Feeling Haunted? Come Home.

A Haunted Halloween Post on the California Budget

Almost everything about this year’s California budget process was scary: from the Governor’s Proposed budget in January to his revised budget proposal in May to the line item vetoes included once the budget was finally signed 100 days late.

A Haunted Proposal

This year’s budget process was scary.  From the Governor’s proposed budget in January, through the May Revise, until the time the 100- days-late budget was signed, low-income seniors, people with disabilities, immigrants, and families looking for work and in need of cash assistance have been afraid.  Why?  Because the programs that help them with health care, food, and a basic standard of living were all on the chopping block this year.

More people are “haunted” because more need help

California’s budget cuts come at a time of unprecedented misery.  In the midst of the “Great Recession”, more and more people are in need of help at the same time that the programs that help them are on the chopping block.

According to our friends at California Budget Project, from 2007-09, California saw:

Ongoing fear

When we talk about being haunted, we don’t talk about a one-time scare.  Someone who feels haunted has a persistent, recurring fear.  Cuts to medical care, in home support services, food programs, medicine, and other forms of relief are not new.  Struggling Californians are haunted by budget decisions of the past at the same time that they’re afraid for the present and future.

These are issues that affect all of us.

Who are the people who we see in St. Anthony’s food lines, social work center, drug and alcohol rehab, our computer and employment skills training center, and clothing program?  The exact same people who are haunted by the cuts listed above: seniors, people with disabilities, struggling families, people trying to overcome addiction, and people looking for work in a tough job market.

Coming home

Where do you want to be when you’re scared?  When you’re afraid for your future?  For many people, the only place that can feel safe during scary times is home.  For those who don’t have stable homes, they come to St. Anthony’s: we are their home.  Maybe it’s fitting that the word “haunt” comes from the Old Norse word heimta, meaning “to bring home”.