New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget was a relative windfall for the mental health housing sector. She proposed $104 million over two years to be invested in mental health housing, the most funding it has ever seen.

Additionally, the governor is pushing for a 5.4% cost of living adjustment for a variety of health care workers, including those in behavioral health. 

If Hochul’s proposed spending is included in the enacted budget, the money will be a “game changer," according to Sebrina Barrett, executive director of the Association for Community Living (ACL). But the funding won’t directly impact the sector’s greatest need: Support for aging people with serious mental health issues living in community housing. 

“It’s important to know that people with severe mental illness age more quickly,” Barrett told Capital Tonight. “So, they’re going to start to experience those co-occurring medical issues much sooner.”

A survey by ACL showed that mental health residents in New York state reported 166 significant medical conditions, including hypertension, COPD and dementia. 

Currently, mental health housing in the state provides no medical assistance for an aging population.

“Nursing homes and assisted living facilities will not take these folks,” Barrett explained.

To address the issue, Barrett and other advocates are asking the Legislature to develop a temporary commission to study aging in place in mental health housing. 

“Now that we’re seeing this aging demographic grow, we really need to come up with some solutions that will help keep them in their homes and will help meet their mental illness as well as their medical needs at the same time,” Barrett said.