Alliance Note: We are extremely happy to see the New York City Council has approved an additional $2 million in funding for small Clubhouses in the city which were not awarded new contracts through the Mayor’s office of Community Mental Health’s initiative this year! We congratulate the countless members and Clubhouse advocates for their success in getting the city to continue funding smaller Clubhouses.
As supporters have been saying for months, Clubhouses, both big and small, are an integral part of the mental health service continuum in the City and these programs want to be part of the solution to the current crisis by increasing their membership and helping more people in settings they are comfortable in.
This funding is just the first step. We are hopefully the additional money will allow smaller Clubhouses more time to work with the City to ensure these programs, which have strong ties to their communities, are not unnecessarily closed and are supported as they work to meet the City’s goal of expanding membership so anyone who wants Clubhouse services has access to them.
City Budget Deal Restores Cuts to HIV/AIDS Programs, Mental Health Clubhouses
Amanda D’Ambrosio | Crain’s Health Pulse | July 1, 2024
New York City’s new budget restores funding for HIV/AIDS programs and mental health clubhouses, while expanding upon city efforts to improve hospital price transparency and critical care access.
The $112 billion deal, announced by Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Friday and passed by the Council on Sunday, restored a fraction of the cuts proposed by the mayor earlier this year. The budget funnels some money back into health services poised for cuts in a victory for the City Council.
The budget restored $5.4 million to HIV/AIDS programs that the Adams administration had initially planned to cut – a proposal that sparked backlash from LGBTQ+ nonprofits and patients. The coouncil also pushed to add $2 million for mental health clubhouses, social spaces for people with mental illnesses, after the city eliminated seven contracts with smaller organizations in lieu of funding larger facilities. The intent of the new dollars are to keep smaller clubhouses open, said Rendy Desamours, a spokesman for the council.
The budget deal also added $2 million to expand the Office of Healthcare Accountability, a city agency designed to ensure hospitals publicly post their prices. The office, mandated under city law, was delayed in getting up and running due to the mayor’s previous budget cuts.
Councilwoman Julie Menin, who sponsored legislation to create the agency, said “we pushed really hard to get this office fully funded.” The additional $2 million in the upcoming budget will allow the city to hire 15 staff members for the hospital price transparency effort.
In addition to restoring health programs, the budget adds more than $100 million for mental health services. The budget allocated $74 million for school psychologists and counselors, $5 million for the Mental Health Continuum to create a school-based health clinic and $4.8 million for trauma recovery centers in Brooklyn and Queens.
It also adds $128 million for new supportive housing projects over the next two years, roughly $6 million of which will be allocated for criminal justice-involved individuals, Desamours said.
The City Council also allocated $25 million for a new trauma center in Far Rockaway – part of an effort by Majority Whip Selvena Brooks-Powers to increase access to critical care services in the Queens peninsula.
City Lawmakers Tout Health Funding Wins in New Budget
Maya Kaufman | Politico | July 2, 2024
New York City’s $112.4 billion budget, approved Sunday, restores millions of dollars in funding for health programs that faced cuts under Mayor Eric Adams’ spending proposal.
The City Council is patting itself on the back for pushing the administration to reverse course on a host of controversial spending reductions, such as a $5.4 million cut to HIV/AIDS services.
A new $2 million allocation will fund seven of nine small clubhouses that are due to lose their city contracts later this year, thanks to an expansion initiative spearheaded by the Adams administration that set new criteria for admission and attendance at the facilities.
The Council also succeeded in restoring $5 million in funding for the Mental Health Continuum, a cross-agency partnership to support students’ mental health.
City Hall officials recently trumpeted the continuum model as part of Adams’ mental health agenda, but the administration had provided no funding allocation for it in the executive budget, according to the Council.
Council members also secured millions to actualize some of their biggest policy priorities.
The budget devotes $2 million to the Office of Health Care Accountability, which was established in June 2023 under legislation spearheaded by Council Member Julie Menin.
And a $25 million capital allocation will support the construction of a trauma center in the Rockaways — a cause championed by Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers, who represents the peninsula.
The funding comes on top of $25 million already secured by Brooks-Powers for the project, according to her office.
“This budget takes a major step forward toward the creation of a new level 1 or level 2 trauma center in the Rockaways, which will help meet a dire healthcare need on the peninsula and the surrounding Southeast Queens communities,” Brooks-Powers said in a statement.