Supportive housing facility transitions to full occupancy

A house is not a home, the saying goes.

But for residents of Transitions, as well as The Cottages, it will be. Transitions is a two-story,

12-bed supportive housing facility for the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. The Cottages, operated by the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, are 10 separate one-level units that provide permanent supportive housing for individuals with serious persistent mental illness. Transitions and The Cottages, along with a crisis recovery center, are part of the Treatment and Recovery Campus of Douglas County. The campus is located north of the Bert Nash Center.

The crisis recovery center is under construction and will be completed in February 2022. Behavioral Health Partners, Inc., a nonprofit partnership between LMH Health and the Bert Nash Center, will provide leadership, clinical oversight, and operational management of the crisis recovery center.

Mathew Faulk, Bert Nash Center director of housing, said a recent state walk-through for Transitions, which opened in March, went very well. The last item on the to-do list is working with a nutritionist to develop a nutrition guide for residents of Transitions, who are responsible for doing their own cooking.

“That was one of the last pieces for getting our license in place for that facility,” Faulk said. “The license is dated for June 1, so on June 1 we will be able to open up all 12 beds. Right now, we’re only operating five.”

Bridges, a transitional group home for Bert Nash Center clients, recently reopened after undergoing some improvements.

“There are five beds open at Bridges,” Faulk said. “With the 12 beds at Transitions, that will increase our capacity to 17. So that will be a large enhancement to our capacity for serving folks who have severe housing and security issues and need some additional supports around their mental health recovery. There is a waiting list we are working through to fill those beds. But with the addition of seven more beds, that waiting list should diminish quickly.”

There are two residents living at The Cottages with the hope the remaining units will open in July. “That means all of those programs will be fully operational very shortly, hopefully,” Faulk said.

Bert Nash Center CEO Patrick Schmitz congratulated Faulk and his team and said, “This is every exciting for our community.”