Oregon Balance of State HIV/AIDS Housing & Services Systems ...

32 Oregon HIV/AIDS Housing and Services Systems Integration Plan
The Steering Committee identified the difficulty of HIV/AIDS clients accessing the limited number
of crisis respite beds. There are a limited number of crisis beds across the state, and many rural
counties lack any crisis respite beds. A 2005 report on community mental health programs
identified 343 crisis respite beds in Oregon, including 288 in the balance of state, with an unmet
need of over 250 beds. 71
In order to access crisis-respite care, people living with HIV/AIDS must be enrolled in mental
health services and receive referral from their mental health case workers. But many HIV/AIDS
clients do not have access to mental health case workers prior to crisis – a challenge addressed in
the Critical Issues chapter below. In addition, some respite bed providers may be hesitant to accept
people living with HIV/AIDS due to lack of expertise in providing care for physical illnesses.
Mental health stakeholders recommend that HIV case managers accompany clients to their initial
meeting(s) with mental health case workers to coordinate treatment to meet the client’s needs.
As described above, OHOP recently was awarded funding for a HOPWA Special Project of
National Significance (SPNS) to serve people living with HIV/AIDS and mental illness. This
program will leverage HOPWA and Ryan White funds with behavioral health treatment provided
by Cascadia Behavioral Health.
In recent years, the Oregon Department of Human Services, Addictions and Mental Health (AMH)
Division has increased its focus on the housing needs for people with mental illness or substance
use issues. Three programs provide funding for housing development targeted at these populations.
The newly-created Expanding Community Living Opportunities (ECLO) program provides funding
for structured and specialized residential programs for individuals leaving state psychiatric
hospitals; supportive housing for people leaving psychiatric hospitals, transitioning from youth to
adult services, or who are ineligible for Medicaid; and housing development grants to develop new
housing.
The Community Mental Health Housing Fund supports the development of housing for persons
with chronic mental illness. Up to $100,000 per project are available for creating new community
housing opportunities for people with a serious mental illness; and these funds are distributed
through an annual competitive application process conducted by AMH.
The Alcohol and Drug Free Housing Fund supports the establishment of new housing for people in
recovery from alcohol and drug abuse and who are actively involved in an approved treatment
program. One million dollars are available through the ADF Housing Fund for the 2007-2009
biennium.
One potential opportunity for collaboration between behavioral health and HIV/AIDS services and
housing providers is the development and strengthening of relationships between agencies serving
special needs populations, and public housing authorities (PHAs) and nonprofit housing providers.
Few PHAs have priorities for mental health clients for Section 8 or other subsidized housing wait
lists, and no priorities exist for alcohol and drug treatment clients. Community mental health
providers did report working successfully with private landlords.
71 Oregon Department of Human Services, Mental Health and Addiction Services. Results of the 2005 OMHAS Housing Survey.
Available online: www.oregon.gov/dhs/mentalhealth/housing.shtml (Accessed: January 10, 2008).