(San Francisco, CA) –   Today, low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and their caregivers continued their legal fight for the safe, quality home care that enables them to live independently as the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case Oster v. Wagner.   

Advocates said prevailing in the court case and stopping more home care cuts that have been proposed by the State of California for the coming year are critical to maintaining independence for people who need help to bathe, dress, cook and get to medical appointments.  More cuts to home care would also deal a blow to California’s economy at a time when we need to invest in jobs and vital services in order to rebuild California.

“The Courts were right before: home care cuts are illegal, immoral, and illogical,” said Wendy Ko, an in-home caregiver in Alameda County.  “The state is wrong to appeal Federal Judge Wilken’s decision to halt home care cuts that place 120,000 seniors and people with disability at risk.   The sooner we win this case and stop more cuts to home care, the sooner we can move forward with rebuilding California for all of us.”

Home care cuts put seniors and people with disabilities at grave risk, and they also come at too steep of a price for California. Cuts to the In Home Supportive Services program will cost taxpayers far more in the long run as people who now live independently with cost-effective, quality home care could be forced into nursing homes, or suffer needlessly as nursing home capacity is already near the critical limit.  Cutting the 350,000 jobs of Californians who work in the program would also be a step backward in our efforts to rebuild California for the next generation.

Today’s hearing comes after the State of California appealed federal circuit court Judge Claudia Wilken’s order that home care services for 120,000 Californians not be reduced or eliminated and a subsequent ruling that the State was in contempt of court after the State nonetheless sent erroneous timesheets to 6,000 home care workers indicating they were not authorized to work or to work only reduced hours.

Over 100 seniors, people with disabilities, and their caregivers came to the James R. Browning Courthouse in San Francisco to demonstrate how critical the court’s decision will be in their lives.  

Michelle Rousey, who lives with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bone disease requires an oxygen tank to breathe and a wheelchair to be mobile.  Without her caregiver, Maria Sanchez, Rousey says she would be confined to a nursing home or a hospital.  

On the day of the Legislature’s deadline to pass a budget for the coming year, Michelle called on California leaders to consider the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of home care recipients like her and the long term consequences for the state, “Without my caregiver, I’d probably end up in a hospital or nursing home where the quality of care is poor. One of my friends just died in a nursing home and I’m afraid cutting IHSS would be a death sentence for me.”  She continued, “California must stop attacking the IHSS program because it does save the state money and for every dollar cut, we are losing federal funding.”


SEIU California is a coalition of over 700,000 janitors, social workers, security officers, home care workers, school and university employees, healthcare workers, and city, county and state employees represented by SEIU local unions throughout California. We come together to build a better California by fighting to pass policies and elect candidates that benefit working families and advance the issues we care about: affordable healthcare, good wages, retirement security for all, a healthy environment, good schools and universities, and stronger communities. We believe that by working together we can build a California where working families can thrive again.