(a) Any residential facility that houses persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities and is required by law to be licensed by the department shall not receive a license if the facility houses more than four (4) persons served and is not licensed on June 23, 2000. The department shall not license more than two (2) such residential facilities within five hundred yards (500 yds.) in any direction from other such facilities housing persons served. All set-back requirements applicable to lots where such facilities are located shall apply to such residential facilities.

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 33-2-418

  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services, the commissioner's authorized representative, or in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Facility: means a treatment resource, rehabilitation center, hospital, community mental health center, counseling center, clinic, group home, halfway house or any other entity that provides a mental health, service or an alcohol and drug abuse prevention and/or treatment facility. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • Mental illness: means a psychiatric disorder, alcohol dependence, or drug dependence, but does not include intellectual disability or other developmental disabilities as defined in title 52. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Serious emotional disturbance: means a condition in a child who currently or at any time during the past year has had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet psychiatric diagnostic criteria that results in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits the child's role or functioning in family, school, or community activities and includes any mental disorder, regardless of whether it is of biological etiology. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Service: includes any activity to prevent, treat, or ameliorate mental illness, serious emotional disturbance or alcohol or drug use which includes diagnosis, evaluation, residential assistance, training, habilitation, rehabilitation, prevention, treatment, counseling, case coordination, or supervision of persons with mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse issues and serious emotional disturbances. See Tennessee Code 33-2-402
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) This section does not apply to:

(1) Housing for persons with mental illness or serious emotional disturbance;
(2) Housing for residents on property owned or leased by the state or a corporation that provides that housing if the property was recorded in the corporate or state name before January 1, 1989;
(3) Housing for service recipients when the commissioner authorizes the transfer of a license at the same site to a successor provider, if, and only if, the license holder’s contract with the department is terminated, the transfer of license is necessary to sustain the quality of life of the service recipients, and the successor provider does not increase the number of service recipients at the site; or
(4) Housing for persons on a temporary or transitional basis, such as boarding facilities provided by residential schools or facilities providing services through a specialized court program addressing the needs of individuals both in court custody and dually diagnosed with an intellectual or developmental disability and mental illness.
(c) Notwithstanding any law or rule to the contrary, a residential facility or provider licensed by the department of intellectual and developmental disabilities to provide residential services to persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities shall not be prohibited from providing residential services to the elderly or adults with physical disabilities, so long as the services are adequate to ensure the health, safety and welfare of each resident.
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