Community project to get $200K more
Annual funding rise would benefit housing voucher programs
The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Commission unanimously recommended a $200,000 annual increase for the Behavior Health Initiative’s Community Connections project this week.
Sam Howarth, the county’s behavior health service administrator, told commission members that the programs are unable to issue about 120 already funded housing vouchers because workloads of case managers who support and work with individuals who receive vouchers are at capacity.
“The request is for $200,000 to contract with one of our existing case management providers working with Community Connections to provide case managers for new recipients of the new housing vouchers,” he told commission members Thursday.
Howarth said funding to provide housing vouchers for individuals in the program has gone farther than expected because of lower housing costs in Albuquerque and that more single recipients are receiving services rather than families.
Bernalillo County commissioners will act during a future meeting on the recommended budget increase.
The Community Connections project consists of two programs: a re-entry supportive housing program and a supportive housing expansion for frequent utilizers of services.
The re-entry supportive housing program provides intensive case management with scattered site housing to a target population of homeless or a precariously housed person with mental illness or other disabilities and whose lack of community-based services resulted in criminal justice system involvement.
Bernalillo County provides $1.3 million and the city of Albuquerque provides $500,000 in funding for the program.
The expansion for the frequent utilizers program focuses on individuals with behavioral health issues who are homeless or precariously housed and are frequent users of emergency room and other services. The expansion provides for 55 scattered housing vouchers with case management services.
The county provides $1.2 million in funding for the program. In fiscal year 2018, 47 people were admitted to the program, according to county documents.
The city/county joint commission consists of: Mayor Tim Keller; City Councilors Issac Benton, Don Harris, Klarissa Peña and Ken Sanchez; and Bernalillo County Commissioners Debbie O’Malley, Steven Michael Quezada, James Smith and Maggie Hart Stebbins.