Posted on 01/23/2003 7:01:51 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
E d is one of the mentally ill Oregonians scheduled to be evicted from three care centers on April 15 because of cuts in state services. But he's not worried.
"I can make it on my own," he said. "The CIA taught me how."
There's no place better than Ed's longtime residence, the Hoodview Residential Care Home, a concrete block building on Gresham's noisy Powell Boulevard, to come face to face with the insanity of some Oregon budget cuts. The Legislature is eliminating funding for Hoodview and two other care centers, which provide some of the best and least-expensive mental health home care in Oregon.
Look at some of the 122 people lawmakers are evicting: Eric, whose family tried to care for him at home but gave up when he went after his sister's boyfriend with a knife. Scott, who was sick and emaciated, weighed only 80 pounds when he arrived at Hoodview eight years ago. Larry, whose obsessive-compulsive disorder stirs him to repeatedly wash his hands in scalding water.
There's Dennis, who used to dress up in cheerleader outfits. Tim, one of five Hoodview residents on record for having committed felonies but declared criminally insane. There's another man at Hoodview who tried 12 times to live on his own, until his last try ended with him leaping from a bridge.
And there's Robin, who already has three kids being raised by her parents, and often declares that she's eager to have more children.
Who's really crazy here? Is it these frightened and confused disabled residents facing eviction? Or is it the legislators, mental health providers and Oregon taxpayers prepared to oust them from their homes?
There are plenty of painful stories amid the state's cuts. The choices are truly difficult -- the state already has cut $56 million in human services and must make another $88 million in reductions in those programs unless voters approve Measure 28.
Yet evicting these helpless Oregonians is not just a hard decision, it's a cruel one. These people should not be bearing the brunt of cuts no matter how severe the state's financial crisis.
Every resident of Hoodview requires psychotropic medication. Many hear voices. Some moved into Hoodview from state institutions and have never lived anywhere else. Some are as old as 75. Left alone, nearly all would pose dangers to themselves or others.
Yet Oregon is about to send many of them out on the street with vouchers for motels and apartments. The state has moved the eviction date from Feb. 1 to April 15.
The Department of Human Resources put these care homes on a cut list approved by legislators because the facilities receive no federal matching funds. Each houses more than 16 people, and at that size, the federal government considers them state hospitals. Under a law that dates back more than 150 years, the feds will not contribute to covering their costs.
It doesn't seem to matter that the centers provide some of the least-expensive mental health home care. Oregon pays only $613 a month per resident -- and gets round-the-clock supervision and care that residents and their families say is exceptional.
The only proposal from the state and Multnomah County to save the funding is to divide up the facilities, in effect creating multiple 16-bed facilities, under one roof, eligible for matching funds. That, too, seems crazy. Remodeling would cost tens of thousands of dollars and require separate kitchens, recreation areas, staffs, even administrators, for each section of the building.
Dennis Murphy, who has owned Hoodview for 24 years, has rejected that idea. He's also refused to help mental health workers decide which of his residents would be most likely to survive living independently in motels or hotels. "I will not play 'Schindler's List' with these people," he said.
When Murphy gathered Hoodview residents together in groups to inform them about the impending evictions, it sent a tremor through the care home. One resident, Alan, shouted, "I've got money buried out by a tree. If you need money, I can go out and get it." And an elderly man, Mark, recalled that his father had once told him that he could make money mowing lawns. "We can cut grass," Mark said.
There are still opportunities to save the Hoodview residents from more trauma. Attorneys have filed a class-action lawsuit to stop the state and Multnomah County from requiring the evictions. A hearing is likely this week.
If Oregonians approve Measure 28, it's more likely that money could be shifted to protect the homes. However, even if the court challenge and tax measure fail, legislators and Gov. Ted Kulongoski must find funding for them.
Kulongoski spoke of "sacrifice" at his inaugural address. Surely he didn't mean the lives of Ed, Larry and Mark.
This federal law goes a long way towards explaining why states keep dumping mentally ill people into undersupervised group homes and seedy motels.
It will eventually because the system will become too top heavy and inflexible to adapt at which point it will collapse under it own weight. My hope is we can alter the direction first.
How was it done before when government was not running these types of facilities? Was it done by the family of the patients? Or was it done by private charities?
Many who were not able to care for themselves were housed in hellish facilities and I imagine that others were cared for by their families or charities. We can always manufacture one plausible justification after another for someone else caring for the poor and disabled among us, but I wonder how God will judge us in the end.
If you want to house them, open your front door.
If you want to pay someone else to do it, write a check.
If the citizens of Oregon want to do it, fine. Let them foot the bill. If not, the Salvation Army, the Loyal Order Of Moose, or the Elks can step up to the plate.
I suspect that many people with serious mental illness did not live very long lives. If there are no relatives, or relatives can/will not help a seriously ill person would not survive very long.
You would be amazed at how many people just "disappear" form skid rows all over the country.
The fact that you think it was puts you in the same company as Dick Gephardt and Maxine Waters.
Perhaps you would be more comfortable spending your time over at DU. They agree with your line of thinking.
Folks here think the last thing the FedGov should be doing is spending money extracted from honest people at the point of a gun on whatever 'charity' Congress can dream up.
Another liberal shows his stripes.....
(Yea, I mean you.)
Regards,
L
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.