Deschutes County (County) is pleased to announce a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the County’s Behavioral Health Housing Investment Funds to be applied toward approved housing projects for adults (18 years and older) who experience Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and a co-occurring mental health condition and who require licensed residential care or supportive housing. The County is seeking to utilize Behavioral Health Housing Investment Funds to develop and increase capacity across the County, with a targeted focus on supporting individuals with a high level of care for whom current capacity within Central Oregon is lacking. The County’s capacity to obtain residential placement for people who experience IDD and mental health conditions (Target Population) is limited. Individuals in this “Target Population” often face many barriers when accessing housing services within the County. The addition of housing resources will increase the County’s capacity to house individuals stepping down from the Oregon State Hospital (OSH), or other licensed care settings, or who would otherwise require hospital level of care and support the unique needs of individuals in the target population. The County also wishes to use this project as a model to potentially scale to other existing or future IDD Residential developments to expand this service and improve access to mental health services for individuals with IDD. The County is seeking to use the Behavioral Health Housing Investment Funds to meet the following goals: • Help relieve the need to refer Deschutes resident’s out-of-county by increasing the number of skilled residential providers throughout Deschutes County for people who experience mental health and IDD. • Help address health barriers and housing access disparities experienced by individuals with IDD and co-occurring mental health conditions. • Decrease the number of people within the target population who face houseless. • Address or reduce barriers people with behavioral health disorders may encounter preventing access to safe and supported housing.
