© 2024
Virginia's Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Closing of State Facilities Remains a Challenge for Lawmakers

It does not appear that Virginia lawmakers have a clear idea of how to house and treat thousands of people who are developmentally and intellectually disabled after the federal government ordered four of the five state facilities to close as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice. The debate isn't about whether it's right to house them within their communities, but whether the state can pay for adequate facilities to fit ALL their needs.  

Lawmakers have been weighing where to house hundreds of people already placed in institutions along with 92-hundred others still on waiting lists. This is after a court found that the state was warehousing patients instead of providing community-based services. The state is considering building new community-based homes which would house up to 16 people—costing billions in capital and operating expenses.  But Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Dr. Debra Ferguson says that's not necessarily the case.

But Delegate Scott Garrett says it's not that simple.

And those two primary issues are creating a stalemate.  The Joint Commission on Healthcare took no official action on options that are variants of the two ideas, but it’s understood that unresolved issues will carry over into the next legislative session.

Tommie McNeil is a State Capitol reporter who has been covering Virginia and Virginia politics for more than a decade. He originally hails from Maryland, and also doubles as the evening anchor for 1140 WRVA in Richmond.