Agency Wants $1 Million for Housing for Mentally Ill

Despite Ventura County’s fiscal troubles, county mental health officials will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to ask for an additional $1 million for patient housing.

The request by Health Care Agency Director Pierre Durand and Behavioral Health Director David Gudeman comes a month after Durand asked for an extra $1.3 million from the county’s general fund budget to help his agency meet the demands of a federal settlement over the way the department handled Medicare billings during the 1990s.

Supervisors told Durand that they could not guarantee him any help on that earlier request, at least until they met for a midyear budget briefing, scheduled for next month.

The county faces a projected $5-million deficit, has instituted a hiring freeze and is under pressure to use money from the state’s tobacco settlement to plug the shortfall. Supervisors have told department heads that they are not in a position to authorize new expenditures.

But in a memo to justify the newest funding request, Durand and Gudeman told supervisors that providing housing for the mentally ill is a necessity, not an option.

The $1 million sought would go largely to covering a $556,000 tab for housing 17 unanticipated patients sent to the Crestwood Behavioral Health Center in Bakersfield, according to the county’s budget office. Durand and Gudeman did not return repeated requests for an interview Friday.

Supervisor John Flynn, who sits on the county’s mental health board, said Friday that he is inclined to immediately support fulfilling the $1-million request through the use of tobacco settlement funds. Before making such a motion, though, he said he would seek the advice of county interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford, who has been out of town.

“We’re looking at a problem right now,” Flynn said. “It’s not caused by mismanagement or anything, it’s a matter of need.

“My thinking of the matter is we know that by April, we’re going to have $9 million-plus in tobacco settlement money. There’s no reason why we can’t plan on using that money, assuming it’s going to come, to take other sources we have now and pay this request.”

The funds come from a state settlement by the tobacco industry and are designed to reimburse counties for money spent to treat smoking-related illnesses.

Other supervisors could not be reached for comment Friday.

Durand and his staff hope to secure at least $4 million of the annual tobacco settlement payout in coming years. Supervisor Frank Schillo has supported that concept, floating a plan to expand housing for the mentally ill while beefing up physician training. Supervisors are studying that concept, but have yet to commit any money.

Officials originally estimated that it would cost $885,300 this year to house the mentally ill patients sent to seven specialized facilities, mostly outside the county. Instead, the estimates have more than doubled, to $1,892,000, in part because the system has absorbed more mentally ill patients than predicted, said county Mental Health Board member Susan Kelly.

The number of mentally ill for whom the county provides housing fluctuates. As of earlier this month, 90 patients were housed in the seven facilities, according to county budget staff. About 200 additional county patients are covered by federal subsidies.

As long as the county fails to provide local locked housing facilities for the severely mentally ill--which were lost with the shutdown of Camarillo State Hospital--officials will continue to spend money on costly out-of-area care, Kelly said.