About 6,000 mentally ill people could soon be forced out of adult homes where they’ve lived for decades — putting them and the community at risk, under a rule change proposed by Gov. Cuomo.
Adult homes are “not conducive to the recovery or rehabilitation of residents,” according to the state Office of Mental Health, which wants to limit the mentally ill population living in them to 25 percent of total residency.
Currently, the vast majority of residents in adult homes are mentally ill.
The effort comes after a Brooklyn federal judge ruled in 2009 that housing mentally ill patients in adult homes violated the Americans With Disabilities Act. That ruling, supported by advocates, was appealed. An appellate court remanded the case to a lower court in 2011, where it is still pending.
The Cuomo administration is now proposing a solution in order to get ahead of a decision by the US Department of Justice to close adult homes, sources said. But it is not clear how the state would decide which clients have to go and which can stay.
The change would affect adult homes like Surfside Manor in Far Rockaway, where Tony Graviano, 59, visits his brother John once a month, treating him to lunch and a walk on the beach.
“I’m pretty well satisfied here,” said John, 60, who suffers from chronic schizophrenia, diabetes and early-onset dementia. At Surfside, he lives with a roommate and a nurse keeps track of his medications, twice-daily insulin shots and spending money. “I’m happy where I am,” he says.
The rule change, which is expected to go into effect by December, would likely force the city’s two dozen adult homes to shutter and has family members and elected officials concerned over where these residents will go and how they will survive.
“A million things could go wrong if my brother lived unsupervised, starting with not taking his meds,” said Graviano. “Is he supposed to do his own food shopping? Is he going to turn the stove on and forget it’s on? Is he supposed to have his own bank account? At Surfside, he has three meals a day and there’s people around him. He’s not in a position where he can regress.”
The state says it has a plan. “We are in the process of a transition and it is our intent to ensure that those who need housing will receive the support they need,” said Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto.
The state has issued a request for proposals, which were due Oct. 5, for building or operating “supportive housing.” There, residents would live alone without 24/7 supervision.
Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder, who represents the Rockaways, called Cuomo’s decision a “catastrophic equation that puts this population at risk.
“Without supervision, people who aren’t taking their medication end up roaming the streets and bringing down the whole neighborhood,” he said. “Building supportive housing will take a long time. My biggest fear is that they rush into something in the name of helping people and ultimately hurt them.”
At Surfside, 15 residents were put in supportive housing over the past few years, according to State Sen. Martin Golden. Of those, six returned, three currently reside in psychiatric institutions, two died and one is homeless.
Adult-home administrators fear the new regulation will force them to close. The centers make $39 per day per client from Social Security.
“This is a 200-bed facility and we can’t run it if we have to go down to 25 percent capacity,” said Surfside case manager Sura Fried. “The state feels these people need to be integrated and exposed to ‘normal’ people, but nobody ever forces them to live here.”