I just returned from an open house for a new affordable housing initiative in Baltimore City which is a shining example of the possibilities for creating housing for people with psychiatric disabilities. No one from the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration attended the event. Why?

Because the administration has failed to understand that affordable housing is an integral part of the recovery process for people with psychiatric disabilities in Maryland. Instead, they have extended a moratorium on the development of affordable housing by mental health providers that has been in effect since 2001.

Despite the best efforts of small housing development providers like the one I attended today, the effects of the moratorium have been ruinous. This is not to mention the advocacy efforts of the state's consumer "advocacy" organization, in the pocket of the Mental Hygiene Administration, who has advocated for the moratorium, yet benefitted from state funding to develop their own housing.

Although it cannot be scientifically connected, emergency room utilization by people with psychiatric disabilities has increased over the decade.

The prohibition, initially based on financial, potential liability, has come back to bite the entire system. The state is looking to cut $40 million dollars in Medicaid savings would do well to look at the major reason for repetitive emergency room visits- housing.