The following is a press release issued by Governor Gavin Newsom:
The nation is experiencing a mental health crisis. Today, California announced $518.5 million in grants to help provide services and housing options to those with severe mental illness or substance abuse problems, including for those who are living on the streets. The latest funding will help Governor Newsom’s CARE Court proposal, taking a new approach to homelessness and taking stronger action to get people off the streets and into a place where they can get the care they need.
The funding will provide treatment beds for more than 1,000 people at a time, plus behavioral health services for many more. It is part of a $2.2 billion effort to expand mental health housing and services across California, especially for people experiencing homelessness.
The Governor announced the latest grants during a meeting with families who have loved ones dealing with serious mental illness, many of whom have been homeless.
“The crisis on our streets is at a breaking point. Too many Californians are struggling with mental illness and substance abuse, and many of them end up on our streets. We need to change the way we deliver help to those who need it, and these grants are an important step in changing our approach to homelessness and serious mental illness,” Governor Newsom said. “California won’t look away any longer; we’re helping our fellow Californians now. That’s the California Way.”
The Governor’s meeting in Sacramento with members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) included families who are caring for loved ones struggling with behavioral or mental health disorders and could be helped by CARE Court. The Governor heard their stories and talked about the historic actions that California is taking to address this crisis.
CARE Court will provide Californians suffering from untreated schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders with community-based treatment, services, and housing, and is intended to serve as an upstream intervention for the most severely impaired Californians.
“Governor Newsom has NAMI’s full support in getting CARE Court across the finish line,” said Jessica Cruz, NAMI CA CEO. “We’re here today to show our commitment to providing help, hope and health for those affected by serious mental illness by supporting initiatives like CARE Court which will provide much-needed help to Californians who need it most.”
“CARE Court has the potential to change the lives of thousands of families across the state,” said Harold Turner, Executive Director of NAMI Urban Los Angeles. “Organizations like NAMI urgently need this support so we can quickly begin helping our loved ones who are struggling with untreated mental and behavioral issues.”
The awards announced today are delivered through the Department of Health Care Services’ (DHCS) Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) Round 3: Launch Ready grants. In all, $2.2 billion was provided by the Legislature and the Governor to construct, acquire, and expand behavioral health facilities and community- based care options while investing in mobile crisis infrastructure.
Grants were awarded in the following counties:
- Alameda County – $18,405,122
- El Dorado County – $2,852,182
- Humboldt County – $4,170,560
- Kern County – $3,138,065
- Los Angeles County – $155,172,811
- Madera County – $2,035,512
- Mendocino County – $7,711,800
- Monterey County – $3,558,670
- Nevada County – $4,458,799
- Orange County – $10,000,000
- Placer County – $6,519,015
- Riverside County – $103,181,728
- Sacramento County – $30,553,889
- San Diego County – $30,874,411
- San Francisco County – $6,750,000
- Santa Barbara County – $2,914,224
- Santa Clara County – $54,074,660
- Solano County – $14,332,411
- Sonoma County – $9,751,915
- Stanislaus County – $33,369,900
- Yolo County – $12,500,000
Recipients of BHCIP Launch Ready grants include cities, counties, Tribal entities, nonprofits, and for-profit organizations statewide that serve target populations. Additional information on BHCIP Round: 3 Launch Ready awardees is available at BHCIP Grant Award Information.
The next round of funding will include more than $480 million focused on Children and Youth behavioral health issues. Awards will be made this fall. For more information about these grants, as well as other BHCIP rounds of funding, please visit the Improving California’s Infrastructure BHCIP grant information.
Awesome, more money for RCS, RQMH,RC3, Anchor whatever they want to change there name to this year and the rest of the slush fund services we can funnel into these agencies that are contracted out through our wonderful Social Services Department… Here’s an idea!? why don’t we cut out the middle man/woman that’s fleecing this county and place the services back on the shoulder of the agency that’s supposed to be addressing these issues… wake up Mendo!! our county is broken and these contracted agencies are building an empire off of the impoverished and our tax dollars…. while fixing? haven’t seen them do anything more than bill the heck out of Medi-Cal. Social Services and CPS building looks like a Thurston car lot out back…. what do all those people do there all day? all this money and all we can manage to do is build a $5 million dollar 8 bed facility for RCS? its become disgusting like the streets of Ukiah… We could of built far more low-income apartments or tiny home villages and maybe made a dent in our homeless/houseless, mental health problem, but instead we will continue to allow this fleecing to continue while our community continues to crumble. when will this community wake up and realize that until we place the burden back at the county level and cut out the middle person we are just continuing to neglect our community and our neighbors while allowing these contracted agencies to swallow up all the funding for services with no oversight, transparency or accountability. As long as everyone at the county level can afford to pay there car loan and there rent it becomes easy to turn a blind eye to the blight and justify there jobs
I agree with fed up…..where does all this money actually go to each time that millions $$$$$$$$$ come in to aid the homeless problem??????
I would like to see the actual proof of the actual benefit that actually fell into the life of any homeless person. Tiny home villages are a great idea. With bathrooms/ showers and security guards and/or case managers. We could buy a piece of land and a bunch of storage sheds from Home Depot with that 💵. I know it’s not that easy. But please do something for the people with that money. Make them grow organic vegetables for the community food bank to pay their rent. Just help people. Stop wasting and stealing the $$$$.
The people really are getting fed up with the shrinkage of funds.
It could be almost “that easy” if there were not so many idiotic regulations and legally required hoops to go through. Costs of so-called administration currently eat up most of the money. Ex-CEO Angelo let some of he truth slip out when she opined that our county government was essentially a jobs program.
The very real context-driven social problems in society remain untouched by the flood of tax money going down the drain.
More money for the helping class, the helping hustlers who always help themselves before the money goes anywhere else. Fed-Up and Local are correct. The poverty pimps prosper while our streets proliferate with tweekers, drunks and fentanyl. A million here a million there. It only gets worse.
Huh? So you all think the government can do a better job then the private sector? Interesting…
Dear Huh. Can you read and understand the English Language?
No I can’t, therefore it’s impossible for me to understand. Way to make a stupid question dumber!
So those people are junkies and they can’t hold a job. And because they can’t hold a job they get kicked out of their homes. On top of that they’re more than likely shity tenants so they won’t be able to find another apartment anymore else to rent. And because they’re junkies they can’t get another job and keep it.
So what do we do?
Instead of rehabilitating them we buy them homes to destroy and sell drugs out of.
Thanks gavin! At least theyre employed now lmao
We send them to rehab that’s not run by these contracted agencies (county funded rehabs) and pay for Job Training/College as part of there “Therapeutic based services” so they can benefit off of pulling themselves up economically and there families around them instead of continuing the cycle of addiction/house-less this county loves to profit off of. Give them the financial means to change there trajectory instead of 10 people making $50k plus a year off of somebody that either gets $300-$700 assistance or $110,000 a year being an inmate, seriously look up the B.S.C.C, good old Mendo makes $110 a day off an adult at the old hotel Low Gap and don’t even get me started on the over medicated youth of RCS for $4k-$14k a month per youth??? what parent is raising there kid for that price? who would do a better job? maybe instead of breaking families apart we could invest in building them back stronger… until then nothing changes….. why not use drugs …. its a societal problem across the nation and unfortunately Mendocino County has found a way to profit and stay afloat after the logging and fishing died in this county. The weed game falsely propped up our economy but even that is in the toilet and the system is broken and so is our county… time to figure out a better way and stop the hemorrhaging of these funds to build private companies there empire and our communities continue to crumble…. place the burden back on the county so they have to be accountable for there citizens. Just an opinion and everyone has one but the opinions of the people who benefit financially and provide little transparency and even less success make no sense or benefit to our community? This community has fallen far and yet these contracted agencies have risen to the top and own a huge chunk of properties and service contracts, yet our problems have only grown worse… its not working and its time to adjust this counties trajectory cause all I’ve seen get bigger is the welfare office and the Wal-mart along with these “contracted services” diverting millions into there business portfolios and there real estate investments
just an opinion
I don’t actually disagree with much of what you’re saying, despite a few factual inaccuracies. However, it would bode much better for how your opinions are received if you knew the difference between there, their, and they’re.
Until the issues of mental illness and addiction are addressed..poring $$$$into housing for these ones, is not going to do anything. Mom’s and Dad’s with children been help,away from from the drugs, so much needs to be done..