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The Bazelon Mental Health Policy ReporterVolume III : Issue 3 : March 24, 2004
What's in this issue?NewsbytesNew PublicationsGood Samaritan Under-Funded(March 24, 2004)—When the White House announced its “Samaritan Initiative” to end chronic homelessness in the next decade, the Bazelon Center was understandably optimistic. Recognizing the high rates of homelessness among people with mental illnesses, the Center has long called for an integrated approach to the housing, mental health and other needs of homeless people with mental illnesses. However, effective policy has to appeal to more than advocates’ hearts, and, unfortunately, some parts of this proposal are troubling.
Most important, the program is under-funded. In its current form, the initiative would provide funding for just a handful of communities, narrowing to a series of pilot programs a potentially valuable component of the campaign to end chronic homelessness. Worse, it appears that combined funding for the Samaritan Initiative and the Prisoner Reentry Initiative ($25 million), together with the effects of inflation, would actually reduce core funding for existing McKinney-Vento programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), endangering other homelessness prevention efforts. The President’s FY 2005 budget would provide $50 million in funding for HUD, and another $10 million each for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for activities related to the Samaritan Initiative. In successful programs to combat homelessness, researchers and providers have found that the cost of supportive services is approximately equal to housing costs. Yet the Samaritan Initiative provides far less funding to HHS and VA for such services than would be required to support the number of people who could be housed under the initiative using HUD dollars. Such a discrepancy would force providers to make a difficult choice: Either house people without adequate services or under-fill housing units and leave people homeless until additional service dollars appear. At a time when states and cities face their own budget crises, it is unlikely that they could adequately supplement limited federal funding to finance and coordinate the supports and services that are essential for people with mental illnesses to stay housed and well in the community. Billions of dollars are now spent on the consequences of untreated mental illness and homelessness. The Samaritan Initiative presents an opportunity to reduce homelessness and its related costs. But in its current anemic form, it cannot succeed. While the Samaritan Initiative is a step in the right direction, its details are troubling. Only with additional, balanced funding can the initiative produce the results that both the White House and advocates hope to achieve without undercutting other efforts to address homelessness. What You Can DoContact your Senators and Representative and urge them to support a total appropriation of $100 million for the Samaritan Initiative, including $25 million for HHS and $25 million for VA, in addition to the President’s request for $50 million for HUD.
NewsbytesYouth Suicide Bill IntroducedEarlier this month, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) introduced new legislation aimed at reducing youth suicide. Each year, more than 4,000 young people take their own lives. The Youth Suicide Early Intervention and Prevention Expansion Act of 2004 (S. 2175) would fund new grant initiatives to support development and expansion of statewide early intervention and prevention strategies that provide coordinated and appropriate mental health services to children and young adults. The bill would also encourage better data sharing and dissemination of research on effective early intervention and prevention programs to reduce youth suicide. Learn More
Budget Resolution Advances Without Medicaid CutsThe budget resolution—which provides important guidance for Congressional appropriators as they draft next year’s spending bills—cleared an early hurdle when the Senate passed it last week on a 53-43 vote. The Senate rejected approximately $11 billion in proposed cuts to federal Medicaid spending over the next five years. Mental health advocates cheered, noting that Medicaid is the primary funding source for most community-based mental health services and the only health plan that finances a full range of the rehabilitative services needed by people with psychiatric disabilities. In the House, the Budget Committee adopted a budget plan that takes a tougher line on spending, including nearly $2.2 billion in required reductions to Medicaid and SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program). The House is expected to take up the budget resolution this week. Learn MoreNew Publications from the Bazelon Center
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