Welcome to the CASRA Newsletter

In this issue:

-DOJ memo trargets disability integration mandate

-2 years since the Supreme Court made homelessness a crime, and the result speaks for itself

-Advocates sue to protect housing

-What it means to be a dissident psychiatrist

-CASRA's social media

Enjoy!

If you have news you would like to share or a colleague you would like to spotlight because of the great work they do or just because they are a great person or both, let us know by contacting joe@casra.org.

A benefit of membership in CASRA is receiving four hours of training for your staff. For more information, please contact joe@casra.org

If you are a CASRA member agency and would like to advertise your learning opportunity, training or event for the benefit of other CASRA member agencies, please contact us at events@casra.org.
There are a few guidelines:
-You are a CASRA Member Agency
-Your event is free of charge
and, as a reminder the Newsletter is published on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month

A Photo Gallery now resides on the EVENTS page of the CASRA website and currently consists of albums of the 2024 Spring and the 2025 Fall CASRA Gatherings. We plan on adding more albums in the future.

If you have photos of your agency's events you would like to share with other CASRA members, contact joe@casra.org.

To view the current albums in the Photo Gallery, CLICK HERE.

The  CASRA Learning Library and its contents are free to CASRA member organizations and their staff. The Library is located in the Member Portal on the CASRA website here. More detailed instructions on how to access and use the Library can also be found on the CASRA website when logged on the Portal.

Our hope is that the Library's offerings will provide learning opportunities that will serve as part of CASRA agencies' onboarding processes for new staff, as well as be a resource of Recovery oriented values and practices for all staff. 

Access to the Learning Library is currently limited to CASRA member agencies and their staff. We hope to expand availability in the future.

For questions and more information contact Joe Ruiz - joe@casra.org.

Our member agencies are continually looking for new employees or volunteers to join their workforce.

To see current openings and find out additional information about CASRA Member Agencies, please click below.

CASRA facilitates a number of support groups for people working at CASRA member agencies. The support groups provide people working in similar roles opportunities to share experiences, information, and challenges. They meet monthly for approximantely one hour. for more information contact the person listed for each group.

Social Rehabilitation Facilities (SRF)
Meets: First Tuesday of the month at 1 PM

Human Resources
Meets: First Thursday of the month at 11 AM

Employment/Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Meets: First Thursday of the month at 3 PM

For information regarding any of the above groups contact:
Chad Costello, chad@casra.org

Wellness Services (Well Talk)
The Wellness Services support group is now online. For more info contact Joe Ruiz, joe@casra.org

CASRA is a statewide organization of private, not-for-profit, public benefit corporations that serve clients of the California public mental health system.

Member agencies provide a variety of services that are designed to enhance the quality of life and community participation of youth, adults and older adults living with challenging mental health issues. Read more

The California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies

Mailing Address:
3350 E. 7th Street, #509
Long Beach, CA 90804

Email: casra@casra.org

Phone: (562) 343-2621

To reach us: use our Contact Form

Visit us on Instagram and Linkedin

CASRA has reactivated it’s social media sites. Visit them for announcements, information about upcoming events, and news from CASRA member agencies.

   

Trump Administration Targets Disability Integration Mandate in DOJ Memo

Memo Runs Counter to the Long-Standing Position of Helping People With Disabilities Live in Their Communities

From statnews.com
By O. Rose Broderick, June 22, 2026

The Trump administration released a memo last week that seeks to upend landmark disability laws and court rulings that prioritize people with disabilities receiving care while living in their community instead of at institutions like nursing homes.

The memo — written by the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel in response to an inquiry from White House officials — breaks with decades of disability law and practice and argues that the “integration mandate” is not actually a mandate, especially for people with “severe mental illness or disabilities.”

“This is potentially devastating for the rights of people with disabilities,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s civil rights division.

The memo does not change existing laws or decisions that have laid the groundwork for the integration mandate, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. decision. Courts still must abide by their precedents and these three legal pillars if a lawsuit hits their dockets. Read More

It’s Been Two Years Since the Supreme Court Made Homelessness a Crime. The Result Speaks for Itself.

From slate.com
By Jesse Rabinowitz, June 27, 2026

Two years ago this week, in the landmark Johnson v. Grants Pass decision, the Supreme Court gave cities and states the green light to make it a crime to sleep outside, even when there is nowhere else for people to go. To be clear, laws that make it a crime to experience homelessness are as old as this country, but the Supreme Court’s ruling and Trump’s war on our unhoused neighbors poured gasoline on an already destructive fire.

As a homeless street-outreach worker in Washington, D.C., I saw firsthand that treating homelessness as a crime actively makes homelessness worse. When my clients were displaced, they had treasured photos of deceased loved ones destroyed, lifesaving medication thrown away, and bikes and uniforms needed for work tossed into trash trucks. These evictions crushed their belongings and their humanity. But I also saw that housing can and does solve homelessness. When the fortunate few clients who received a prized housing voucher were able to successfully move from homelessness into housing, they could reconnect with their families, get healthier, and live with the dignity we all want and need.

Grants Pass, the Oregon town behind the Supreme Court ruling, said they could not solve homelessness because their hands were tied with unrealistic burdens, like not arresting people for using a blanket in the middle of the winter. But two years after the Supreme Court untied their hands, Grants Pass has not solved homelessness, and things have gone from bad to worse. Grants Pass has forced homeless people into fenced-off camps under threat of arrest, then excluded them from these camps for arbitrary violations, like having a tent that is one foot too long or struggling to move their things every four days. Homeless folks in Grants Pass—who, by and large, are from Grants Pass—face constant surveillance, threats, and harassment. Read More

Advocates Sue Trump’s HUD to Protect Housing for 97,000 People

The Second Lawsuit in Two Years Challenges Changes Advocates Say Would Gut Evidence-Based Housing Programs Nationwide

From invisiblepeople.tv
By Robert Davis, June 25, 2026

A coalition of 10 governments and nonprofits has sued the Trump administration, challenging its latest attempt to politicize funding for homeless services.

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the District of Rhode Island, seeks to overturn recent changes the Trump administration made to the most recent Continuum of Care Notice of Funding Opportunity. This document outlines how nonprofits and governments can access the largest pool of funding for homeless services.

The administration has proposed setting aside nearly one-third of the nearly $4 billion funding pool for new projects only and placing new restrictions on funding for permanent housing. Those are two priority areas that Congress has directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development to prioritize.

The coalition that sued HUD estimates the changes could result in 97,000 people being forced back into homelessness. They claimed in the lawsuit that the changes made are yet another attempt to “defund strategies Congress identified as effective and to unjustifiably withhold funding from existing projects while also arbitrarily and capriciously pushing approaches that are ineffective and even harmful.” Read More

Nobody Told Me to Do This: What It Means to Be a Dissident Psychiatrist

From madinamerica.com
By Rupinder Legha, MD, June 27, 2026

Before I was a psychiatrist, I was a psychiatric patient.

I remember sitting in waiting rooms, waiting to see the next psychiatrist with a pit in my stomach, not knowing whether my suffering would be seen or heard. Watching as my belongings were searched for sharps, horrified that someone had judged me deviant or deficient enough for this intrusion to be “normal.”

My experience of psychiatric care began during my first year of medical school when a mental health crisis led me to take a leave of absence. While my classmates advanced through to the next stage of training, I fell apart and into the mental health system as a patient.

When I eventually returned, I continued to navigate both worlds at once: learning how doctors and psychiatrists in particular think, diagnose, and treat while simultaneously being on the receiving end of psychiatric care. Read More

If you or someone you know is considering suicide or self-harm, there are resources available to provide free and confidential support. Call 988 or the Teen Line at 1-800-TLC-TEEN or The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 for LGBTQ young people.

Project Return Peer Support Network (PRPSN) Provides certified WRAP training

CASRA member agency Project Return Peer Support Network (PRPSN) is now a licensed Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP). PRPSN's Training Institute is now a leading provider of WRAP Seminars across the West Coast, helping individuals and organizations build wellness tools that foster hope, personal responsibility, and empowerment.

 For more information or to schedule a WRAP Seminar, please contact PRPSN's Training Coordinator, Gustavo Limas at glimas@prpsn.org.

Learn More

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.

Brene Brown
Researcher, Author, Speaker