Melissa Maynard Stateline: Short-staffed and budget-bare, overwhelmed state agencies are unable to keep up

After years of budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and hiring freezes, the everyday work of state government is piling up. This Stateline series examines what causes backlogs, who is hurt by them and how states can dig themselves out. http://www.stateline.org/live/ Today: Agencies overwhelmed Wednesday: Anatomy of a backlog Thursday: How one agency overcame its backlog Have your own backlog story? Tell us about it.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011

http://www.stateline.org/live/

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=618752

Short-staffed and budget-bare, overwhelmed state agencies are unable to keep up

By Melissa Maynard, Stateline Staff Writer

After years of budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and hiring freezes, the everyday work of state government is piling up. This Stateline series examines what causes backlogs, who is hurt by them and how states can dig themselves out.

Today: Agencies overwhelmed

Wednesday: Anatomy of a backlog

Thursday: How one agency overcame its backlog

Have your own backlog story? Tell us about it.

On the face of it, the backlog the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is experiencing seems a simple matter of supply and demand. Some 11,000 families are on the authority’s waiting list, hoping against the odds that they can get one of only 6,295 public housing units. In a state where housing is notoriously expensive, the only people with a real shot at getting a unit are the homeless and survivors of domestic abuse. Even for them, the waiting can take years. “The waitlist is so extensive and the homeless problem is so great that a lot of people are getting preference over working families,” explains Nicholas Birck, chief planner for the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. “They never make it to the top.”

BACKLOGGED Part 2: Anatomy of a backlog

BACKLOGGED Part 1: Agencies overwhelmed

But there’s another, hidden problem at play in Hawaii’s housing backlog. Lately, the authority hasn’t had enough employees to manage turnover in vacant units. As a result, 310 homes have been sitting empty, even with all the people languishing in waitlist limbo. For many of the vacant units, all it would take is a few simple repairs and a little bit of administrative work to give a family a home — and get the authority’s backlog shrinking rather than growing.

The situation is a byproduct of big budget cuts in Hawaii and a hiring freeze that wasn’t lifted until earlier this year. A handful of employees in the housing authority’s property management office retired, and the hiring freeze made it impossible to fill the vacant positions. For a while, there was only one person overseeing the office’s far-flung portfolio spanning four islands. “It was a very difficult position for her to be in,” Birck says. Today, the office’s ranks are back up to six employees, but both the number of vacant units and the size of the waiting list have continued to grow since a state audit first brought attention to the issue in June.

Hawaii isn’t the only place where the everyday tasks of state government are piling up. A Stateline investigation found that agencies across the country are seeing growing backlogs of work, as increased demand for state services in a weak economy bumps up against the states’ efforts to cut their payroll costs. From public housing to crime labs, restaurant inspections to court systems, four years of layoffs, furloughs, hiring freezes and unfilled vacancies are beginning to take their toll. At its most benign, the result for taxpayers is a longer wait for things like marriage licenses or birth certificates. At its most dangerous, growing backlogs are threatening the lives of vulnerable children, elders and disabled persons, as overwhelmed protective services agencies face delays investigating reports of abuse and neglect.

The size of some backlogs growing in state government is staggering: Read more: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=618752

This Stateline series examines what causes backlogs, who is hurt by them and how states can dig themselves out.


http://www.stateline.org/live/

The growing wait for state services • Part 1: Agencies overwhelmed • Part 2: Anatomy of a backlog • Part 3: How one agency overcame its backlog

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How states pass the pain to cities and counties • Part 1: Budget cuts reduce state aid to localities • Part 2: Property tax caps and their impact • Part 3: California reshapes local roles and revenue streams

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The year’s major developments in state capitals • The impact of one-party rule • Education cuts hit the classroom • States lean on budget cuts, not tax hikes • Overhauling health care • A new era for state workers

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Stateline's annual report The stories »• The recession's impact • Budget outlook • The new Washington • Health care costs • Redistricting  • Party co

[20111213 Melissa Maynard Stateline Short staffed and budget bare]

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