Why Close DCs?
The current DC system perpetuates a significant misallocation of scarce state resources by keeping open aging facilities with ever-declining populations of individuals who, for the most part, could be better served in a more cost-effective community setting. In our view, a number of facts support the case for closing DCs. The operating cost per resident of the DCs continues to grow even as the DC population is shrinking at a rate of 1 percent to 2 percent annually. Despite this population decline and the resulting bed vacancy rates equaling 20 percent on a statewide basis, the state has continued to incur the costs of maintaining large facilities. The future offers only more of the same—rising operational costs as measured on a per person basis as well as in total state dollars—as well as a need to invest significant additional state dollars for necessary capital improvements to the DCs potentially costing as much as $1 billion. The closure of two DCs over the next five years would res
