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Street roots 3 f V July 8, 2011 State loses fed contract on Section 8 contract management STAFF REPORTS regon state housing programs got a major shake-up this month when Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) failed to secure a key federal Section 8 housing assistance contract The Ü.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, dr HUD, announced July 1 that the OHCS was not selected to continue serving as the Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Performance-Based Contract Administrator for Oregon.. OHCS is scheduled to be replaced Oct. 1 by CMS Contract Management Services from Bremerton, Wash. “This unfortunate decision will have impacts to our entire department and how we administer our agency programs,” said Rick Crager, acting director of OHCS in a statement on the decision. “Additionally, this creates challenges for OHCS and our partners in continuing our ongoing preservation efforts throughout Oregon. The administration of these contracts has positioned OHCS and its partners very well in working through the complexities of preserving these projects for contract renewals and long-term affordability.” The contract is a $4.5 million loss to the state agency, and moves the oversight of project-based Section 8 housing further away from Oregonian residents and landlords relying on the housing subsidy. B Y AM AN DA W ALDROUPE STAFF W R IT E R Crager said the agency will be appealing the decision. i Ahe Oregon Legislature adjournedorf5 OHCS’s Contraction Administration I June 30, and in its final week, passed*"* Section provides contract administration X two bills reforming the Psychiatric services for approximately 280 contracts Security Review Board (PSRB) that aim to encompassing 272 low-income properties eventually reduce the number of people in Oregon. This includes technical support staying, and the length of stays in the Oregon State Hospital to owners, managing agents, site staff and residents, as well as providing information House Bill 3100 and Senate Bill 420 to people seeking Section 8 housing or passed both the House and Senate with experiencing housing problems. large margins and now await Gov. John Contract Management Services already Kitzhaber’s signature. He is expected to administers Section 8 contract sign them into law. manangement for about 75,000 units in Chris Bouneff, the executive director of , Oregon’s chapter of the National Alliance multiple states. The move by HUD is for Mental Illness, said the bills will make among several that consolidated or relocated management of Section 8 the most substantive reforms to Oregon’s contracts. mental health system in years. “We haven’t seen anything of this magnitude in a number of sessions,” he said. “They will help modernize our system.” The new laws will now require that a state-certified psychologist or psychiatrist Street Roots strives for accuracy, but we're evaluate a person wanting to plea “guilty human. So we also strive to correct errors in our except for insanity.” That means that they paper whenever possible. Please report any committed a crime they would not have if errors to our managing editor, Joanne Zuhl, at they were not mentally ill at the time. The 503-228-5657, or write to streetrootsnews® law now also requires that people who gmail.com. committed misdemeanor-level crimes and Class C felonies be evaluated to determine Clarification: In our story "Head cases," (June whether they can receive care at a 24), we stated that of the 270,000 profiles in community-treatment program, rather than the San Francisco's Coordinated Case at the Oregon State Hospital. Management System, most were homeless. Senate Bill 420 strips away some of the Actually, about 50,000 are identified as having PSRB’s jurisdictional authority. Currently, it been homeless. The rest are identified as a has jurisdiction over all patients at the vulnerable population (including anyone in Oregon State Hospital who have been found substance abuse treatment, anyone who has by a court to be guilty except for insanity. received urgent or emergency care and elderly With that authority comes the power to patients) decide when patients are ready to be released from the hospital, and whether they are released to live independently or in a community treatment facility; Mental health advocates, legislators and other groups have strongly criticized the PSRB over the years for not releasing a higher number of patients, sooner. Senate Bill 420 will give the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the state hospital, jurisdiction over hospital patients who committed non-Measure 11 offenses (crimes that are not violent person-on- person crimes). The PSRB will continue to www.streetroots.wordpress.com H P H O TO BY A M A N D A W A LD R O U P E ‘It's time for them to go home’ New laws will change the way the Oregon State Hospital admits, releases patients CORRECTION authority. But a compromise was struck in closed door negotiations to gain the support L>iof tjie Oregon District Attorney Association and the law enforcement community, who argued that dangerous people would be released from the hospital and public safety would be threatened. — REP. BRIAN CLEM, (D-SALEM) The compromise creates “Tier I” and “Tier II” populations. “Tier I” refers to patients who committed Measure 11 offenses (violent person-on-person crimes have jurisdiction over patients who such as murder, rape, etc.). Tier II refers to committed Measure 11 crimes, as well as non-Measure 11 offenses. It is estimated patients who have been released into that thfe Tier I population, which the PSRB community treatment settings. will continue having jurisdiction over, is “(Senate Bill 420) is long overdue,” said approximately 60 percent of the hospital’s Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem), before the patients. Senate approved the bill by a 20-9 margin. Advocates such as Bouneff strongly The biggest hope is that long lobbied for the bill’s passage, arguing that hospitalizations of patients who no longer doctors and clinicians interacting daily with need intensive care, treatment and 24-hour patients are the most qualified to determine supervision at the State Hospital will end. when someone is ready for release. “In some instances, we’re doing a job of “The hospital (would have) some control warehousing individuals,” Winters said. over who comes in and leaves,” Bouneff “Senate Bill 420 will help us ... use our beds said. “Right now, they have no control.” more wisely.” The next step before Senate Bill 420 is “There are quite a few people who implemented is administrative rule-making, shouldn’t be there,” said Rep. Brian Clem, which will determine what the Health (D-Salem), the chief sponsor of House Bill Authority’s jurisdictional responsibilities 3100. “They are well now, and it’s time for are, as well as how it will conduct hearings them togo home.” to determine whether patients are ready for He pointed to the PSRB as the reason release. why some patients aren’t released in a It’s going to be very important for the timely fashion. The PSRB is blamed for (PSRB) and the Health Authority to work those long hospitalizations because of its well together so that we can have an hesitancy to release people they think may opportunity to have some people transition commit another crime. Its recidivism rate — more effectively,” said Bob Joondeph, the the number of people who commit a crime executive director of Disability Rights once released — is 2.3 percent, compared to Oregon. “I’m hoping the rules really the Department of Corrections rate, which emphasize that as much as possible.” is in the 30th percentile. Joondeph says that the changes currently “They’re too afraid that somebody’s going being made to the PSRB represent the to do something once they get out,” he said. beginnings of re-thinking the state hospital’s Hospital patients who lobbied for the purpose and function. “The idea is to treat bills, particularly Senate Bill 420, are the state hospital like a hospital,” he says. jubilant. “We don’t want to have it primarily be a “We’re proud of our legislators that prison.” worked to pass Senate Bill 420,” they wrote He expects the changes made this year to in a press statement released on June 28. be the foundation of future changes to “This bill is the beginning of a long overdue Oregon’s mental health system, and expects modernization of the PSRB and Oregon’s the discussion to shift toward considering mental health system. This bill will improve increasing the budget for community our treatment, fight stigma, and help us to treatment programs, preventive services, live full lives.” and other cost-effective, community-based Originally, the bill would have given methods of treating mental illness. jurisdiction of all patients to the health "There are quite a lew people who shouldn't be there. They are well now, and It's time for them to go home."
