North Carolina Olmstead Settlement Initiative

What is Olmstead? Olmstead v. L.C. is a US Supreme Court Decision in 1999

What is Olmstead? The US Supreme Court held that public entities (state and local government) have an affirmative obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure that individuals with disabilities live in the least restrictive, most integrated settings as possible, provided the setting is appropriate for the individual.

What is Olmstead? The regulations implementing Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) define an integrated setting as one that “enables individuals with disabilities to interact with nondisabled persons to the fullest extent possible”

Implementing Olmstead The decision required states to create a comprehensive, effectively working plan for placing qualified persons with mental disabilities in less restrictive settings, and have a waiting list that moves at a reasonable pace not controlled by the state’s endeavors to keep its institutions fully populated, to demonstrate that the reasonable modification standard of the ADA is met.

Implementing Olmstead For an Olmstead Plan to serve as a reasonable defense against legal action it must include, “…concrete and reliable commitments to expand integrated opportunities… and there must be funding to support the plan.”

North Carolina Olmstead Complaint A Brief History 1990 Passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1999 US Supreme Court Olmstead decision

North Carolina Olmstead Complaint A Brief History July 29, 2010 Disability Rights NC files a complaint with the US Department of Justice alleging failure to comply with Olmstead July 28, 2011 US Department of Justice issued a “Findings Letter” August 23, 2012 North Carolina entered into a Settlement Agreement with the US Department of Justice

Settlement Agreement Housing Milestones July 1, move 300 individuals (with a min of 100) from institutional settings into integrated housing July 1, 2014 – move an additional 150 individuals July 1, 2015 – move a total of 708 individuals

Settlement Agreement Housing Milestones July 1, 2016 – move a total of 1,166 individuals July 1, 2017 – move a total of 1,624 individuals July 1, 2018 – move a total of 2,082 individuals July 1, 2019 – move a total of 2,541 individuals July 1, 2020 – move a total of 3,000 individuals

North Carolina Housing Tools to Implement the Olmstead Settlement Agreement Transitions to Community Living Initiative (TCLI) Tenant based rental assistance with wrap around supports available only to persons in the Settlement Class Used with any affordable rental housing that meets HUD Housing Quality Standards (HQS) Administered by DHHS

North Carolina Housing Tools to Implement the Olmstead Settlement Agreement Targeting and Key Project based Tax Credit units with Key rental assistance 10% of the units in each project as mandated by the QAP Anyone with a disability may be eligible, but a priority to house individuals within the Settlement Class is now in place. Jointly administered by DHHS and NCHFA

Criticisms of North Carolina’s Current Efforts 1.We are not meeting the milestones of the Settlement Agreement and must develop a plan to get on track

Criticisms of North Carolina’s Current Efforts 2.There are inadequate numbers of appropriately sized affordable rental units in the DHHS priority counties

Criticisms of North Carolina’s Current Efforts 3.There are inadequate numbers of affordable 1 bedroom apartments across the state in general

Criticisms of North Carolina’s Current Efforts 4.Too many of the individuals in the Settlement Class are being screened out of the Targeted tax credit units because of credit and criminal histories

Stakeholder Suggested Corrective Actions 1.We are not meeting the milestones of the Settlement Agreement and must develop a plan to get on track Suggestion: Redirect/divert additional housing resources to meet the settlement agreement

Stakeholder Suggested Corrective Actions 2.There are inadequate numbers of appropriately sized affordable rental units in the DHHS priority counties Suggestion: Focus the Tax Credit development program on the DHHS priority counties

Stakeholder Suggested Corrective Actions 3.There are inadequate numbers of affordable 1 bedroom rental units across the state in general Suggestion: Use the QAP to mandate the inclusion of 1 bedroom units in all properties

Stakeholder Suggested Corrective Actions 4.Too many of the individuals in the Settlement Class are being screened out of the Targeted tax credit units because of credit and criminal histories Suggestion: Use the QAP to mandate reduced screening of persons in the Settlement Class to insure access to Targeted units

NCHFA’s Response 1.We are not meeting the milestones of the SettlementAgreement and must develop a plan to get on track Suggestion: Redirect/divert additional housing resources to meet the settlement agreement We are recruiting RD, HUD and older, not already participating Tax Credit and non TC properties to sign up for Targeting and Key We are recruiting already participating Tax Credit properties to increase Targeting and Key participation to 20% of their units

NCHFA’s Response 2.There are inadequate numbers of appropriately sized affordable rental units in the DHHS priority counties Suggestion: Focus the Tax Credit development program in the DHHS priority counties We are proposing incentives in the QAP for developments in the DHHS priority counties

NCHFA’s Response 3.There are inadequate numbers of affordable 1 bedroom apartments across the state in general Suggestion: Use the QAP to mandate the inclusion of 1 bedroom units in all properties We are proposing incentives in the QAP for developments that include 1 bedroom units

NCHFA’s Response 4.Too many of the individuals in the Settlement Classare being screened out of the Targeted tax credit units because of credit and criminal histories Suggestion: Use the QAP to mandate reduced screening of persons in the Settlement Class to insure access to Targeted units We are encouraging management agents to re-think Credit and Criminal screening policies

Credit – Our Ask Please waive checking credit for households in Targeted Units Why?

Credit – Our Ask Why? We are providing risk mitigation tools to substantially reduce financial risk Key Rent Assistance pays a significant percentage of the rent We pay the security deposits based on the payment standard ($500 for a 1 bedroom unit) – often higher than the deposit collected for non-Targeted units We reimburse unpaid damages We reimburse unpaid tenant portion of rent We reimburse for vacancy due to tenant abandonment of unit We plan to start reimbursing the costs of evictions (working on rules to implement)

Criminal History – Our Ask Please review your criminal history policy and compare it to the model policy being developed by NCHFA, DHHS and the NC Justice Center and modify your policy to align where possible Why?

Criminal History – Our Ask Why? Policies that are too restrictive may be construed as a Fair Housing violation The US Supreme Court’s recent Disparate Impact ruling makes screening and the impacts on protected classes a likely area of increased future litigation If we fail to house substantially more members of the Settlement Class in Tax Credit housing, the US DOJ may impose less desirable remedies

More on our Recruiting Efforts All units not mandated by the QAP are considered voluntary Voluntary units have no long term participation commitments Properties that offer voluntary units may be eligible for enhanced payment standard in high rent counties Program will strive to further reduce unit hold times and pay for holds after a reasonable period We are recruiting units across the state with a priority on the DHHS High Demand counties

We Need Your Help to Meet the Terms of the Settlement Agreement Should we fail, the next round of remedies may be imposed on us