From the Austin American-Statesman:

Boarding homes for elderly people and those with disabilities lack government oversight in Texas, leaving residents at risk for unsanitary living conditions, theft, assault and inadequate care, advocates say.

The problems were highlighted by the recent arrest of Tommie Yvette McKinney, a Texas boarding house operator who was charged with bilking one of her residents. Public records show that McKinney has had at least 14 theft convictions, and has been sent to prison for felony theft in three different Texas counties.

Advocates say unscrupulous operators are free to prey on vulnerable people in thousands of state boarding homes because regulations do not require that they be licensed, unlike nurses, massage therapist, locksmiths and other professionals who must undergo state background checks and inspections.

After years of debate, Texas legislators this spring granted individual cities the authority to license and regulate the homes but provided no funding for the task.

Advocates for elderly and mentally ill people say one reason the system has been permitted to exist with no oversight is that boarding homes provide cheap housing that government can’t, or won’t. The January report found that residents of boarding homes were among the state’s neediest. About a third of the residents had some form of mental illness; another third were elderly.

… Advocates say the system establishes a dangerous dynamic: Clients who most need assistance often can’t afford the more expensive licensed assisted living facilities that provide it and so end up at unlicensed boarding homes – which by law can offer no help, even with the most basic tasks, such as handling their many medications.

“Medicine bottles were everywhere; it was just a free-for-all,” said Carson Palmer, who last year was forced to live in a boarding home in Northeast Austin after a bad car accident left him unable to work. His mattress had blood stains, he recalled; cockroaches climbed over him at night.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am and is filed under accountability, housing, mental health, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.