[NYAPRS Enews] TU: MH/SU Providers, Tonko Raise Call for Federal COVID Aid

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Mental health and substance use service providers continue to hammer away about the devastating impact of current state 'withholds' and potential cuts caused by Congress' failure to send COVID-19 relief funding to state and localities. While negotiations between White House and Senate and House Democratic leaders are focusing on unemployment payments, stimulus checks, funding for schools and child care facilities, liability protections and the Paycheck Protection Program, no public mention has been made about funding this is critical to battered states and localities.
In New York, the Cuomo Administration has imposed a 20% with hold on community mental health providers and a 31% on those providing services to people with major substance use related issues. Providers have already been laying off staff and cutting services and yesterday's Albany news conference focused on people's most basic need: housing. Representatives from the Bring It Home campaign joined together with champion Congressman Paul Tonko to decry the full impact on providers when/if the state turns 'withholds' into lasting cuts.
Should that happen, the legislature will have 10 days to consider action that will press to include a roll back of the cuts. A growing number of advocacy groups are calling on the state to increase revenues to do so,  possibly due in part to a state hike on taxes to the wealthy and/or stock trades.
As of this morning, federal negotiations remained deadlocked. Look for advocates to take further actions in the coming days.
Congratulations to Bring It Home and the Association for Community Living for organizing the event,  which was supported by leading state behavioral health service advocates including NYAPRS.

Mental Health Providers Join Call For Federal Pandemic Aid
By Amanda Fries  Albany Times Union  August 7, 2020

ALBANY - Mental health and substance abuse service providers have joined the chorus of calls to federal lawmakers to provide financial relief to state and local governments in light of millions of dollars in state payments being withheld.

Service providers were alerted in late June that their third-quarter payments from the state would be reduced by 20 percent as New York grapples with a multi-billion-dollar deficit caused by the response and ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic. They argued the community-based programs provide stable housing and support for individuals at a lower cost than other options, thus funding them adequately saves money in the long run.

U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko joined industry leaders Thursday for a virtual news conference calling for more federal assistance, which service providers say are necessary to ensure the withholdings do not become permanent resulting in layoffs of essential workers, service cuts and the evictions of hundreds of vulnerable New Yorkers.

The Democratic congressman championed the Heroes Act, passed by the House in May, as the stimulus package that provides a "wholesome" response to the devastation brought upon localities from COVID-19 while ensuring dignity to those who rely on the essential services facing cuts.

"I find this so fundamentally flawed that they are rejecting this assistance, this rescue package that we have offered that will bring assistance and sensitivity to our state and local governments," he said of some U.S. senators who have sought to block any relief package from including financial assistance to state and local governments. "Since we passed the Heroes Act, 70,000 people have died. I don't know what more expression of crisis is required to get these people to move."

The Heroes Act proposes a $3 trillion stimulus package, which includes a second round of $1,200 checks for individuals, hazard pay for essential workers, more funding for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and other funds for state and local governments.

Senate Republican leaders have been steadfast in their refusal to offer state and local assistance, suggesting it amounts to a "bailout" for Democratic-led states, and recently released their stimulus package void of additional funding for state and local governments.

The $1.1 trillion HEALS Act, or Help, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act, would also provide another round of $1,200 stimulus checks for individuals plus over $100 billion to help schools and child care facilities reopen, and more financial support for hospitals, health centers and coronavirus research. It also extends liability protections to businesses, schools and health care providers, offers another round of funds for businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and cuts the federal unemployment insurance to $200.

Bill DeVita, executive director of Rehabilitation Support Services - which provides supportive services and housing to adults with severe mental illnesses, said if the cuts turn permanent, it could result in nearly 300 people being evicted among his organization's clients. Thousands more could be in similar predicaments through other programs.

"The money withheld is the money that goes to pay those rental stipends," he said. "Should the withholds become a cut, then we estimate that there will be hundreds of people who will eventually be evicted from their apartments."

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mental-health-providers-join-call-for-federal-15464276.php

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