State tax on millionaires funds housing
for mentally ill
Living well, courtesy of rich
By Kathleen Wilson - Ventura County Star
Monday, May 19, 2008
Rita Gutierrez and James Robertson do their laundry at Harvard Place Apartments in
Santa Paula. Harvard Place is an example of inclusive housing, where tenants with
mental illness or disabilities live among the general population.
Mentally ill tenants at the Harvard Place Apartments once faced three choices in housing:
scrounging up substandard rentals they could afford, staying with relatives or residing in
a group home. Caregivers made sure they ate on time, took their pills and paid their
debts.
Now in a growing trend, people disabled by mental illness are moving into places like
this $10 million property in Santa Paula. They largely take care of themselves amid the
general population.
"I finally grew up," said Christine Bradley, 32, who is legally blind and has major
depression. "I like having my own space. I even like paying the bills. Is that growing up
or is that insanity?"
Thanks to an infusion of cash from a state tax on millionaires, officials say an
unprecedented amount of money is coming in to build housing for the mentally ill.
Earlier this month, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors assigned $8 million to a
state agency for loans to developers. It's expected to kick-start construction of perhaps 50
apartments where these residents can live independently with support from caseworkers.
An additional $2 million should come in each year after that, officials said.
Ventura County has 126 dedicated units of supportive housing for adults with serious
mental illness, two-thirds of it in facilities reserved exclusively for them.
Goal is to build a community
With the new money, mental health officials hope developers will mainly build inclusive
housing. People disabled by schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression and other
serious disorders would live in complexes and subdivisions with other low-income
people and the general population. They would be screened based on income, their desire
to move into such housing, risk for homelessness and whether they could live in the
apartments safely.
"We've never had money to put into a deal before," said Carolyn Briggs, housing director
for the county Behavioral Health Department. "It represents a quarter to a third of
development costs, but it's huge in that it's real money."
The county has about 40 of these inclusive units, all in the cities of Santa Paula and
Thousand Oaks. An additional 10 are being built at the RiverPark development in Oxnard
and 15 are planned in Ventura.
They can be difficult to erect because of complex financing and the "not in my backyard"
syndrome. But some see a model in Harvard Place, where a housing complex opened in
2005 in place of a motel known for drug activity and prostitution.
"We set out to build a community and I think it has materialized into that," said Ramsey
Jay, executive director of the Santa Paula Housing Authority, which collaborated with
Newbury Park nonprofit developer Partners in Housing to build the complex.
In their corner now
Ten apartments at the 40-unit Harvard Place are reserved for people with serious mental
illness, 10 for people with developmental disabilities and the remainder for the authority's
federal Section 8 housing list for low-income seniors and the disabled.
Residents pay 30 percent of their income toward the rent, a deal that advocates call a
"godsend" in Ventura County.
Pete Zarate and his wife, Mary Jo, run the Mediterranean-style complex with a brick
courtyard and community room. They live in an on-site apartment, where tenants
sometimes knock on their door at 2 a.m. for help with personal problems. But they also
enforce the rules.
"I like having my own space. I even like paying the bills," said Christine Bradley. She
said she got her apartment after waiting three years on the regular Section 8 list.
If tenants don't pay the rent or repeatedly break the rules, they are evicted. That's
happened to only two residents since the complex opened 2 1/2 years ago, Zarate said.
Some tenants say they still face the stigma many associate with the mentally ill, but they
have won converts among the other renters.
Mary Adams, a 72-year-old widow living on Social Security, is in their corner now.
Adams admits she was a little leery about living with people with serious mental illness
when she moved here more than two years ago.
"I didn't know what to expect," she said. "It's like anything else. Something you don't
understand, you are afraid of."
She has had no problems, she said, and would recommend the complex at 320 W.
Harvard Blvd.
Jay said concerns about the tenants disturbing the merchants next door also tended to be
unfounded. "No problem at all," said Dzung Ho, owner of the 97 Cent Bargain Center.
Mentally ill need housing, supportive services
Bradley, who describes herself as high functioning, snagged a spot because she had
waited for three years on the regular Section 8 list. Since moving out of her
grandmother's home, she has become good friends with Rita Gutierrez, 43, who has
schizophrenia.
Gutierrez said she was living in a garage behind her mother's home in Piru before a
mental health worker helped her get into the apartment.
It marked the first time she has ever lived alone. Now she pays her own bills, invites
Bradley over for Mexican dinners and walks across the street to the county mental health
clinic for care.
With its location on busy Harvard Boulevard, the two-story complex is nothing if not
convenient.
"Grocery stores are close by," Gutierrez said. "Restaurants are close by."
Although the state of California has been moving people out of state hospitals since the
1960s, thousands of people disabled by mental illness still live with aging parents, in
group homes, board-and-care facilities, in jail or on the streets.
Experts say they need not only low-cost places to live in high-cost California but also
supportive services such as help with medications and homemaking chores.
Daniel Claudio and Susan Dudzinski live independently in a $10 million housing
complex built for the mentally ill. Government funds are slated for more such housing.
"If they are disabled they can't work, and if they can't work, they need some kind of
support," said Rusty Selix, executive director of the Mental Health Association in
California. "Factor in mental illness, and most are going to need some level of supportive
services to be able to stay in the housing."
Briggs and others say state funding for permanent, supported housing has lagged that for
the developmentally disabled, many of whom are entitled to lifetime services under a
California Supreme Court ruling.
Now, though, Proposition 63 is starting to bring in the cash for the mentally ill. Passed in
2004 by the voters, the initiative imposed a 1 percent tax on income above $1 million.
Then two years ago, state leaders decided to set aside funds from that tax to build 10,000
units of housing.
'We are all adults'
Research shows dramatic improvements when homeless mentally ill people move into
supportive housing, including sharp reductions in emergency room visits and
hospitalizations. Anecdotally, those able to move from group care into supportive
housing also seem to improve, Briggs said.
It's an idea that advocates for the developmentally disabled have long pushed
successfully. They point to clients like James Robertson, 41, who said he'd be in a group
home if it weren't for his apartment at the Santa Paula complex.
"I'm doing good," he said as he shows off his one-bedroom rental filled with thrift store
furniture, framed doodle art, a pet fish and a St. Louis Rams sign above his bed. The state
pays a firm specializing in independent living skills to help him with money
management, finding a doctor and housekeeping.
Fellow tenant Steve Taylor requires a higher level of care. An aide stays at his apartment
around the clock to help the man who has faced both mental illness and developmental
disabilities.
To him, that's still better than living in a care home where staff members watch over his
every need.
"We are all adults," he said.