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."