The Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas, PACT, is an outreach, education, advocacy and organizing effort to assure the attendant labor force can afford to meet the needs of all Senior Texans and Texans with Disabilities in the least restrictive, cost-effective, humane and worthy way.  It also works to assure a livable wage and benefits, as well as respect for the attendants who do this critical work.

Due to the impending “silver tsunami”, Texas needs to be braced to prepare the attendant workforce for the growing needs. Texas needs to act and bring the attendant labor force to respectable wages and benefits.

Consumers and the attendants who assist them in Home and Community Based Service programs funded by Medicaid and state dollars, want to receive support services in the community.  Those aging in place as well as younger people with disabilities who live in their own homes, not institutions, are facing a critical shortage of attendants willing to work for $8.11 an hour and no benefits.

The current minimum wage for most Community Attendants working in Home and Community Based programs is $8.11 per hour. Two sessions ago the Texas Legislature’s response to years of advocacy and a looming crisis was, 11 cents. (Don’t let them tell you different, not everything in Texas is bigger.)  No allowances for overtime, no vacation, no sick leave, no worker’s compensation, no health benefits, no retirement, no room for advancement, no Family Medical Leave Act, no Medicaid expansion, no protections or incentives. $8.11 an hour. With COVID 19 and it’s economic impacts community attendants are more at risk and earning half what fast food, convenience store and warehouse workers make.

There are an estimated 275,000 Community Attendants working part or full time in Texas.  Many Community Attendants are themselves aging and acquiring disabilities, many must receive Medicaid benefits to survive, while others do not qualify for this basic support. With the number of people with disabilities of all ages growing, the need for an adequate Community Attendant workforce with respectable wages and benefits is critical.

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Cathy Cranston displays props for the HHSC action Oct. 2021