Budget cuts may leave California SSI recipients homeless...

California legislators are expected to perform budget cuts to assistance for the blind, aged and disabled. Statewide, 1.3 million residents rely on shrinking Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Cuts to the federal assistance program that includes an added state supplement appear likely, as Sacramento inches closer to a budget deal this week.

Basic disability payments for individuals are expected to be reduced from $907 to $870. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing for even deeper cuts — $830 a month — to save the state more than $1.3 billion a year beginning in May.

The governor has also called for the complete elimination of a similar program serving elderly, blind and disabled legal immigrants whose status as noncitizens makes them ineligible for federal SSI payments. But so far, Democrats have resisted ending the state program, known as Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, which now serves almost 12,000 people. Eliminating the program would trim $149.6 million from the state budget.

Agencies serving California's neediest residents say SSI cuts are likely to expand one of the state's fastest-growing homeless populations: senior citizens.