West Michigan families are facing a growing crisis in residential and community mental health care, specifically affecting vulnerable residents, children with autism, aging parents, residential providers, local taxpayers, and families throughout Ottawa, Kent, and Muskegon counties.
Funding should follow the need, and the existing funding model should be fixed. I’ve outlined real solutions to the problems below.
Joe Moss
Ottawa County Commissioner
Candidate for State Representative, District 89
West Michigan Is Being Underfunded
Community Mental Health services in our region are overseen by the Lakeshore Regional Entity (“LRE”). MDHHS funds the LRE, which then distributes resources to local Community Mental Health agencies across West Michigan.
The problem is clear: state funding has not kept pace with the true cost of care.
Two of the greatest pressures are the rising cost of residential care and the rapid growth of autism services for children. In each of the past two fiscal years, the combined Community Mental Health funding shortfall for Ottawa and Kent counties has been approximately $20 million. While RFK Jr. and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services continue to investigate the root causes of autism, we must continue to address the issues on the ground here in Michigan.
Rainy Day Fund and Losses
Until now, the LRE’s rainy-day fund has helped absorb these losses and protect care for vulnerable residents and children with autism. This is expected to be the final year those reserves can cover the shortfall.
When that safety net is no longer available, the needs will remain—but the resources to meet them will not.
Residential homes will still care for people with significant and complex needs. Children with autism will still need timely and effective services. Aging parents will still need safe, dependable care for the sons and daughters they have loved and supported throughout their lives.
This is an immediate crisis requiring action from MDHHS and the Michigan Legislature.
Funding Should Follow the Need
The current funding model does not adequately reflect the needs of the people being served or the actual cost of their care.
Areas of Michigan with higher percentages of residents enrolled in Medicaid often receive more funding, while West Michigan communities are left struggling to meet significant residential needs and growing demand for autism services.
The LRE and our local Community Mental Health agencies cannot distribute resources the state has failed to provide.
“Funding should follow the person and the level of care required—not simply the ZIP code in which that person lives.”
The state has a statutory obligation to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, children with autism, and others with significant mental health and care needs. That responsibility must not be shifted onto regional agencies, local governments, families, providers, charitable donors, or local taxpayers already carrying tremendous burdens.
Excellence Has Increased the Responsibility
Ottawa County has long been known for the excellence of its Community Mental Health services.
Our community’s heart for people, commitment to quality care, and network of dedicated providers have led families from across Michigan, and even from outside the state, to move here seeking care for children with autism and loved ones with significant residential needs.
That is something our community should be proud of.
But it also means Ottawa County is serving an increased number of people, including children and adults with intense and costly needs, without receiving sufficient state funding to support their care.
West Michigan should not be penalized financially because our providers have pursued excellence or because families have sought compassionate, high-quality care in our communities.
Families and Providers Are Carrying the Burden
Residential homes serving some of our most vulnerable neighbors are too often forced to pursue substantial private fundraising simply to continue providing essential care. These providers are doing work the state is responsible for ensuring, yet many must continually struggle to keep essential services available.
In recent years, Ottawa County has worked hard to stabilize residential providers in financial crisis and protected vulnerable residents from the trauma of losing their homes or placements.
At the same time, growing autism service needs have placed additional pressure on a system that is already underfunded.
Our local residents have stepped forward with compassion and generosity. But local dollars cannot permanently compensate for an inadequate state funding model.
MDHHS cannot continue relying on regional reserves, private fundraising, local tax dollars, and the sacrifice of families and providers to hold together an underfunded system.
When providers are focused on surviving, they cannot expand residential capacity, strengthen autism services, recruit and retain caregivers, or prepare for the growing number of people who will need care in the years ahead.
The Families Behind the Policy
This crisis is becoming more urgent as parents and family caregivers age and more children require autism services.
In 2025, a 91-year-old father attended an Ottawa County Community Mental Health Board meeting and asked for help caring for his adult son. His love and devotion were unmistakable.
He represents so many unsung heroes in our communities: parents who have faithfully cared for children with significant needs for decades, often while quietly wondering who will protect and care for their loved ones when they are no longer able to do so.
Families raising children with autism carry their own concerns about whether needed services will remain available, timely, and sustainable as their children grow.
These families should not have to plead for a system that works. They should not have to wonder whether a loved one will lose a placement, or a child will go without needed services because the state failed to fund their care.
MDHHS Must Fulfill Its Responsibility
There has been limited progress on this issue in recent years. In 2025, funding appropriated by the Michigan Legislature for Community Mental Health, but delayed within MDHHS, was ultimately released.
That must not happen again.
When the Legislature appropriates taxpayer dollars for Community Mental Health, MDHHS must promptly and fully distribute those funds to the regional and local entities responsible for delivering residential care, autism services, and other essential supports.
Money intended for vulnerable residents must not be delayed, withheld, redirected, or left within the department while local providers struggle to meet immediate needs.
The approaching loss of the LRE’s financial safety net has exposed what West Michigan providers and families have known for years: the current funding model is not sustainable.
Michigan cannot wait until residential homes close, children with autism face service disruptions, or vulnerable residents lose placements.
A Better Funding Model for Michigan
In Lansing, I will advocate for:
- A needs-based and cost-informed Community Mental Health funding model that reflects each individual’s needs and the true cost of care.
- Adequate funding for high-needs residential services, including realistic projections for rising staffing, housing, and operating costs.
- Eliminate wasteful spending, especially on things like DEI, ghost employees, and fraud.
- Responsible planning and sufficient funding for the continued growth of autism services for Michigan children and families.
- Work with the national DHHS and RFK Jr. to address root causes of autism.
- Require that MDHHS fully and promptly distribute all funds appropriated for Community Mental Health.
- Require that MDHHS act on findings and recommendations from RFK Jr.
- A long-term strategy to strengthen residential capacity before aging parents and caregivers are no longer able to provide care at home.
- Strong legislative oversight, transparency, and safeguards to ensure funding reaches vulnerable residents and qualified providers—and to prevent the waste, fraud, and abuse.
Our Families Are Counting on Us
Funding should follow the person based on need, not based on the ZIP code in which they live. Every person’s situation is unique. Some have access to more resources, some have almost nothing.
Our providers need the stability to continue serving. Our communities need the ability to prepare for the future. And families across Ottawa, Kent, Muskegon, and the broader West Michigan region deserve to know that their children and loved ones will not be forgotten.
MDHHS has an obligation to care for Michigan’s most vulnerable residents. It cannot continue to underfund residential care and autism services, deplete the reserves that have temporarily cover the shortage, and shift the remaining burden onto families, providers, charitable donors, and local taxpayers.
Our families are counting on state leaders to act before this funding crisis becomes an even greater human crisis.
“In Lansing, I will work to hold MDHHS accountable and deliver a Community Mental Health funding system that follows the needs of the individual.”
The CMH funding model should reflect the true cost of residential and autism care, strengthens long-term capacity, and ensures that no vulnerable Michigan residents are neglected because of where they live.
