Community Living Ontario, a non-profit that provides help and support for adults living with intellectual disabilities, is calling for a five per cent boost in their base operational funding from the province.

The organization says the increase in funds will help them maintain services amid soaring inflation, retain staff and make programming more sustainable.

Thirty-one-year-old Melissa Bartman-Berenguer, a Community Living Grimsby client, says this puts a very important part of her daily life at stake.

“It would hurt us very much if we didn’t have a place to have program, meet up with friends, and just support us,” she says.

The funding would also help to provide more support to members and an upgrade to their technology and facilities.

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Bartman-Berenguer is one of more than 200 adults living with an intellectual disability who is supported by the Grimsby, Lincoln and West Lincoln chapter of Community Living Ontario. The programming and support Bartman-Berenguer and her friends receive is under threat.

Cathy Turner, the executive director from Community Living Grimsby, London and West Lincoln says the trouble is that they have not seen an increase in operational funding in a number of years, which only makes it harder to continue providing their services.

Turner says the increase in cost of everything, from groceries to rent, is making it difficult to maintain the 13 homes, three office buildings and fleet of vehicles they need in order to do their work.

However, Turner says they will continue to work hard to make ends meet despite these new difficulties.

As a result, the level of services provided are being hurt as well, including a program in Beamsville that needed to be shut down because of the expensive rent.

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Other services that have been reduced include transportation for clients, which becomes a major hurdle in the area due to a lack of public transportation.

According to Turner, they have been left with one driver who can drive people from one place to the next but they can’t pick up clients and drive them to where they need to be like they used to do.

Hamilton Mountain MPP Monique Taylor reiterated the immediacy for the five per cent increase to the government.

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services wrote to CHCH News: “The concerns and input of the sector are being considered as the ministry looks at ways to address the pressures felt by the agencies.”

The ministry says it acknowledges that financial challenges can impact supports.