(Note: Paul Webster, MPP, is the former HUD Senior Policy Advisor. He now runs his own organization, Hope Street Coalition, which addresses homelessness, mental illness, and addiction. – DG)


Dear David,

I want to alert you to a new report that demonstrates major problems in increasing the types of housing and care for those with brain, substance use, and other disorders.  No Time to Waste:  An Imminent Housing Crisis for People with Serious Mental Illness Living in Adult Residential Facilities, sounds the alarm that immediate action is needed to prevent the loss of adult residential facilities (ARF) of all kinds.  

Jonathan Wisner, a CORO Fellow, demonstrates that California ARFs are disappearing at an alarming scale, often leaving their residents homeless and without care.  He concludes that issues of accountability, funding, quality of care, and lack of equitable access is causing ARFs to close and fail to serve those who need them.  

No Time to Waste describes a "baffling amount of unknown information surrounding" ARFs. Because of the lack of data and information, it is hard to know the full picture of how ARFs provide housing and care, who ARFs serve, and what policy needs to change to stop the closure of ARFs and increase the supply of these critical assets.  

Recommendations of the report include immediate action to stop ARFs from closing and prevent their residents from becoming homeless.  The report also recommends funding research on ARFs and their residents and creating a state-wide advisory group to prioritize quality of care and Housing that Heals.  

This report is important because before we advocate for more Housing that Heals, it is important to understand the status of board and care homes, ARFs, and other types of programs that provide housing and care to those with serious mental illness, brain disorders, co-occurring, and substance abuse disorders.  At Hope Street Coalition, we believe that to reduce homelessness for the most vulnerable, there needs to be places to house and treat the unhoused mentally ill and addicted.  

Many people are left living on the streets because they need so much more than a subsidized place to live from the Coordinated Entry System. They cannot navigate a lease or get to needed treatment appointments. They need a community where this is provided in what mirrors a campus.  This is Housing that Heals and we need more of it.  

If you live in California and would like information about being a part of our advocacy campaign to get this report into the hands of the Governor, state legislators, mental health commissioners, and heads of agencies, please contact me here.  

Also, would you please consider supporting this effort with a donation to Hope Street Coalition?  You can support our work here.  

Sincerely,  
Paul Webster
Director
Hope Street Coalition

Copyright © 2021 Hope Street Coalition, All rights reserved.

  

 

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“A beautiful book.”-- Ann Jacobs, Executive Director, the John Jay College Institute for Justice and Opportunity, NYC

David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts as a result of his schizophrenia. He worked for Consolidated Edison in NYC for 20 years and won recognition and an award for his work there. He writes about his illness in the book as well as those who have the illness and are caught up in the criminal legal system.