A program for autistic children in Vancouver may be in trouble due to a lack of government funding.

Group Applied Behavioural Analysis (GABA), a preschool for autistic children, may have to shut down after the provincial government cut a funding grant at the beginning of the year that was crucial for the program's expansion to a new location.

GABA has been operating out of a rundown facility in East Vancouver since 2004. In order to accommodate more students, organizers recently leased a new property in a more centralized area of the city.

But the new facility requires major renovations in order to satisfy licensing requirements.

Despite major fundraising efforts, GABA still needs $100,000 for repairs. Their current lease expires at the end of August.

"We can't go there without renovation because licensing wouldn't approve it until we put in proper staircases that are safe, and we have to put in a playground and new fencing," said Dr. Suzanne Jacobsen, founder of the GABA program. "We could end up having to close the program and all the families will have to have a home program."

Home programs can be difficult to manage for families of autistic children. A parent has to stay home at all times to care for their child, which takes a lot of money and time.

GABA board member Neal Pogany says it would be devastating for some families if the program had to close.

"Parents are going to have to switch from bringing their child to a preschool where everything's looked after for them to a home based program," Pogany said. "It's going to be a real big hardship for working parents to try to both work and carry down a home based program for their child."

The cost to enroll a child in the GABA program is $20,000 per year. That sum goes towards the facility's operating costs only.

Parents of autistic children in the program are worried that a lack of funding will have a negative impact on their children's situation.

Janet Toye, whose four-year-old son attends the program, says there have already been consequences to the funding shortfall.

"We've seen our son's care hours being reduced since the beginning of the program to what it is now," Toye said. "For some parents it's not possible to pay for extra hours and it should be something available to all autistic children."

GABA will continue to fundraise to reach the renovating costs for their new facility. In the meantime, GABA will ask their landlord if they can extend their lease on a month-to-month basis in order to stay in their current location.

The provincial government will decide in the fall whether or not it will re-implement a funding grant that may be available for the GABA program.