Menu

Keep Mental Health Housing Funds in the State Budget

Join the Supportive Housing Network of NY and the Bring it Home Campaign! Send an e-letter to your local NYS Legislators and Governor Kathy Hochul, urging them to keep promised funding for New York State Mental Health Housing Programs in the final 2022-23 State Budget.

Find the contact information for your local legislators in this online directory.

Copy and paste the message below into an email and send the letter as many times as you like. Please circulate widely!

 

COPY AND PASTE INTO YOUR E-LETTER

Governor Kathy Hochul put a $104 million two-year commitment ($65 million in 2022-23 and $39 million in 2023-24) and a 5.4% Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for community-based mental health housing programs in her Executive Budget. Please ensure they are included in the 2022-2023 Final Budget!

Governor Hochul’s proposed Executive Budget contains unprecedented NEW dollars for OMH community-based mental health housing — including a two-year commitment of $104 million, with $65 million to be allocated in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 and $39 million in FY2024. These dollars are in addition to the full funding of the 5.4% human services COLA.

As your constituent, I urge you to keep those funds in the final 2022-23 New York State budget.

Here are a few critical statistics to consider:

  • 40% - 70% of funding for NYS mental health housing, depending on program type, has been lost to inflation.
  • 40,000 mental health community-based housing units are in jeopardy due to years of inadequate funding.
  • Community housing is 40% - 94% less expensive, depending on housing model and institution, than psychiatric institutions, other hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, jails and prisons.

There are many benefits to adequately funding mental health housing - especially for the overburdened medical institutions throughout the state. In fact, the NYS Department of Health's Medicaid Redesign Team and its Special Needs Housing Pilots confirmed this by showing that medical health housing programs result in a:

  • 15% reduction in Medicaid spending
  • 40% reduction in inpatient admissions
  • 26% reduction in ER use
  • 44% reduction in inpatient rehab
  • 27% reduction in psychiatric inpatient admissions

Mental Health Housing funds —  as well as the increased human services COLA — will go a long way toward closing the $159.5 million gap created by years of underfunding. It's time to Bring It Home! Please ensure these funds stay in New York’s finalized FY2023 State Budget.