HBA-KMH C.S.H.B. 3341 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3341 By: Naishtat Human Services 4/15/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) 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. C.S.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 and the Texas Department of Human Services. 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 this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. 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 work with the Texas Department of Human Services to allocate resources for the demonstration program so that priority is given to communities: (1) that have the greatest number of personal care facilities and facilities that do not comply with licensing rules for personal care facilities, and (2) that have supported housing plans that MHMR and TDHCA have found to be consistent with the purposes of the demonstration program. (e) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to establish an application process for a community that seeks to participate in the demonstration program. (f) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to establish a committee to supervise the design and implementation of the demonstration program. Specifies the membership of the committee. (g) Prohibits a community from being selected to participate in the demonstration program unless the person that applies for the community's participation demonstrates collaboration between the local mental health authority and a housing organization. (h) Provides a list of conditions restricting an individual's ineligibility for assistance under the demonstration program. SECTION 2. (a) Requires MHMR and TDHCA to implement the demonstration program 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 program'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. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3341 modifies the original in SECTION 1 in proposed Subsection (d) to require the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) to work with the Texas Department of Human Services (DHS) to allocate resources for the demonstration program so that priority is given to communities, rather than allocating resources solely between MHMR and TDHCA. This substitute also includes communities which have the greatest number of personal care facilities and facilities that do not comply with licensing rules for personal care facilities, rather than communities which have the greatest number of mentally ill individuals residing in personal care facilities, in the list of communities to which a priority for allocation of resources should be given. The substitute also deletes communities that serve primarily mentally ill individuals residing in facilities DHS has identified as a facility that does not comply with licensing rules for personal care facilities from the list of communities eligible to participate in the demonstration program. C.S.H.B. 3341 modifies the original in SECTION 1 in Subsection (e) by requiring TDHCA to establish an application process without the rulemaking authority proposed in the original. C.S.H.B. 3341 modifies the original in SECTION 1 in proposed Subsection (g) to prohibit a community, rather than an organization, from being selected to participate in, rather than to provide services under, in the demonstration program unless the person that applies for the communities participation, rather than the organization, demonstrates a collaboration between the local mental health authority, rather than the organization, and a housing organization. Makes conforming changes. The substitute modifies the original in SECTION 1 by changing the references to the demonstration project to the demonstration program, for clarity.