A Denver City Council committee on Wednesday moved to the full council a $2.5 million package that uses the city’s contingency funds to shore up the Department of Human Services.
The action came over the objection of the chairwoman of the Finance Committee, Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, who said the agency had overspent on non-mandated programs and was helping too many people who didn’t need assistance.
Councilwoman Carol Boigon and Mayor John Hickenlooper crafted the package to use the city’s general fund contingency account to bolster child- care programs for the working poor and to fund outreach services for the homeless.
If the proposal is approved by the full council, the city will be left with $14.3 million for general fund contingencies.
The proposal would provide, primarily at the mayor’s urging, $362,000 for homeless programs.
It also would deliver $1.7 million, which the agency hopes it can leverage into purchasing about $10 million in unused Temporary Aid to Needy Families that other counties may be willing to sell to Denver. That money would then subsidize child-care services, allowing the agency to provide child care to as many as 2,000 children more than projected when the agency froze enrollment earlier this year.
The remaining $300,000 would allow DHS to redetermine a family’s eligibility for such services every year instead of every six months.
The agency currently is subsidizing care for 4,200 children but had frozen enrollment in such programs and planned for attrition to drop such caseloads to 2,200 children.
Faatz said the agency in previous years had pushed to provide child- care services to a family of two earning more than $30,000 a year — an income level she considered too high.
She said the city’s general fund already is facing $56 million in budget cuts because of the economic downturn. Faatz also said she believed the move would set a precedent and that the council would continue to look to contingencies in future years to finance the department.
“I have had times in my life when I have not had a nickel in my pocket, and I know what it is to do a lot with a little,” Faatz said.
Boigon countered that it costs as much as $11,000 for a family to pay for adequate child care for a full year. Boigon added that in past years the Department of Human Services had funded general fund programs important to the mayor.
Boigon said subsidizing child care also saves money in the long run by reducing the cost of providing welfare to parents who must stop working to stay home to care for their children.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
