State's woes force Evanston service cuts

Kate Mahoney hasn't wanted to frighten her substance-addicted clients with the news that her state funding for treatment has been slashed by 45 percent.

"My job is to provide a safe and healthy environment so people can get better," said Mahoney, executive director of Peer Services Inc., an Evanston-based agency that provides treatment and prevention education. "We are asking people to make significant changes in their lives. They need stability in order to do that."

But Mahoney and other Evanston social service providers were girding for deep cuts in staffing and services Wednesday as hopes waned that an infusion of permanent or stopgap funding would avert the cuts called for in the so-called Doomsday Budget.

After-school programs, drug treatment and domestic-violence services are among the local programs hardest hit.