The county board approved funding for 24/7 staffing for a medical respite facility operated by Integrated Services of Kalamazoo, a program designed to give medically fragile homeless individuals a place to recover after hospital discharge rather than returning to shelters, cars, or encampments.
Without this, people discharged from hospitals with complex medical needs cycle back through emergency rooms, repeat hospital admissions, and crisis systems at far greater cost. A winter pilot program showed an 83% reduction in hospital admissions and ER visits for participants.
The county’s housing director framed it directly: “The question is not whether the county is paying, the county is already paying through fragmented crisis systems.”
The program runs out of two houses on Oakland Drive through ISK, and the new funding enables 24/7 care and meals which are requirements for formal medical respite certification. Long-term sustainability is planned through Medicaid reimbursement; the county’s role is startup and gap financing. Beacon and Bronson hospitals are in conversations about contributing as well.
