The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1990 (Stewart B. McKinney Act) established the PATH program, which is administered at the Federal level by SAMHSA. SAMHSA awards PATH grants to States using a formula. States use the grants to fund local public and nonprofit organizations, known as PATH providers. The PATH program supports outreach and other services to individuals with serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. To be eligible for PATH program services, individuals must be age 18 and older, suffering from serious mental illnesses, and homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. (We refer to these individuals as “consumers” throughout the report.) SAMHSA requires States, as part of their application for PATH funds, to develop their own operational definitions of the terms “homeless individual,” “imminent risk of becoming homeless,” and “serious mental illness.”States awarded PATH funds must enter into formal written agreements with grant subrecipients that address PATH program requirements. Further, States must meet cost-sharing obligations for non-Federal contributions towards their PATH programs. Additionally, at the end of each grant period, grantees are required to submit to SAMHSA a Statewide Annual PATH Report that details their PATH program activities. Finally, States must complete a financial closeout of their PATH grants to determine if PATH program costs were allowable, properly allocated, or if any unused funds should have been returned to the Federal Government. As part of the financial closeout process, States must file a final Federal Financial Report (FFR) that details the amount of Federal and non-Federal costs incurred on their PATH grants (45 CFR § 75.381(a)).New York’s PATH program is administered at the State level by its Office of Mental Health (OMH). For the grant period we reviewed, SAMHSA awarded New York $4.2 million in PATH grant funds, which OMH distributed to 8 counties. These 8 counties contracted with a total of 20 non-profit organizations and local governments to provide PATH services to 4,126 enrolled consumers. In addition to PATH grant funds, these providers received financial assistance from Federal, State, and local government agencies to fund their various programs. OMH requires counties and PATH providers to submit consolidated fiscal reports that include the costs and claiming schedules for all OMH-administered programs they operate, including the PATH program
NY,
United States
