SENATE BILL REPORT

                                    SB 5332

             AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH & LONG-TERM CARE,

                                 MARCH 5, 1991

Brief Description:  Providing residential care for disabled persons.

SPONSORS:Senators Wojahn, West, Niemi, L. Smith, Madsen, Rasmussen, Snyder, Gaspard, Moore and Bauer.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH & LONG‑TERM CARE

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5332 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators West, Chairman; L. Smith, Vice Chairman; Amondson, Johnson, L. Kreidler, Niemi, and Wojahn.  

Staff:  Don Sloma (786‑7414)

Hearing Dates:February 13, 1991; March 5, 1991

BACKGROUND:

Over the past 30 years, Washington State has chosen, where possible, to emphasize community-based care over institutional care for disabled people.  Currently, institutional land and buildings that become vacant due to this policy are rented by other users.  Often, the only charges assessed to these tenants are the costs of the utilities that they use.

Lands devoted to the care of the mentally ill and disabled are defined as including lands where state-owned residential treatment facilities (institutions) are sited.  The majority of this land (3,513 acres) is managed by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).  Lands at Northern State Hospital (1,075 acres) are managed by the Department of General Administration (DGA) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).  Two nursing homes for veterans are run by the state Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Schools for the Deaf and for the Blind are operated by separate boards of trustees.

Other lands held in trust for the mentally ill and disabled include lands managed by DNR in the Charitable, Educational, Penal and Reformatory Institutions (CEP & RI) trust account.  These lands were earmarked by the federal government at statehood for the support of these institutions.  The CEP & RI trust currently contains 72,840 acres.  DNR has traded land over the years, maintaining the value of the trust but not necessarily the acreage.

Washington courts have ruled that DNR must be compensated whenever grant lands are put to a use for which they were not originally intended.  Historically, income from the CEP & RI trust has been used to maintain capital facilities at state institutions.

SUMMARY:

Every five years DSHS and other state agencies that operate institutions must conduct an inventory of all real property not needed for resident care.  The department must report the results of the inventory to the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Facilities and Financing, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, and the Legislative Budget Committee.

Real property identified as not needed for state-provided residential care, custody, or treatment must be transferred to the CEP & RI account.  DNR, in consultation with DSHS, shall manage all property in the CEP & RI account. 

The Low-Income Housing Assistance Advisory Committee is to advise the Director of the Department of Community Development on the housing needs of persons who are mentally ill or developmentally disabled or youth who are disabled.  All advice from the committee must be consistent with policies and plans developed by the regional support networks and the developmental disabilities planning council.  The director must include in the annual report on housing trust funds, housing needs for persons who are mentally ill or developmentally disabled or youth who are disabled. 

If feasible, as determined by the committee, not less than one-quarter of all income to the CEP & RI account must be appropriated for the purpose of providing housing, excluding repair and renovation of state institutions, for persons who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or youth who are disabled. 

DNR must make every effort to lease CEP & RI land in urban or suburban areas that have a potential for commercial or residential development.  Income from these leases must be deposited to the CEP & RI account with one-half of the income to be appropriated by the Legislature to provide community housing for persons who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled, or youth who are disabled.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE:

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is authorized to trade urban and suburban land in the CEP & RI trust for other land of comparable value.

The role of the Low Income Housing Assistance Advisory Committee with regard to use of income from the CEP & RI trust is altered from determining the need for one-fourth of the income to be used for community housing to consulting on the feasibility of such a designation.

Appropriation:  none

Revenue:  none

Fiscal Note:  available

Effective Date:  The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

TESTIMONY FOR:

Some nine out of ten people with chronic disabilities are cared for in the community.  Yet the land trust established for their care and the surplus institutional land acquired for their care provides funds primarily for maintaining the institutions where only about one in ten live.  Adequate funding alternatives have not been provided for community housing.  The bill would begin that process.

TESTIMONY AGAINST:  None

TESTIFIED:  PRO:  Pat McElroy, DNR; Thom Goodfellow, Lisa Murphy, Ron Turner, Bill LaFleur, Allyn Richards, Alex Von Boxendell, Capital Clubhouse; Dick Dorsett, Pierce County; Eleanor Owen, WAMI; John Reynolds, DSHS