Rosalina Collazo, of Woonsocket, from the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, hands out a poster to intern Jessica Bailey, of Millville, Mass.

>

The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

CENTRAL FALLS –– Tracy Walker stands along the chainlink fence far from the podium, flashing a cardboard sign at passing cars to protest millions of dollars in budget cuts she doesn’t understand.

She is a mother of four children lost to state custody. A drug addict. A resident of Amos House, which runs the rehabilitation program she credits with saving her life just a week earlier.

“I don’t understand too much about it,” Walker, 39, says of the state budget, from the back of a rally that drew dozens of protesters yesterday afternoon to this VFW parking lot. “But it probably affects me.”

Indeed, the swath of cuts approved in Rhode Island’s 2008-09 budget, which took effect yesterday, will affect tens of thousands of low-income, disabled and elderly Rhode Islanders, in addition to community groups such as Meals on Wheels, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the state’s largest homeless shelter, Crossroads Rhode Island.

But the realities of the dramatic reductions are just starting to trickle down to the people and organizations that rely on state dollars.

Senior centers across the state are facing closure or reduced hours. The food bank is searching for funding for 1 million pounds of food. And domestic-violence programs may be forced to cut court advocates who guide victims through the complicated judicial process.

State leaders last month slashed state spending to help close a $425-million budget shortfall, a fiscal mess comparable only to the credit union crisis of the early 1990s.

“Now that the budget deficit has been addressed, who will deal with the new human deficits –– the need for food, housing, health care and other basic needs that thousands of Rhode Islanders will have this year as a result of our new state budget?” Linda Watkins, Amos House’s associate director, asked the rowdy crowd yesterday. “May God have mercy on our state.”

A poll of 500 Rhode Islanders released yesterday reveals that most citizens are also unhappy with the state’s direction.

Eighty-three percent of the respondents believe that the state is “on the wrong track,” according to data collected by the Rhode Island College Bureau of Government Research and Services between June 18 and 27. That’s up from 74 percent in February as recorded in a Brown University poll, which at the time matched the worst rating since the early 1990s.

Those polled cited their top concern as Rhode Island’s weak economy, followed by the state budget.

The governor’s office, meanwhile, defended the budget cuts, which helped avoid any broad-base tax increases: “The 2009 budget, passed by the House and Senate and signed by the governor, puts Rhode Island on the right fiscal path,” said Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe. “The reforms, while a change from the status quo, protect Rhode Island’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Many organizations affected by the cuts are struggling to preserve services and staff as they grapple with state funding levels that were lopped in half. Other groups, such as Amos House, weren’t cut directly but fear the trickle-down effect of less money in the system for low-income housing, subsidized health care and welfare programs.

Many people, however, won’t notice the cuts for weeks or even months.

An estimated 1,000 low-income adults will lose health-care coverage Oct. 1. Around 250 poor children will lose spots in the preschool program Head Start, although parents won’t feel the pinch until the school year resumes in the fall. And hundreds more senior citizens entering the state’s long-term care system will lose access to nursing homes, but the governor’s office yesterday had no timetable for when those changes might take place.

Additionally, the state budget changes eligibility for cash assistance, known as welfare, from five consecutive years to two (with a lifetime maximum of four years). Because of a 12-month grace period, however, most people won’t lose welfare payments until July 2009.

There were, however, some immediate effects felt yesterday.

Those eligible for the RIde program –– which provides free transportation to the disabled and certain senior citizens who can’t use regular public bus service –– will now have to pay $4 round trip for the service.

Since many Rhode Islanders who rely on the service for doctor’s appointments and senior nutrition programs are also on fixed incomes, the change could spell trouble for those who require several trips each week, according to William J. Flynn Jr., executive director of the Senior Agenda Coalition, and one of the many nonprofit leaders who attended yesterday’s rally.

“These are not rides for social purposes,” he said. “These are rides for medical appointments or to get a meal.”

Similarly, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence may be forced to eliminate several court advocates, who currently guide domestic-violence victims such as 22-year-old Elvia Sanchez through the court system.

“My abuser tore flesh right off my back with his bare teeth. And my then 10-month-old had to be hospitalized. Because of the incident, I miscarried his unborn child,” Sanchez said at yesterday’s rally, recalling the support she received from a court advocate following the 2005 attack. “We cried together, prayed together and bless the day that he was finally sentenced.”

Meanwhile, Walker, of Amos House, said she would keep fighting to save programs that help people. But she said she was also grateful to have a safe place to sleep last night.

“It’s time to do what I need to do for myself, so I can be there for others,” she said.

—With reports from Cynthia Needham

speoples@projo.com