One of the problems with writing news stories is that there is almost always more information than is possible to include in a story.

That is certainly the case with the story I reported yesterday about unlicensed group homes serving the mentally ill in Illinois. Homes like Bridging the Gap, which purport to offer myriad services, don’t have to be licensed by the state’s departments of human services or public health if they don’t receive state money or don’t provide services like nursing care.

A social worker gave Shalom Carter’s family a number of recommendations for group homes, so that the man suffering from bipolar disorder could live a more independent and structured lifestyle. Carter’s mother, Eileen Love, said a number of the homes they visited were appalling.

“I almost fainted when I saw the first place,” she says.

Experts say it’s not uncommon for these unlicensed, rogue homes to operate beneath the noses of state officials.

“These facilities kind of operate under the radar screen and they’re tough to find,” says Deborah Kennedy, director of the abuse and investigation unit for Equip for Equality, a group that advocates for the rights of the mentally ill. “Sometimes we find that people living in these facilities, it’s either this facility or the street for them. Our community-based resources in Illinois are so short. We simply have an insufficient amount of services available to people to succeed in the community.”

As a result, she says, entrepreneurs – whether concerned about their community or their pocketbook – take advantage.

“These kinds of places pop up,” she says.

That troubles Tim Sheehan, associate executive director of Lutheran Social Services, which runs group homes in the Chicago suburbs.

“The idea is that if you’re regulated and you’re licensed, then you need to follow those rules,” he says. “If they’re off the grid, they’re off the grib.”

With large questions about social service funds in the state budget, mental health providers are struggling to envision how this vulnerable population will be served. Tony Zipple, CEO of Thresholds, which serves about 7,000 mentally ill Chicagoans, says the budget has consistently whittled away funds for mental health services.

“A lot of these unregulated group homes are a different type of reflection of the lack of support,” he says. “The big underlying question is you can’t run public mental health in Illinois shrinking it year by year, then expect there are going to be decent services.”

Zipple says mental health providers are already looking at 20 percent cut in funding from what they had four or five years ago. He expects another 10 to 15 percent to be knocked off once a full budget is approved.

Fewer dollars means fewer services, leading family members to look for help elsewhere, he says.

“I think the big issue is that many families, frankly, don’t have any other alternatives. I know that we have people that we provide services for that live in these places. They range from OK to ones that are really bad,” he says. “Without the license, then there is no trigger for oversight.”