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Officials tell appropriations panel they need new funds to meet DOJ settlement, expand home‑and‑community supports
Summary
Department of Human Services officials asked the Senate Appropriations Committee for funding to meet Department of Justice settlement benchmarks and expand services that keep older North Dakotans in the community, including rental assistance, transition/diversion supports and funding for adult protective services.
Nancy Nicholas Meyer, director of Adult and Aging Services in the North Dakota Department of Human Services, told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Oct. 12 that the division needs additional money to meet benchmarks set in a Department of Justice settlement and to expand home‑and‑community‑based services that keep older people out of institutions.
Meyer summarized several specific requests and program details, saying the division serves about 3,500 people in state or federally funded home‑and‑community‑based services and that the Older Americans Act programs reached roughly 35,000 recipients last year. “The Aging and Disability Resource Link is really the place to start,” Meyer said, describing ADRL as the single intake and referral point for aging services.
Why it matters: aging officials said community‑based care is less expensive than institutional care and is central to complying with the DOJ settlement aimed at expanding integrated community options. Committee members were also asked to approve ongoing and one‑time funding for programs that case managers and providers say are already strained.
Meyer outlined the division’s top budget requests: $5.2 million to continue transition and diversion supports that help people move from institutions or basic care back to community housing; $300,000 in general fund rental assistance to supplement federal programs for people who are not eligible for other rental supports; and $718,522 to maintain adult protective services contracts in three regions. Meyer said the rental assistance average is about $600 per person per month and that small amounts of rental help often make a transition possible.
Meyer described operational capacity and demand: the ADRL has six staff who answered more than 12,000 calls in 2024 with an average wait time of about one minute; the division has 73 HCBS case managers and four basic‑care case managers; the division receives approximately 150 referrals per month and roughly 80 become active cases. Senior nutrition programs delivered about 1.4 million meals to 19,000 consumers; the division reported about $3 million in voluntary meal contributions that are reinvested in providers.
On assistive technology and telecommunications, Meyer said the department contracts with North Dakota Assistive and administers a telecommunications equipment distribution program funded by a surcharge on phone bills; that program has roughly $300,000 in biennial funds and has served several hundred people. “If we gave them more money, they could spend it,” Meyer said of ND Assistive, adding demand routinely outstrips current funding.
Meyer also briefed the committee on diversion programs that use flexible federal funds such as Money Follows the Person to help people leave institutional care. She said those flexible dollars and the proposed transition/diversion funding have allowed the state to meet benchmarks in the DOJ settlement by providing rental assistance, furniture and short‑term services that prevent or shorten institutional stays.
Committee members asked operational questions about provider capacity, whether ADRL intake covers Medicaid eligibility (Meyer said ADRL screens and refers but Medicaid eligibility determinations remain with the Medicaid unit), and how the division coordinates with veteran services if VA benefits change. Donna Ockland, speaking for the department later in the hearing, told the committee the House had approved the executive budget requests related to the DOJ settlement as submitted.
The department emphasized these were budget requests for the legislature to consider; the committee did not take a formal vote on the funding items during the hearing. Meyer closed by reiterating that ADRL functions as the unified intake point for aging services and that expanding housing, case management and assistive technology supports are central to the department’s strategy for keeping people in community settings.
Ending: Meyer concluded her testimony by noting continued outreach and public input sessions on the budget and encouraging coordination among state partners and local providers moving forward.
