Reach proposes medical-respit and supportive-housing conversion at West State Street to link hospital discharges to stable care

Reach Medical presented a dual medical-respit and permanent supportive-housing proposal that the organization says would fill regional gaps in post-hospital care for people experiencing homelessness.

Samantha Stevenson, Reach's director of operations, said the plan would place 10 medical-respit beds alongside 10 permanent supportive units at 618 West State Street, a property the organization has under a lease-to-own agreement. Medical-respit beds are reimbursable through New York managed Medicaid and provide up to 90 days of supervised housing and medical care for patients leaving hospital care who are not yet ready for independent discharge to standard housing.

Why it matters: Stevenson said New York State has very few medical-respit facilities and none in rural southern-tier counties; the model can reduce hospital use and costly readmissions by providing a bed-to-bed handoff coordinated with Cayuga Medical Center clinicians. Reach projected a capital budget near $4.4 million, would seek HHAP and other sources for construction, and plans to use ESHI and Medicaid reimbursement for operating subsidy on the supportive and respit sides respectively.

Services and operations: Reach proposed 24/7 licensed staff onsite to deliver integrated behavioral health, addiction medicine, primary care and case management, with the goal of preventing hospital discharges to the street. The applicant said the model has demonstrated cost savings in other jurisdictions via reductions in hospital utilization and that the presence of onsite clinical staff supports lower rates of eviction and emergency encounters.

Committee discussion: Reviewers asked about site control, phasing and the timing of construction financing; Reach said the lease-to-own contract allows purchase after one year and that $100,000 of local construction support would be folded into a larger financing package. Questions about rent subsidies and which units would be under rental subsidy programs were answered by the presenter: ESHI would subsidize the 10 permanent supportive units and Medicaid-managed reimbursement would cover the medical-respit bed operations.

Next steps: Reach plans to apply for HHAP funds and other state/local sources; the IURA will consider any request as part of its upcoming funding deliberations.