HBA-KMH H.B. 3341 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3341
By: Naishtat
Human Services
3/30/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

A lack of affordable housing for persons with mental illnesses has caused
many of them to end up living in unlicensed personal care homes.  This bill
is part of an overall strategy to remedy the problem of large numbers of
people with mental illness living in these homes. 

H.B. 3341 establishes a partnership between the Texas Department of Mental
Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) and the Texas Department of Housing
and Community Affairs (TDHCA). This bill requires them to establish and
implement jointly a demonstration program which shows the effectiveness of
interagency cooperation for providing supported housing services to
mentally ill individuals residing in personal care facilities.  As part of
this demonstration, this bill requires MHMR and TDHCA to design supported
housing services to give individualized assistance to such persons,
including the allocation of resources in the two departments.  Furthermore,
the demonstration program established by this bill creates a committee to
direct the program and report on its success to the governor, lieutenant
governor, and speaker of the house of representatives. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to Texas Department of Mental Health and
Mental Retardation and the Texas Department of Housing and Community
Affairs in SECTION 1 of this bill. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  (a) Requires the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental
Retardation (MHMR) and the Texas Department of Housing and Community
Affairs (TDHCA) to implement a program to demonstrate the effectiveness of
interagency cooperation for providing supported housing services to
individuals with mental illness who reside in personal care facilities. 

(b) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to design the supported housing services to
give individualized assistance to persons to acquire and retain living
arrangements that are typical of the general population in the area in
which the services are provided and located among residences of individuals
who are not receiving the services. 

(c) Provides that the supported housing services under the program must be
provided in accordance with rules of MHMR.  Authorizes the services to
include rental assistance for an individual who meets income guidelines of
TDHCA and is not receiving housing assistance from the federal government,
consumer rehabilitation services, and support services. 

(d) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to allocate resources for the demonstration
program so that priority is given to communities: 
(1) that have the greatest number of mentally ill individuals residing in
personal care facilities, 
(2) that have supported housing plans that MHMR and TDHCA have found to be
consistent with the purposes of the demonstration program, and  
(3) that serve primarily mentally ill individuals residing in facilities
the Texas Department of Human Services (DHS) has identified as a facility
that does not comply with licensing rules for personal care facilities. 
 
(e) Requires MHMR and TDHCA, by rule, to establish an application process
for an organization to provide services under the demonstration project. 

(f) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to establish a committee to supervise the
design and implementation of the demonstration project.  Specifies the
membership of the committee. 

(g) Prohibits and organization from being selected to provide services
under the demonstration project unless the organization demonstrate
collaboration between the organization a housing organization.  Provides a
list of organizations eligible to provide services under the demonstration
project. 

(h) Provides a list of conditions restricting an individual's ineligibility
for assistance under the demonstration project. 

SECTION 2.  (a) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to implement the demonstration
project required by SECTION 1 of this Act as soon as possible after the
effective date of this Act and not later than January 1, 2000. 

(b) Requires MHMR and TDHCA, on or before January 15, 2001, to make a joint
report to the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the speaker of the
house of representatives. Provides that the report must include an
evaluation of the demonstration project's benefits for individuals who
received services and recommendations on the continuation or termination of
the project or commencement of a similar project. 

SECTION 3.  Provides that this Act expires August 31, 2001.

SECTION 4.  Emergency clause.
  Effective date: upon passage.