|
We Can Help. 914-345-5900 • help@mhawestchester.org |
|
|
Testimony: Call For A Decade Of Housing Reform For People With Serious Mental IllnessesMichael B. Friedman, our public policy consultant, gave this testimony to a hearing of The New York State Assembly Task Force on People with Disabilities and The Committee on Housing, April 30, 2004. My name is Michael Friedman, and I am the Director of the Center for Policy and Advocacy of The Mental Health Associations of New York City and Westchester. We are here today to call for the Legislature and the Governor to declare the next ten years “The Decade of Housing Reform” and to make a commitment to meet the housing needs of people with serious mental illness by 2015 instead of waiting the half century it could take at the current pace of development. We estimate that there is a need for at least 35,000 units of housing for people with serious mental illness in New York State. Estimates run as high as 70,000. Unfortunately, it is impossible to project the housing need with any precision because New York State has not done an assessment of housing need for people with serious mental illness since 1993. At that time, the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) acknowledged a housing shortage of 20,000 community-based housing units statewide. Since then, the state has established about 9,000 additional units for adults with mental illness—a shortfall of approximately 11,000 units. Original Estimate of Need Did Not Take Into Account a Number of FactorsThat estimate, however, did not take into account a number of factors which have become clear over the past decade including:
When all of these factors are taken into account, it becomes clear that OMH’s 1993 estimate is way out of date. Surely, New York State should try to meet this need as rapidly as possible, so that the current generation of people with serious mental illness who need housing can get it before they die. What are the chances? Well, OMH now plans to develop about 5,000 additional adult units, a shortfall of at least 30,000 and perhaps as many as 65,000 units of community-based housing. At the rate of housing development over the past ¼ century (about 1,000 new units per year), it could take well over ½ century to meet the current need. Obviously, the pace of housing development must be vastly increased. Two Serious Problems Need To Be AddressedIn addition, the failure of funding to keep pace with inflation over the past decade has resulted in two very serious problems.
I believe that a disaster is just waiting to happen. And the Governor apparently agrees, since he did propose an infusion of $9 million in this year’s budget for community residences (CRs). Unfortunately, it is not nearly enough for the CRs, and it cannot be used for “supported housing”—the most common type of community-based housing in New York State. Because the need for new housing is so acute, and because current housing programs are in crisis, I urge you to join us in calling on New York State to commit to a Decade of Housing Reform and to meet the housing needs of people with serious mental illness by 2015. Our RecommendationsOur specific recommendations call for:
In addition, because of problems developing housing sites, we recommend that the Legislature enact a Mental Health Property Reinvestment Act, giving priority in the use of state psychiatric center property to provide community housing. New York State also needs to take steps to protect and preserve existing housing programs by providing an infusion of funding for both community residences and supported housing far beyond the $9 million that the Governor has proposed and by establishing an annual “trend” factor (i.e. an automatic cost of living adjustment) to prevent further erosion and a reoccurrence of the crisis that we now face. The time has come to address the housing needs of people with serious mental illness throughout New York State. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Return to the top of the page.
|