Resolution 2007-03 Recommending Laguna Honda General Funds

RESOLUTION #2007-03

San Francisco Mayor's Disability Council Resolution Recommending That General Fund Dollars Spent
At Laguna Honda be Redirected to
Community-Based Housing and Services


WHEREAS, keeping people in Laguna Honda takes $36,000 to $50,000 per resident per year from the City's General Fund, costing the City $50 million every year; and

WHEREAS, this is in addition to approximately $90,000 per year per person in state and federal dollars; and

WHEREAS, these costs, in both general fund dollars and state and federal dollars continue to increase every year; and

WHEREAS, the operations budget for Laguna Honda Hospital is the single largest cost item in the entire Public Health budget; and

WHEREAS, the City is in the process of building a smaller facility for 780 residents to replace the current facility, but for which the cost of operations will remain high; and

WHEREAS, the City currently has approximately 500 slots on the Nursing Facility / Acute Hospital (NF/AH) Waiver for up to $77,600 a year per person for services funded entirely by State and Federal dollars to support Laguna Honda residents in community-based independent living arrangements and which would bring up to $38 million in new state and federal dollars into San Francisco each year; and

WHEREAS, California Assembly Bill 2968, now passed, requires the state to create an additional reimbursement rate structure through a Medi-Cal Waiver to provide community-based services in San Francisco for persons with disabilities who would otherwise require more costly and restrictive institutional care, be living in shelters, or potentially homeless; and

WHEREAS, the expressed preference for the majority of people in need of skilled nursing or assisted living is to live independently with social and medical supports;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Mayor's Disability Council urges the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors to direct the administration of Laguna Honda to expedite the use of these Skilled Nursing Waivers to help people transition from skilled nursing to assisted living; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor's Disability Council recommends that the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors establish a mechanism to capture the General Fund savings from each bed closed at Laguna Honda; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors invest these General Fund savings with half of the savings invested in low-income, accessible housing development and half invested in the Community Living Trust Fund to fund community services.



September 21, 2007 Mayor's Disability Council – ADOPTED

Ayes: 9 - Jack Fagan, Jul Lynn Parsons,
Norma Block, Denise Senhaux,
Richard Ow, Tatiana Kostanian,
F. Ross Woodall, Sarah Estes Merrell and Raphaella Bennin.

Nay: 0

Absent: Elizabeth Grigsby and Amy Wishnie