Advocates for mental health housing rallied in downtown Syracuse last week. It was part of a statewide push to lobby the governor and state Legislature, to increase funding for community-based programs.
Justin Hladik with the Association of Community Living said one of the biggest issues facing mental health housing is a shortage of workers.
“The turnover rates are really high, when you can make almost the same amount of money to work at McDonald's that you can make at a very serious and important job, where you’re giving out medication, where you’re helping with serious psychiatric disabilities,” Hladik said. “These people are paid very little because there’s no money in the budget to do this.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed a $20 million increase to mental health housing programs in this year’s budget. But Hladik and other advocates say that’s still not enough. Their full ask is $185 million.
“It shows you $20 million is appreciated, definitely more needed to stabilize our current system," Hladik said.
The governor has also proposed $60 million in one-time infrastructure funding to go towards the housing programs, which care for more than 40,000 New Yorkers with serious mental illnesses.
“That doesn’t help the actual care and reimbursement rates that we need to ensure better funding for better care for the individuals living in these," Hladik said. "The people that work there, there’s not enough money to pay them what they need to be paid.”
