On Monday, March 9, 2015, 250 ACL Members joined us for our Annual Legislative Day. After a descriptive briefing of our Legislative Priorities for our members from Doug Cooper, each group – with their own personalized agenda – moved on to their appointments, which were set up in advance by Lindsey Chase of ACL. They brought with them individualized briefing books for each legislator that showed the programs in each district and a summary of our priorities and our budget request – $82 million for all 4 types of OMH funded housing programs. We completed more than 130 legislative appointments between 11:00A.M. and 2:30P.M.
We were joined in our budget request by NYAPRS, MHA-NYS, NAMI-NYS, The Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies and SHNNY, who all had legislative/lobby days within two weeks of ours. The Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors have been working with us, side by side, since last September, resulting in $10 million for Supported Housing in the Governor’s proposed budget. We heard from legislators all over the state that they are well aware of the housing issue. It’s working.
We are thankful to the ACL Members who came out and participated in what is ACL’s most important grassroots advocacy day of the year. Please MARK YOUR CALENDAR for next year – Monday, March 14, 2016— Because the more voices we have in Albany relaying the same message, the better chance we have to save and improve the most comprehensive mental health housing system in the nation!