Crucial bill needed for group homes on Hab Center property awaiting gubernatorial approval

It's in the governor's hands now, indicated State Representative Barney Fisher during an information meeting about the fate of the Nevada Habilitation Center and its residents Tuesday night. Fisher said there's a plan on the table that's not perfect, but it's a way to salvage some of the jobs from the Nevada Habilitation Center and to provide a place for many of its clients to go that's still in Nevada, perhaps offering some sort of the continunity parent Cathy Baker wants for her son.

State budget cuts have doomed the hab center as it is now, but a compromise involving building group homes, offering clients a place to live and many employees a chance at keeping their jobs at the hab center site is close to becoming reality.

Cathy Baker's question, relating to how parents or guardians can get more information about what's happening with client care, was on the minds of caregivers, guardians and parents alike. No answers were readily available, but as it stands now, hab center superintendent Chris Baker believes he will still be at the administrative helm of the new facilities that it appears will be serving the clients in lieu of the existing hab center. Baker said that the plan has evolved nearly to the point where he believes more information will soon be available. The fate of the existing hab center buildings also is unclear at this point.

Fisher said the idea is to build eight or nine group homes plus a central administrative center that would house administrative and some auxiliary services. Twenty-five of the center's residents will be moved elsewhere in the state -- just where is as yet undetermined -- and the remaining 64 to 72 residents would move into the group homes. Fisher said he doesn't like the plan, but this alternative will save an estimated 215-225 jobs in the area. A crucial step in the plan is pending -- bills on the governor's desk conveying the property, enabling the construction of the new facilities must be signed by the governor in order for the plan to move forward. So long as no veto occurs, bids will be sought and a configuration of the buildings will be selected. Fisher said the hab center is only one of 11 conveyances in the bill, and he's optimistic that no veto will occur. Should the governor veto the bill, the reality is that it's unlikely the legislature will overturn the veto, a move that would require a two-thirds vote by legislators.

"The department of mental health is now very aggressively going ahead with this alternative," Fisher said.

There is some opposition to the plan, Fisher said, from groups who believe the homes should be out in the community, not clustered together at the same site.

Fisher said three configurations are now being talked over; a cluster of homes fanned around the administration building, a sort of oblong circle of structures, and a configuration with five homes on one side of the street, three on the other and a possible ninth elsewhere. The buildings will likely have four to five bedrooms, four or five bathrooms, a common living area, and will be one-level facilities that are ADA compliant. Workers would have to be paid prevailing wage. Beyond that, little is known, and even the floor plans are undetermined.

"Nothing is concrete, right now," Fisher cautioned, but the number of jobs saved assumes about a 3-to-1 ratio of caregivers to clients.

Some at the meeting still held out hope that the hab center could still be saved, but Fisher said that's not possible. The center's closing. In March, the House budget bill passed with the hab center still funded, but that bill went to the Senate, where an additional $250 million needed to be cut. One of those cuts was the Nevada Habilitation Center. The Senate Budget Committee voted 10-1, with Senator David Pearce the lone dissenter, to close the facility. After that, the alternative of the group homes evolved.

"I don't think it's something that the senators wanted to do. I don't like it. But I'd rather have two-thirds of a loaf than no loaf at all," Fisher said.

The group home alternative won't necessarily cost less overall, but it would be more heavily funded with federal funds, and clients would likely pay for some of their care. Fisher said it's likely some of the money will come out of the state's coffers, but much less than the $3 million.

Meanwhile, guardians, parents and caregivers are being asked to decide where each client would go.

"I have eight clients I've gotten letters on in the mail this week, that I have to decide by next Friday what I want to do with them. That's not enough time," to make such an important decision, said Tammy Bond. Deciding based on geography -- that is, sending people back to the part of the state from whence they came -- isn't a simple answer either, Bond said, citing concerns about one client who no longer has family available.

Nevertheless, they understand that the hab center as it is today won't be coming back.

"It's this or nothing," Fisher said. "If this doesn't work, there will be zero jobs, and nothing out there."

Citizens can help by writing Missouri Governor Jay Nixon's Office urging him to pass the conveyance bill. Write to Office of Governor Jay Nixon, P.O. Box 720, Jefferson City, MO 65102; phone the office at (573) 751-3222, or visit http://governor.

mo.gov/contact to send an e-mail via the form provided.