Policy Recommendations to Address Housing Shortages for People With Severe Mental Illness.

Abstract

Affordable housing for persons with severe mental illness has never developed on the scale needed. Nearly one million individuals with mental illness are incarcerated, homeless, couch surfing, or cycling among institutions and unstable housing options across the United States. The three legs of the stool of housing development for persons with disabilities-capital to acquire or build, operations to support rent payments, and services to support tenants-exist to a small degree in a single federal housing program-the 811 program-which has fallen short in its impact on persons with mental illness. Historically, it has produced only between 1,100 and 1,500 new housing units a year nationally, a paltry production pipeline for the millions in need. The author describes the aims and shortcoming of the original 811 program and amendments to the program introduced by the 2010 Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act. Although the amended program appears to produce more units than the original model, the number of housed persons with mental illness is negligible. Because a person from any disability class is eligible for the units, people with mental illness are unfairly competing for too few units. The author proposes a housing policy that is structured and funded to more fully address the housing needs of persons with mental illness, with language that prioritizes people with mental illness or sets aside units for this population and with local mandates for awards to developers, such as targeting persons with mental illness who cycle in and out of public institutions.