March 3, 2022 

California Must Truly Prioritize Individuals with Serious Mental Illness by Fully Funding Behavioral Health Treatment and Prioritized Housing

Sacramento, CA – The County Behavioral Health Directors’ Association of California (CBHDA) released the following statement from Executive Director Michelle Doty Cabrera on Governor Newsom’s “Care Courts” proposal:

“County behavioral health departments appreciate Governor Newsom’s compassion for Californians living with behavioral health challenges. In particular, we applaud the Administration’s commitment to building our additional community-based treatment infrastructure through substantial one-time funding in last year’s budget, and through the Governor’s January Budget Proposal to invest $1.5 billion for housing individuals with serious behavioral health needs.

“We need to acknowledge that our state has significantly underinvested in our public safety net. This includes housing and social services to keep vulnerable people from becoming homeless in the first place, but also added support for the service providers who are called upon to help when so many are suffering. Penalizing the county safety net system when certain housing resources, workforce, or funding don’t exist in the first place is counterproductive and won’t expand connections to life-saving treatment and services.

There is no lack of will among our county behavioral health agencies to offer help. Instead, California must commit to fully fund treatment services for Californians’ mental health and substance use disorder needs and to bolster clients’ opportunity to succeed in treatment and long-term recovery with housing resources.

“As we learn more about the proposal, we look forward to working with the Administration to achieve our shared goal of interventions that prevent homelessness and the trauma people experience living on the street.”