Economy forcing changes at Sheltered Workshop in Binghamton

The Press & Sun-Bulletin reported that the agency exploring partnerships with other local organizations.

Times are tough, and the Sheltered Workshop for the Disabled Inc. in Binghamton, a nonprofit that has offered services and employment to those with special needs since 1942, has been walloped by financial challenges, too.

It appears big changes are in the works.

For much of its history, the two large buildings and another, much smaller one flanking Court Street in Binghamton have been bustling with supervised workers fulfilling job contracts that constituted a major revenue stream.

More than three-quarters of the 131 people who work at SWS are "consumers" with developmental and/or physical disabilities, said Human Resources Director Tammy Worden. SWS also held contracts with the state of New York to supply services to those consumers to the tune of about $1.3 million annually in recent years.

Eighty-five special-needs individuals are in directly supervised SWS programs, with about 100 more in supported employment in the community. About 30 or 35 other employees are involved in administration or support positions, said Lou Harasymczuk, chief financial officer and general manager.

The SWS contract-manufacturing business buoyed the overhead of the operation. Utility costs for its 250,000 combined square feet of space averaged $200,000 annually, he said

Early last year, a longstanding SWS contract with Alstom Transportation in Hornell -- representing $6 million of a $10.2 million revenue stream in 2009 -- ended, with no replacement in sight.

Contracts with the state reliably added over $1 million to the SWS budget of $13 million to $14 million, Harasymczuk said. But since 2008, those amounts have been under constant threat and have been reduced, with the possibility of more belt-tightening coming from Albany.

And with a $6 million drop in outside contract-manufacturing revenue in 2010, SWS found itself in trouble.

The board of directors scrutinized every angle of the operation. Getting more contracts was the impossible dream, so they looked to provide more services.

"We realized the only way to grow would be to go after a population that's already being taken care of by other agencies," Lake said.

That would mean trying to lure consumers away from Achieve, Catholic Charities, Community Options or the Southern Tier Independence Center, for example, but SWS determined that such wrestling within the agencies could only harm the community as a whole.

In January, SWS sold off its contract-manufacturing business, which has historically included medical, transportation and military clients, to VMR Electronics in Binghamton for an undisclosed amount.

Twenty-eight workers made that initial transition, said Mark Kelly, who owns VMR with his wife, Vanessa, and 25 are still employed there.

"We're set up to handle disabilities, but we're not a disabled business like SWS was," he said. "Our focus is really hiring people with the experience to do the job, and if they can do the job and happen to have disabilities, great."

Fifty workers -- not all with disabilities -- were affected by that sale, said Worden, and some ended up unemployed.

Even that financial transaction didn't change the essential, painful equation for SWS: It was no longer sustainable, as it had been for decades.

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