Like North Carolina, South Carolina also relied on rest homes years ago, but has worked to develop more than 1,000 state-supported beds in independent housing in the last decade alone. It's only in the last five years or so that the tide has shifted and people have started to acknowledge that if somebody doesn't provide supported housing, then everything else we do falls into question. Weeks can't often find beds for the mentally ill because the private rental market is too expensive, and affordable housing in North Carolina has so far been designed for working poor families who earn more than people with mental disabilities. To build for the mentally ill, the state would have to find money to provide deeper rent subsidies. Weeks says that could be done with a simple change in the law.
Weeks wants to see that money freed up.
Legislators have debated changing the law, but haven't reached agreement. Consumers and families think otherwise. This summer, the state is experimenting with special assistance funds in 22 counties, including Mecklenburg. The General Assembly authorized those counties to use the money for one year to support up to 400 people at risk of moving into rest homes. Current rest home residents, however, are not eligible.