The State Land Office this week swapped state trust land west of Santa Fe for property north of Española in a trade with a nonprofit organization that provides services for the elderly, and for people with developmental and behavioral disabilities.

Easter Seals Santa Maria El Mirador gets 28 acres in Santa Fe County, valued at about $448,000, in the deal. The State Land Office receives 53 acres north of Española valued at about $478,000.

Santa Maria El Mirador chief executive officer Mark Johnson said the organization has owned the land near Española many years and had no plans for it. He said his group wants to build a new administrative and day-program complex in Santa Fe County sometime in the next few years. "So it was a perfect fit for us," Johnson said.

Johnson said the organization — which began 40 years ago in Alcalde and has programs in Taos, Santa Fe, Española and Mora — serves 500 people in various programs including elderly care, job placement and community living, and it is still growing.

"We started with six people and a $20,000 budget," said Johnson, who has been with the organization for 30 years. "Now we have a $17 million budget."

Santa Maria El Mirador operates out of the bottom floor of the Public Service Company of New Mexico building on Pacheco Street. The organization also runs 30 different small, group-living sites throughout Santa Fe.

Johnson said about 4,000 people are on a waiting list to receive services related to developmental disabilities.

"There are not enough resources to support all of them," he said, "and that's been something the state has been trying to deal with for years. Now, with the economy and the state running at a deficit, serving people off the waiting list will be a tall order for the next couple of years."

Johnson said some of those waiting for services such as job placement or home care can languish on the waiting list for as long as a decade, not because there aren't programs to serve them but because there are no funds to pay for the services.

Johnson said many organizations that serve the developmentally disabled, and rely on Medicaid reimbursements for payment, have been closing their doors recently. But El Mirador is actually expanding, Johnson said, because it has diversified the services it offers and the ways it generates revenue.

For example, the group runs four commercial greenhouses that are staffed by clients in the horticultural therapy program. He said money generated from such programs helps offset the losses often incurred by agencies that depend on Medicaid reimbursements, which haven't increased in about 10 years.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.