About five times a year, the Salvation Army’s homeless shelter in Lawrence is asked to take in someone who’s ready to leave Osawatomie State Hospital for the mentally ill.

“It’s been going on a long time,” said the shelter’s social services director, Paula Gilchrist.

If all goes well, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center helps the former hospital resident find a place to stay. But other times, the resident ends up on the street.

That’s not how the state’s mental health reform laws are supposed to work.

“There’s supposed to be a treatment plan that includes some kind of permanent housing and that spells out how services are to be accessed in the community,” said Sen. Henry Helgerson, D-Wichita.

“In my mind, a homeless shelter does not meet the definition of permanent housing,” said Helgerson, who helped steer the reform bill through the 1990 legislative session.

But state officials say their hands are tied.

“We do not think it’s a good practice,” said Lori Nuebel, interim director of community mental health programs and field services at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

But the hospital, she said, should not be expected to keep residents whose conditions have stabilized and who are no longer a threat to themselves or others.

“You don’t want to hang on to people who don’t need to be there,” Nuebel said. “They belong in the community.”

Helgerson

On Thursday, Osawatomie State Hospital had 163 residents. It’s capable of caring for 185 to 190 residents.

In Lawrence, Bert Nash is responsible for finding homes — apartments, usually — for people coming out of the state hospital.

“We’ve had some success,” said Bert Nash Executive Director Dave Johnson, “but our resources are very, very limited. This is a big issue all across the state.”

Johnson warned that in 2004, “If you’re homeless when you enter the hospital, there’s a real good chance you’ll be homeless when you come out.”

It’s worse in Topeka.

“I’m guessing, but we probably take in five state-hospital people a week,” said Barry Feaker, executive director at the Topeka Rescue Mission. Some, he said, come directly from the hospital; others have fallen through cracks in the system.

The rescue mission, Feaker said, is not a good place for someone coming out of a state hospital.

“We take them because they have nowhere else to go. That’s our mission,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s right.”

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