By Gretchen Keiser

The closing in June of the eight-acre Florence Crittenton home for pregnant women is seen by those working in shelter and counseling as a loss particularly for women who are poor and pregnant.

Officials of the Crittenton home, and the parent agency of Child Service and Family Counseling Center, officially announced last week that the 70-bed residence, with dormitories, grounds, and an accredited high school program operated by the DeKalb Board of Education, would be closed. Several buyers are interested in the property, but is has not yet been sold, officials said.

The Crittenton service, which has operated in Atlanta since 1892, is located in facilities off North Peachtree Road in Chamblee. While the facility will be sold, some type of Florence Crittenton service for pregnant women will continue, in a different location, with a smaller group home as its only residence. The emphasis will shift from 24-hour a day service to a program primarily serving pregnant women who are living in the community. The group home, which has not yet been established, is envisioned as serving from six to eight girls at a time.

The decision to close the residence was announced “with a great deal of regret,” by Mrs. Ruth Branch, president of the board of directors of Child Service and Family Counseling Center.

The decision was “a financial necessity,” Mrs. Branch said. The Florence Crittenton service merged seven years ago with Child Service and Family Counseling Center, a United Way agency, in a move designed to help the service survive financial difficulties. The service had a $100,000 deficit last year, according to Mary Margaret Carr, executive director of the parent agency.

Tightly interwoven with the home’s financial difficulties are the state’s allotments for maternity aid since a majority of the home’s residents have been state referrals. Last year 93% of the home’s residents were referred by the state, Mrs. Carr said, but the amount of aid budgeted for maternity care meant that the state was paying between one-third and one-half of the full cost of care. The difference was being made up by United Way support through the parent agency.

In addition, Mrs. Carr said, over the last year the number of state referrals to the home had dropped by 100, spreading the fixed cost of running the facility over too few cases.

The new Florence Crittenton service will accept state-referred cases only if the state pays full cost of care, Mrs. Brand and Mrs. Carr said.

Officials at the center and state workers dealing with maternity aid payments agreed that the decision would, in effect, rule out the new service as a place to house women relying solely on state aid.

Barbara Holmes, of the Social Services Section of the Department of Human Resources, noted that the maternity aid budget had been cut during the past few years, and that even before cuts the aid could not cover nearly the full cost of care.

Estimating that the cost per day would be about $35, she said, “We’re a long way from paying that. I’ll be lucky next year to get up to $20 a day.” The budget for state maternity aid this year was approximately $240,000, she said.

If the state opts against paying full cost of care, women without the means to pay for maternity care would be refereed by the state to smaller facilities in Savannah and Chattanooga, Tenn., she said.

However, those involved in shelter care for pregnant women saw in the closing increased pressure upon the voluntary sector to help those who choose to carry their babies to term.

“It will increase our need for shelter,” said Sister Mary Jacobs, director of Crisis Pregnancy Services, which includes a network of “shelter homes” with families who take in pregnant women.

The service, has, in the past, placed women in shelter homes until the seventh month of pregnancy, when they became eligible for state aid and could be placed in Florence Crittenton, Sister Jacobs said.

Nance White, education specialist for Crisis Pregnancy Services, likened a change in the network of state and private programs for pregnant women to “a ripple effect.” “This is going to hit the indigent woman” she said. “And there’s going to be a greater need for volunteer shelter homes.”

Mary Ellen Hughes, director of the Archdiocese’s Respect Life Office, saw the closing as “limiting even further the already limited choices” for pregnant women.

“It seems like everything is against the indigent woman who’s decided to carry her baby to term, she said. “And this is one more thing.”

“When you’re frightened and alone and you look at your alternatives, they don’t stack up even,” Ms. Hughes said. “We’ve got to do something to even the odds.”