(a) Grant funds are made available to a local mental health authority or local behavioral health authority representing a community collaborative through a competitive request for proposal process.
(b) An applicant must include in the proposal how the applicant will meet:
  (1) the objectives of reducing:
    (A) recidivism by, the frequency of arrests of, and incarceration of persons with mental illness; and
    (B) the total wait time for forensic commitment of persons with mental illness to a state hospital;
  (2) a statement indicating the amount of matching funds the collaborative is able to provide; and
  (3) a plan that:
    (A) is endorsed by each of the collaborative's member entities;
    (B) identifies a target population;
    (C) describes how the grant money and matching funds will be used;
    (D) includes outcome measures to evaluate the success of the plan; and
    (E) describes how the success of the plan in accordance with the outcome measures would further the state's interest in the grant program's purposes.
(c) An applicant must submit a proposal for a grant directly to HHSC in the time and manner specified by HHSC. A proposal received after the deadline will not be considered. HHSC reviews and evaluates eligible, complete, and timely proposals in accordance with the evaluation methodology published in the request for proposal or other notice of potential grant award issued by HHSC.
(d) From money appropriated to HHSC for each state fiscal year to implement this grant, HHSC reserves at least 20 percent of that total for grants to community collaboratives that include a county with a population of less than 250,000.
(e) An applicant that includes a county with a population of less than 250,000 may request technical assistance or data from HHSC up to six months before the release of a funding opportunity.
(f) To the extent money appropriated to HHSC for a state fiscal year to implement this grant remains available to HHSC after grant recipients are selected for the fiscal year, HHSC makes grants available using the money remaining for the fiscal year through a competitive request for proposal process. Subsection (d) of this section does not apply to this process.

Source Note: The provisions of this §307.311 adopted to be effective June 2, 2024, 49 TexReg 3802