fully funded actual IHSS worker costs...
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