SB 22-211

Senate Bill 22-211, also known as "Repurpose The Ridge View Campus," aims to transform the Ridge View campus in Watkins, Colorado into a supportive residential community. This new facility will provide transitional housing and various services such as behavioral health treatment, medical care, and vocational training for adults who need support. It will be managed by the Division of Housing with assistance from other state departments. The bill also ensures that mental health services for youth are maintained elsewhere in Colorado while this project is underway. Since it has been signed into law, the Ridge View campus is now being repurposed to serve these new functions, and funding has been allocated to support its development and operations.

Official Summary

The department of human services (department) is required to transfer ownership of all or part of the Ridge View campus in Watkins, Colorado to the department of personnel for use by the division of housing (division) for a supportive residential community to provide transitional housing, a continuum of behavioral health service treatment, medical care, vocational training, and skill development for its residents and the general public. The division, in collaboration with the behavioral health administration and the department of human services, is required to develop a feasible master plan for the redevelopment and operations of the Ridge View campus into the Ridge View Supportive Residential Community, including a financial plan for start-up and ongoing operational costs. The division is required to enter into one or more contracts with public or private contractors to establish the Ridge View Supportive Residential Community at the Ridge View campus. The department, in partnership with the behavioral health administration and the department of health care policy and financing, is required to work to ensure that youth bed capacity will be created elsewhere in a manner that most appropriately serves the mental health needs of Colorado's youth. The Ridge View Supportive Residential Community is required to provide the following services and programs: A transitional housing program for individual adults with case management, care coordination, and vocational and housing placement assistance; A continuum of behavioral health services and treatment, informed by American Society of Addiction Medicine standards, available to people coming from the transitional housing program and to the general public; and A federally qualified health center or other primary care clinic at which people have access to medical treatments that help facilitate recovery, including medical and dental care and a continuum of behavioral health services. The health clinic and all behavioral health services and treatment are required to be accessible to people in the transitional housing program and the general public. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, and to the extent not spent in that state fiscal year the 2023-24 state fiscal year as well, the act appropriates money from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to the division for the repurposing of the Ridge View campus. The division is authorized to use up to 10% of the amount appropriated for its administrative costs in connection with the repurposing of the Ridge View campus and up to 10% of the amount appropriated for its costs in connection with transportation. The act also appropriates $44,557 from the general fund to the department for use by the behavioral health administration to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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