About a third of homeless individuals have serious mental illness, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that advocates for expanded psychiatric services. With California’s homeless population nearing 130,000, an estimated 43,000 of them may be suffering from serious mental illness. As tent encampments proliferate, efforts to house these people have gained traction. Last fall, voters passed the No Place Like Home Act, allowing the state to borrow $2 billion to increase the supply of permanent supportive housing (PSH), which pairs affordable housing with mental health services. Because of housing costs, the number of board and cares is diminishing rapidly.
Licensed board-and-cares, also known as adult residential facilities, receive a government-set monthly rent from tenants to pay for housing, 24-hour-care and three daily meals. The tenants cover that cost with their monthly Supplemental Security Income(SSI) checks, a combination of federal and state funds for people with serious mental illness, among others.
A report published in January by San Francisco’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council noted the minimum wage there has increased by 46% since 2012, while the SSI rate for assisted living residents has increased by just 8%. The report estimated the monthly break-even rate for board-and-cares at more than $2,000 per bed, more than double what low-income residents currently pay.
