Since the dawning of the COVID-19 pandemic, California, Texas and Florida have seen significant infusions of state and federal cash into their behavioral healthcare systems. These additional funds are often earmarked especially for addiction treatment and recovery services and cannot be subsumed into the general budget for the state, meaning that the funds are guaranteed to be funneled into the hands of behavioral health providers in the state.
As the importance of recovery housing becomes more well understood in the larger community, we expect to continue to see an expansion of support for sober living homes in these states. Read on for more information about exactly what funds have been made available in California, Texas and Florida for sober living home operators in those states.
California: Expansion of Recovery Housing Support in California Government
In March, California governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan to funnel a total of 14$ billion dollars into behavioral health and housing programs for underserved populations in the state. This program is designed to create an additional 55,000 “new housing units and treatment slots,” some of which will likely prove to be designated sober living or recovery residence units.
Specifically, California’s Community Care Expansion Program has received recent funding at the state level. This program is of special interest to sober living homes in California because it focuses on providing “competitive grants to qualified entities to construct, acquire and rehabilitate real estate assets” in service fo “applicants and recipients of SSI including individuals who…have behavioral health conditions.
California is also aggressively exploring contingency management to address the state’s burgeoning stimulant addiction issues, with opportunities in this unique form of treatment likely to open up to behavioral health entrepreneurs and nonprofit providers soon.
Texas: Expanding Funding for Sober Living Homes and Recovery Houses, Too!
The Texas Attorney General just confirmed he’s added another $1.167 billion dollars to the growing settlement the state has wrangled from pharmaceutical companies. The total extra funding, which can only be used for substance use disorder treatment and recovery services and programming, is nearing $2 billion dollars total.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission was also recently granted another $210 million dollars from the federal government to tackle opioid addiction in the Lone Star State. The money can also only be used for “recovery and community mental health services,” which bodes well for sober living home operators in the state.
Florida: DeSantis Has Successfully Advocated for Lots of Recovery Housing and Sober Living Home Funding
COVID-19 hit Florida hard. According to the Florida Behavioral Health Association, overdoses are up and calls to crisis lines for suicide and addiction are up 65%.
Florida is also home to some of the most notoriously mismanaged sober living homes in the country. Some communities, like those in Delray, frequently feature in national news stories about sober living homes run amok, with fraud and exploitation taking center stage in a story that should be about recovery and hope.
Still, the state pushes for expanded funding of sober living homes, especially now that more regulations are in place for sober living homes at the state level. Love him or hate him, Governor Ron DeSantis has consistently advocated for a large increase in funding for behavioral health in Florida - and he has secured some significant wins for sober living home operators in the state. While Florida has received $4.3 million dollars in federal dollars to address the opioid crisis, the state also saw a whopping $2.5 billion dollar bump in the budget for mental health and addiction services completely separate from the federal grants.
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