UPDATE 11:55am 9/11/24
Positive news, folks. We may be super close to avoiding major disruptions. Our Program Director, Skyla and the AMHD Housing Coordinator Erin may have been able to broker a deal with another provider who can hānai our gang. Not hānai, but adopt or take over for us.
Nothing in writing yet, no due diligence completed yet, but thereʻs still hope and light at the end of the tunnel. Just in case, we are still going to issue the 45 day notices :( --we donʻt know if the ownersʻ gonna lets us transfer the house over or if the provider gonna say this is too expensive or too much work or too far, we donʻt want it, etc., but any relief will be major relief for everyone. Moving sucks. I hope that by next week Friday, weʻll have had time to talk and iron out the details come 10/28/24.
:)
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Aloha Residential Assistants, Group Home Consumers and their Case Managers,
This open letter is meant to clarify and explain the issuance of the 45 Day Notice to Vacate effective 10/28/24 consumers will receive on Thursday, September 12, 2024. (Excerpt below)
Re: 45 Day Notice to Vacate Effective October 28, 2024 12:00 pm
Aloha All,
This letter provides official notice that consumers will need to vacate the six (6) group homes identified above in 45 days – by 12pm October 28, 2024.
Security Deposits and prorated fees will be refunded to the name and address provided in your Program Agreements.
Our contract with the State Department of Health’s Adult Mental Health Division ends on October 27, 2024. We are financially unable to continue providing 24- & 8/16- Hr group home services at these locations based the State’s current and future rate schedules which have not changed since April 1, 2014. We will work with the State to minimize any disruptions.
We have vacancies at our nine (9) other homes which we intend to continue operating during the next contract period. Please have your case managers submit referrals to AMHD and request a transfer as early as possible.
We are grateful for the privilege of being able to serve you in these locations for as long as we have. We will be working to retain as many of our affected employees by reassigning them to our other locations.
What is the 45 Day Notice for?
We are required to provide this 45 Day Notice to inform consumers that the program is closing and consumers must find alternative housing arrangements. This notice is being issued to six (6) of Hale Na'au Pono's fifteen (15) group homes located throughout O'ahu. To protect the privacy of our consumers and employees I am not releasing the addresses of these six locations. Too often, our most vulnerable people are labeled, stigmatized, and discriminated against and I want to protect them from harassment from neighbors who cannot respect the federal privacy, civil, or fair housing rights of others.
Why are you issuing the 45 Day Notice?
Our contract expires on 10/27 and we're counting back 45 days from that, so 9/12/24.
What contract?
We have been providing group home services under contract with the State Department of Health's Adult Mental Health Division (AMHD) since December 1999. Waiʻanae Coast Community Mental Health Center, Inc., dba Hale Naʻau Pono is the largest AMHD contracted operator of 24-Hour Group Homes on Oʻahu. Between our 24-Hour and 8-to 16-Hour Group Homes, we provide 114 beds at 15 locations. Our current contract expires on 10/27/24. On 8/12/24, the State issued its "Request for Proposals" or RFP No. HTH-420-2-25.
Generally speaking, State/City/Feds buy/requisition/procure all their stuff and services through a bidding process governed by laws and procurement rules, .e.g., purchase dump trucks, build roads, run group homes. The Proposals (our bids) were originally due on 9/12 (it changed yesterday and now it's due on 9/19 but AMHD hasn't pushed back the contract award or start dates, so I dunno). Anyway, the current contract expires 10/27 and the new contracts start on 11/1 (don't ask why it doesn't overlap--the State did this). Back to my point, we are contracted to run 15 homes (114 beds), but for the new contract we're only asking to run 9 homes (68 beds).
The State may review our proposals and say, great, we've selected your proposal but you are only awarded 1 home or 5 or all 9 homes you requested, or they may say we don't like your proposal because you didn't meet our "evaluation criteria," you get no contract and no homes. I don't know. The State has very broad authority and discretion in deciding who they will and will not work with. (I think it's important for a buyer to make some judgment calls on sensitive issues--it's their money, it's their client's, it's their decision; it's a close relationship; I want to know I can trust you and if you can do the work and if you give me the reports and produce the outcomes I need--you wouldn't hire some rando to take your money and build you a house based on BS, right? So I'm confident that AMHD is gonna review all the proposal fairly, I hope they renew our contract, but who knows, with this much headache, maybe somebody else can do em mo betta mo cheap--i dunno.)
How come you closing houses? ...you lazy? you greedy? you no care ?
AMHD pays us based on a daily rate. The rate we get paid now is the same since April 1, 2014 (over 10 years ago). When they issued the New RFP last month, they wanted to keep the same rate for the next 2 years and up to 6 years. It's already been 10 years with no change and I know we cannot do the same thing for another 2, 6, and 10 years. When the contract pau in 2030, we could have gone from $7.25 minimum wage (i think we paid $8.50/hr with benefits) in 2014, to $18/hr on Jan 1, 2028. Our rents went from $2500 in 2014 to what, $4500 today and $5500 in 2030?? They are in the process of doing a "rate study" as we speak but I have no idea how long that going. It took other agencies years to complete and even longer for the Governor and the Legislature to release all, some or none of what Departments requested--study could say, State should pay gajillion dollas a day but gov and leg only approve/release 12 cents... Everybody asking for more money...cannot help everybody all the time.
Let me tell you though, our clients have enjoyed better living standards than I can ever imagine for myself living in Hawaii and working nonprofit--and I'm the big boss! (We not the same, I know you are stressed out about all this, but truthfully, I can relate to things not being super stable and hard financial times.)
Iʻve been trying to chicken little AMHD to let them know that the sky, or at least my sky is falling and we need help cuz we canʻt continue doing it as is for another 2, 6 or 10 years. AMHD has been listening and trying to see what they can do. Just yesterday they bumped the rates by 15% and all providers, not just us guys will benefit. But itʻs not enough today and wonʻt be enough on 11/1.
Right now, we going lose almost $400 grand running these 15 group homes for the State. Back in 2014, before minimum wage increases and everything getting way more expensive, was enough and we could pay people more when minimum wages went up, fix up houses, pay for an activities coordinator--heck we even had holiday parties before 2020, rememba? We have already cut staffing back to the bone and there is just no one left to cut--no time, no money, no people. I canʻt make a 2 year promise to do something I know we cannot afford. The reason we are still applying for 9 houses right now is I donʻt think the State can ready another 68 beds on 10/28 and I hope when they complete their rate study and issue the new new rates, we can finally afford to do stuff we wanted to do and should have been able to do long time ago. If can, can, but right now no can and itʻs nobodyʻs fault.
To put things in perspective...Imagine:
I ask you for run all the cafeterias at all the DOE schools, BUT, you cannot raise your prices and you only going get X dollars. COVID happened, you cannot hire/retain staff, you cannot raise prices, you cannot serve food over zoom, you cannot cut your hours to only serve food 3 days a week, you cannot get ingredients and when you can, everything is more expensive, and now you gotta wipe tables, mop floors, cook, wash dishes, manage inventory, do the bookkeeping, pay insurance, change lightbulbs, and you still losing your shirt (for a good cause tho, right).
The amount of money we have lost, are losing, and will lose is like working those cafeterias by yourself, and then going out and buying 8 brand new, loaded F-150s and yeeting them over the Pali. Do you want to/can you afford to keep throwing trucks over the Pali? Is 8 too much (15 homes same rates), what about 5 (9 homes same rates), what about just 1 (9 homes, new 15% rate increase)? This has been keeping me up at night. How long can Hale Naʻau Pono continue to afford to do this work, for a good cause? When can I no longer afford to yeet cars off the cliffs? Before it's too late and we cannot even afford to file for bankruptcy? or before so we can transition/regroup/pivot just like many other organizations have done when the environment changed? Are we gonna evolve or die?
So what now?
Hale Naʻau Pono still wants to prevent our 'ohana struggling with mental illness from becoming homeless, but we can no longer afford to continue throwing F-150s off the Pali doing work for and "at the convenience of the State." We will soon become homeless ourselves if we don't stop hemorrhaging money.
What about me?
We are actively working with AMHD to minimize the disruption/displacement/replacement of 46 consumer beds included in the closure of the 6 homes. We will inform consumers, case managers and employees as soon as AMHD tells us what they want to do with their beds and how Hale Na'au Pono can help the State minimize unnecessary pain and anxiety. Things are still early, still rocky, but not over. Iʻm asking everyone to bear with us until we get some sort of clarity and finality, but I completely understand if youʻre unsure and wanna play things safe.
We wanna keep as many staff as we can and assign them to the other group homes cuz we are just suffering with the amount of overtime we have to pay--i dunno if our RAs remember what a weekend or a holiday was--because we just donʻt have enough staff. Iʻm sure that who ever is going to take over the beds its also in our same boat and are struggling to find good workers amidst fierce competition and a losing battle with fast food places that can pay more than we can. We still get vacancies at our other houses and houses at other providers if you want your CM to request a transfer sooner rather than later.
How come nobody doing nothin?
We all are but I dunno, we all trying to "make a dollar out of fifteen cents." I'm kinda sad and disappointed myself that the Governor's Office and his Administration could not address or prioritize the mental health, housing, or rural health needs of our community during this Term. Maybe he had more important stuff and he couldn't hear our prayers--he's a busy guy and there's a lot of need out there, yeah. We hope he will hear us before it's too late for us. Even if this program or HNP doesn't survive this metaphorical wildfire, there will be life. People and agencies will fill in just as vegetation will grow back after the fire breaks and makes our mountains green again.
Kīpuka can take many forms. I can't tell you yet what the landscape is going to look like on 10/28--maybe nothing changes cuz we could figure out how to make it work until the next crisis, maybe we can extend it for 60 days to give AMHD and Providers enough time to open 6 new houses, maybe AMHD already has houses ready and you could leave today if you wanted. We just don't know yet.
This happened to us before in 2013 and we were there to help others when the situation reversed in 2014, 2017, and 2022. Change is the only constant.
Is everything closing down?
NO NO NO.
Right now, we are scheduled to close just 6 of the 15 group homes we operate on 10/28/24. We never know whether we will get re-awarded this or any contract. We expect to get a new contract for 9 homes on 11/1/24. We do have another program scheduled to close - our Transitional Family Home/Therapeutic Respite Home/Therapeutic Crisis Home program on 12/27/24 when that contract expires. Same thing, we didnʻt apply to run this program when the RFP was released--losing money for long time, too many piled up F-150s, we average 1 client a year keeping this program running 24/7.
STILL OPEN: 9 group homes. Our intensive in home therapy and independent living skills with the kiddos is OPEN (pray they award us a new contract for 12/28/24), Uncle Joeʻs case management program still strong and OPEN and Barbie folks are still running hard with Waiʻanae Neighborhood Place, donation closet, SNAP outreach, and the dozens of other events she, Kehau, and Melissa have OPEN.
My sincere apologies for bearing the news this way and not being able to give you all the answers you wanted.
We're gonna make it through this.
Mahalo,
Pohā Sonoda-Burgess (He/Him)
Executive Director
9/11/2024
Executive Director
9/11/2024
