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Alameda Countywide Homeless and Special Needs Housing Plan 57 Behavioral Health in Alameda County People with behavioral health issues, including mental illness and/or substance use, face substantial challenges obtaining and maintaining stable housing, a fact that has been documented from both a behavioral health and a homelessness perspective. In Alameda County, there are 30,581 adults and children with a serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance who are in a household with an income at or below 200 percent of poverty. Alameda Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS) served more than 18,000 adults during 2002, and of these, 3,920 adults were assigned to Service Teams, which indicates that they had more intensive service needs. Available data suggests that 866 adults with mental illness are homeless at any given time in Alameda County, and the HIV/AIDS service system identified at least 23 percent of its annual clients (644) as having a mental illness. In 2004, local funding for housing for people with mental illness totaled approximately $7 million. Substance use issues are a major complicating factor for each of the plan's three target populations, and must be taken into account. In the twelve-month period ending June 2004, more than 9,000 people participated in publicly funded substance use treatment services in Alameda County. The 2004 homelessness survey in Alameda County found more than 1,736 homeless adults with substance abuse or dependence at a point in time, and 500 to 900 people living with HIV/AIDS who are estimated to have substance use issues. This chapter presents information about people with mental illness and/or substance use issues in Alameda County and the resources dedicated to meeting the housing and services needs of this population. (Please refer to Companion Materials, 9. Behavioral Health in Alameda County: Expanded Version for a more comprehensive overview of information related to this chapter.) This plan estimates that housing assistance is needed for 17,819 people with a serious and persistent mental illness who have extremely low.incomes and are at risk of becoming homeless, as well as 443 people with serious mental illness who are in the chronically homeless population and 1,095 people with serious mental illness in the community-defined homeless population. Please see the chapter entitled Housing Assistance Needs of People Who Are Homeless and/or Have Special Needs for a detailed estimate of the amount and types of, housing needed for the plan's three target populations. Mental Health In October 2004, the State of California Department of Mental Health (DMH) released estimates of the total number of people with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and serious mental illness (SMI) statewide by county, then estimated how many of them also had incomes below 200 percent of poverty ($38,700 for a family offour).49 For Alameda County, the estimate was a total of30,581 people, including 9,805 youth ages 0 to 18 and 20,775 adults ages 18 and older. 50 49 Federal Register, Vol. 70, No. 33, February 18,2005, pp. 8373-8375. Available online: www.aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/05poverty.shtml. 50 DMH advises using 200% of poverty as the upper income limit for planning for publicly funded mental health services. State of California Department of Mental Health (DMH), "Statistics & Data Analysis: Prevalence Rates of Mental Disorders, Updated October 2004," Prevalence Table 2: "Prevalence Estimates for Persons in Households <200% of Poverty For 2000 Census and Updated to July 2004, Estimates of Prevalence of Persons with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) and Serious Mental Illness (SMI) in Alameda County." Available online: www.dmh.cahwnet.gov/SADA/docs/Prevalence%20Rates/Alameda/Tablc2.pdf (Accessed: December 2, 2004).