Dangling shoes on fence tell story of economic woes

By Karen Pierog

AURORA, Illinois (Reuters) - Dozens of shoes dangle from a wrought-iron fence surrounding a 19th century mansion for battered women and children, which plans to close its doors on July 1.

The flip-flops, tiny pink baby sneakers and crutches are token reminders of those once served by the Mutual Ground Inc shelter, which last year housed 400 people but is now another victim of the crisis in U.S. social services amid a deep recession.

"If somebody dies, I'm not going to have it on my head," said Linda Healy, executive director of the nonprofit agency that runs the shelter in Aurora, a Chicago suburb where domestic violence is the third-most reported crime.

Mutual Ground, which counts on Illinois for 34 percent of its $1.8 million annual budget, was told last week that its funding would be cut 75 percent in the fiscal year beginning on July 1. Similar places tell the same story across the United States, plagued by the financial crisis.

"I'm closing the shelter. I can't afford it," Healy said.

The number of women at the shelter has dwindled to three, including a pregnant 18-year-old and her eight-month-old baby boy.

Under normal circumstances, they could remain there for up to eight weeks and then move to a transitional housing program after landing a job. With the shelter closing, they will have no secure place to go.

Wearing a T-shirt, the teenager lifted her son out of a crib in one of the shelter's clean but sparsely furnished bedrooms. She played with him. Despite her worries, she put on a brave front.

"I will try to work it out," she said quietly.

DEFICITS

Illinois lawmakers have sliced spending on social services to cope with a $9.2 billion budget deficit. Illinois is among 46 U.S. states with budget deficits totaling at least $130 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

With U.S. states facing a collective $281 billion budget gap from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2011, lawmakers have tough decisions to make, said Todd Haggerty, a research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

He said a wide variety of social services, such as elder care and mental health programs that many states typically farm out to private, mostly nonprofit agencies, are due for cuts.

The severity of cuts is threatening the survival of some agencies and raising fears that children, the poor, the disabled, the elderly and others in desperate need of services will not get them.

"I've never seen it this pervasive across the country with such a potential devastating impact on the service community," said Linda Spears, vice president of policy and public affairs at the Child Welfare League of America, a coalition of private and public agencies serving children.