At least eight of the 16 mental health clubhouses across New York City are losing funding and at risk of closure when their city contracts expire at the end of June, even as the city looks to expand access to clubhouses overall.
The potential closures come after the city Health Department announced new requirements for clubhouses in September, mandating that all existing providers reapply. The new rules excluded small locations and those that serve “special demographic groups,” such as LGBT individuals or older adults. City officials are in the process of finalizing a slate of new clubhouse contracts that they hope will serve more people, in fewer but larger locations.
Health Department officials said they’re making contract awards to a mix of current and new providers, expecting to fund a total of 13 clubhouses citywide, down from the current 16. But it’s not yet clear how quickly the new centers will open, and many New Yorkers with mental illnesses who participate in clubhouses said they don’t want to lose their existing communities.
Clubhouses are community spaces that seek to create tight-knit support networks for people with serious mental illnesses who might otherwise be socially isolated, while also providing connections to employment, education, housing and other services. A 2018 study found they improve members’ reported quality of life while reducing hospitalizations and health spending.
Mental health consumers and City Council members have protested the changes to the city’s clubhouse strategy in recent months, even as the Adams administration prepares to make an unprecedented investment in this little-known corner of the mental health system. The city is doubling public funding for clubhouses to about $30 million annually in an effort to triple participation from 5,000 to 15,000 New Yorkers over the next two years.
The city Health Department recently informed clubhouse providers about the contract awards but said it has not yet publicly announced them because contract details are still being negotiated.
However, department spokesperson Rachel Vick confirmed that seven of the 12 organizations that currently operate clubhouses are not getting contracts. She would not say how many total clubhouse locations those organizations operate, or name the specific providers and locations. She also declined to say when new clubhouse contracts would take effect.
It’s not trivial to shut down a clubhouse because what you’re doing is you’re shutting down a community and potentially rupturing really important relationships in the lives of people who often have challenges with building and maintaining relationships.
At least one of the organizations losing funding, senior services provider JASA, operates two separate clubhouses, bringing the total at risk of closing to at least eight. New York Disaster Interfaith Services, which operates shelter beds in addition to other services, said it agreed to transfer JASA’s staff and any willing members to its new clubhouse being opened on the Lower East Side.
Representatives of Lifelinks in Queens, Chelton Loft in Manhattan and Top Clubhouse in Manhattan each confirmed those clubhouses are among those losing contracts. Some of the organizations receiving funding only operate clubhouses, while others also provide other social services.
Peter Gudaitis, the executive director and CEO New York Disaster Interfaith Services, said he is eager for his organization to adopt the clubhouse model because he wants to help prevent homelessness, “rather than just perpetuating the shelter model, because once you get into the New York City shelter system, getting out is hard.”
Phoenix House, a substance use treatment provider that didn’t previously operate a clubhouse, is also getting funding to open one in Harlem, Ann Marie Foster, the organization’s president and CEO confirmed.
“It’s time for us to deal with both the mental health and the substance use and not try to isolate and silo the treatment,” she said.
But while some clubhouse operators are excited to open or expand, others are worried about the impact that shutting down community spaces will have on the people who rely on them.
City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan argued at a City Council hearing last month that larger clubhouses are more likely to have a robust array of activities and services for members so that members don’t just “hang out” all day.
But some clubhouse operators reject the notion that smaller facilities are less effective.
“We try to keep it relatively contained and smaller so it feels more intimate, it feels more community-based,” said Jim Malatras, chief strategy officer at the Fedcap Group, which runs Chelton Loft. The 35-year-old clubhouse in Manhattan that applied for funding but didn’t get it. “We will fight vigorously for alternative sources of funding to keep this really long serving institution alive.”
Clubhouses that are losing funding can still seek out other support to try to remain open, and members of the clubhouses that shut down can transfer to other sites, the city Health Department said. But some worried the handoff won’t be so smooth.
It’s time for us to deal with both the mental health and the substance use and not try to isolate and silo the treatment.
Lifelinks, based out of Elmhurst hospital, did not reapply for funding because it wouldn’t meet the new membership requirements and is based out of an institutional setting, placing it out of compliance with the city’s new rules, said Dice Cooper, the clubhouse’s director. He said he is worried that clubhouses like his might close before others have a chance to open or expand.
Some existing clubhouses will have to renovate or relocate to accommodate new members, while others are getting going from scratch.
Cooper said that he hopes his clubhouse will find other sources of funding so it doesn’t have to close. NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the clubhouse, did not respond to a request for comment on next steps.
Some organizations that currently operate clubhouses are getting funding to open new locations. They include Fountain House, where Vasan served as CEO before becoming city health commissioner. Fountain House, which pioneered the clubhouse model in the 1940s, will maintain its flagship site in Midtown Manhattan while expanding its site in the Bronx and opening a new location in Harlem, said Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, the organization’s chief strategic growth officer.
Delany-Brumsey added that she is pleased that as part of the expansion, the city will be collecting new data on quality-of-life outcomes for members.
“What we’re trying to do is help people be connected, feel less lonely, have more self efficacy, be able to connect to jobs, housing, their family, their friends,” Delany-Brumsey said. “Being able to be measured on those outcomes is really important.”
Fountain House does a lot of independent fundraising and Delany-Brumsey said she’s willing to consult with any organization that has lost city funding that wants to find a way to keep its clubhouse open.
She said she’s excited about Fountain House’s expansion but acknowledged that there will still be a loss for some New Yorkers’ whose clubhouses close.
“It’s not trivial to shut down a clubhouse because what you’re doing is you’re shutting down a community and potentially rupturing really important relationships in the lives of people who often have challenges with building and maintaining relationships,” she said. “It’s not a simple thing to move to another clubhouse necessarily.”