New funds could save some NYC mental health clubhouses

The New York City Council is making a last-ditch effort to save at least some of the nine mental health clubhouses that are at risk of closing when their contracts with the city expire on Sept. 30.

New Yorkers who participate in these spaces — which provide social services and a sense of community for people with serious mental illnesses — have been fighting to keep them open. But leaders of some of these clubhouses said that even with a new $2 million infusion of discretionary spending in the city budget, it’s not yet clear how many clubhouses that money can fund, or for how long.

The Adams administration set off the scramble to save the clubhouses when it changed the requirements to receive funding earlier this year in an effort to serve more people through fewer, but larger, locations. The administration is doubling its own spending on the model to $30 million a year, including on some new clubhouse service providers, funding 13 locations in all.

But some clubhouse operators are being left out. Operators of nine of the city’s 16 existing clubhouses either declined to reapply for funding because they could not meet the new health department requirements, or applied and got rejected.

Some clubhouse operators said transitioning their members to new facilities would mean abandoning existing, tight-knit support communities.

Because the Council has discretion over the new $2 million in new spending, it won’t be subject to the same requirements the Adams administration put in place. But it’s not enough to cover a full year of expenses for all the centers currently at risk of closing — as the contracts being terminated amount to an estimated $5 million a year.

It’s also not necessarily a recurring source of funding, meaning clubhouses that depend on the money to keep their doors open will close if they can’t find more sustainable solutions, such as private foundation support.

City Councilmember Linda Lee said she and her colleagues are still figuring out how to allocate the $2 million.

“During a budget where we all were fighting for such important initiatives, I’m just happy that we were able to get this in there,” Lee said.

One of the clubhouses that lost its contract with the city is Chelton Loft, which has been operating in Harlem for 35 years. If it’s selected for some of the $2 million in funding, that “will go a long way in providing us some financial relief as we find long-term financial solutions to keeping our doors open,” said Jim Malatras, chief strategy officer for the nonprofit Fedcap Group, which runs Chelton Loft.

Malatras said many of Chelton Loft’s 130 or so members choose to participate in a smaller clubhouse because it’s “more intimate.” Clubhouses are run, in part, by the members who use them, meaning they help shape the environment and services.

It’s still too soon to comment on the future, said Trish Anderton, a spokesperson for Goddard Riverside, the human services organization that runs Top Clubhouse on the Upper West Side.

But Roderick Jones, president of Goddard Riverside, said he was grateful for the support of City Council members like Gale Brewer, who represents Top Clubhouse’s district.

“They heard the voices of clubhouse members across the city, who, through self-determination, rallied to keep their communities together,” Jones said.

Lifelinks, a clubhouse based out of Elmhurst hospital in Queens, is one of the facilities that did not reapply for city funding because it was unlikely to qualify under the new rules. Lifelinks Director Dice Cooper said he wants to take advantage of the money from the City Council to try to stay open, but the decision is up to NYC Health + Hospitals, which runs Elmhurst.

Cooper said he is under pressure from NYC Health + Hospitals management to close even before funding runs out on Sept. 30.

NYC Health + Hospitals did not respond to a request for comment on whether the public hospital system would pursue the City Council funding to keep Lifelinks open. The city Health Department and the mayor’s office both declined to comment on this story.

Cooper and Lee both said they are concerned that some of the newer, bigger clubhouses that won city contracts in the latest funding round will not be up and running by the time the existing ones close.

Several of the organizations that are slated to open new clubhouses did not respond to questions from Gothamist about their timeline for being able to accept new members.

Fountain House, which currently runs clubhouses in Midtown and the Bronx, should have a new location open in Central Harlem “as soon as this fall,” said Minhee Cho, a spokesperson for the organization.