About 300 Maryland employees facing layoffs when the Rosewood Center for the developmentally disabled closes are urging government officials to save their jobs by opening state-run community homes.
Employees of the state-run Owings Mills facility received letters this week notifying them of layoffs that will start in January and last through June, when the center will close. Many workers have spent their entire careers caring for Rosewood residents, said union leaders who called the layoffs “premature.”
“People are upset,” said Patrick Moran, director of the Maryland branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “You’ve got a lot of long-term employees that have done a lot of work for the state and the clients at Rosewood for decades.
This is a big change for both parties.”
Many families of Rosewood patients have resisted the closure, saying community-based private homes lack the oversight of state-run institutions. About 110 of 156 residents remain in the facility.
Union leaders said state-run community homes also could be viable options for court-committed residents whom state health officials plan to relocate to private group homes or a new 22-bed state-run center at Springfield Hospital in Sykesville.
State-run group homes were considered but ruled out, said Renata Henry, deputy secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Laid-off employees will be exempt from a statewide hiring freeze, and the health department will be required to consider a Rosewood employee first for similar positions, she said.
The operators of private group homes also will be at a job fair early next month to recruit Rosewood workers, Henry said.
“We’re trying to match up private providers with laid-off employees,” Henry said. “Since the private providers will be expanding and getting more residents, there’s the work force that already has the knowledge, skills and ability.”
Incentive bonuses will be paid to employees who remain through their layoff dates.
Still, many Rosewood employees such as Barry Chapman, a 28-year veteran, said the tough economic times were only making the layoffs worse.
“Economic and emotional pain is going to be created,” Chapman said. “We’re going off a cliff without a parachute.”
