Three ‘clubhouses’ for mentally ill New Yorkers poised to lose city funding

Three “clubhouses” that offer services to mentally ill New Yorkers are poised to lose city funding, under a new plan.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Wednesday sent out award letters for 13 mental health clubhouses under a new city plan — leaving at least three currently operating sites off the list and its clients potentially at risk of slipping through the city’s cracks.

The department contends that a $30 million revamp will allow 10,000 more New Yorkers with severe mental illness to get services that will keep them out of hospitals and jails and off the streets. Clubhouses are centers where New Yorkers with mental illness can get opportunities for work, education, skill development, housing and social connection.  

“When you think about what it’s like for someone to live with and recover from severe mental illness … you need a stable community,” Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan told the Daily News. “And this comes through community organizations like clubhouses that provide community. We need to expand access to that dramatically if we’re going to stop the churn of people through the city’s criminal justice system.”

Critics of the new program say it will uproot existing clubhouses and prioritize bigger facilities. Around 20 City Council members raised concerns about the initiative in a letter to Vasan and Mayor Adams sent earlier this year. Nearly 5,000 people signed a petition late last year saying that the new system “will have [a] devastating impact on the mental health of thousands of members who make up existing Clubhouses that will be forced to close.”

“If we care about people in this city who are living with severe mental illnesses, then that means that you’re trying to provide as much access in as many different venues and formats and programming as possible,” said Councilwoman Linda Lee (D-Queens), head of the Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction. “So that people can meet their needs for support, right? It shouldn’t be to diminish and take away.”

Lee is hopeful that those clubhouse members will find the services they need elsewhere, but worries about those who may not.

Vasan said the city will be “calling every single person in each of these buildings” and will try to ensure they don’t lose access to services.

It’s not all bad news for providers, though.

Juliet Douglas, chief executive officer of Ventrue House, which currently operates clubhouses in Queens and Staten Island, said she was “thrilled” to receive an award letter on Wednesday. 

“The city recognized that we are actually a substantial part of the solution, of homelessness and criminal justice involvement, hospitalizations — that we really help provide a helpful service,” she said.

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