Privatize State Operated OMH and OPWDD Community Residences (SOCRs)

Background:

• More than 170 Non Profits (NFP) operate more than 30,000 residential beds licensed and/or funded by the State Office of Mental Health.
  
  
• The State Office of Mental Health operates 1,546 community residential beds (SOCRs), a small minority of the beds.
  
  
• The NFP providers are ready and willing to take on more. There is no reason why the NFP sector cannot operate all the beds in the system.
  
  
• SOCRs follow the same regulations as non-profit programs, are sited in similar buildings, are of the same size and care for the same clients.
  
  
• SOCRs’ operating costs are more than twice the non-profit costs.
  
  
• The total State-wide savings in Personal Services for all 1,546 OMH operated SOCR Beds would be approximately $35 million.
  
  
• Recently the NY Times reported abuses in the state operated OPWDD residential system, largely due to the sheer size of the bureaucracy and CSEA protections. This is reason enough to privatize these as well.
  
  
• Click here to see ACL's full report on this topic.

• Pass legislation that requires the State Office of Mental Health and the State Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities to analyze the savings that would accrue from privatizing SOCRs.
  
  
  • Urge the Governor, and support him, in an effort to privatize these