Editorial: Nonprofit policy isn't doing its fair share

Nonprofit work never seemed so rewarding. An investigative piece
published by the San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday chronicles the
shady business tactics of a couple of men who have made a small
fortune off the tax breaks in the “third sector of
business.”

If the story proves anything, it is that there are questions
regarding this country’s policies for taking care of the
mentally ill that have yet to be answered in any city, including
Los Angeles.

William Eastwood and William Mead, two San Diego County social
workers, have made millions of dollars by finding the loopholes for
tax-exempt organizations.

Over the 1970s and ’80s, Eastwood and Mead started Mental
Health Systems Inc., a nonprofit designed to get people off drugs
or alcohol and assimilate them back into daily life, and Job
Options Inc., a sister company that finds work for people with
mental or psychological disabilities.

Then, in 2004, Eastwood and Mead started Behavioral Management
Services, a for-profit company that has collected millions as a
subcontractor for Job Options “performing administrative
services.”

Eastwood and Mead are being investigated for making money off
the people they are supposed to be helping. Audits found that
therapy programs were short-staffed, and two former counselors
admitted Eastwood and Mead intentionally overestimated the number
of hours spent with “clients” to get a bigger tax
break.

But after regulators blew the whistle on Eastwood and Mead, the
board of directors of the organizations didn’t remove the men
from their posts. That’s because there are only five people
who sit on the Mental Health Systems board and three on the Job
Options board. The boards share three members, including one
married couple.

California has an ever-expanding number of mentally ill people
who have slipped through society’s cracks and are now on the
streets.

Why isn’t the state of California fulfilling its role in
this fight by taking charge, especially after its regulators found
gross misconduct?

Los Angeles County alone has over 82,000 homeless people,
according to the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and
Poverty at the Weingart Center. Many of these people could have
been helped by nonprofit organizations.

Whenever a story such as this is put under the microscope, it
becomes evident that there are people who need help but are not
getting it.

The welfare of the mentally ill is not the sole responsibility
of the nonprofit organizations. Nor is the misconduct of Eastwood
and Mead a fair portrayal of all of California’s social
workers or halfway houses that are trying to keep people off the
streets and out of harm’s way. But the state’s slow
response does reveal a bureaucratic vacuum that is reactive rather
than proactive.

It would be nice, for a change, to see politicians fix the
mental health system at its grassroots level rather than wait and
watch as the number of homeless people soars out of control.

When a San Francisco Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Los
Angeles law in April that disallowed homeless people to dwell on
public streets, the rights of the homeless became a controversial
issue.

Civic leaders are missing the point by not choosing to face the
issue head on. They should be trying to keep their citizens off the
streets from the beginning instead of turning a blind eye.

Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board.