Abandoned orphanage in SLO will be converted into home for mentally ill

A housing proposal that envisions 33 apartment units for mentally ill residents in San Luis Obispo was approved unanimously by the San Luis Obispo City Council on Tuesday.

The Bishop Street Studios project, previously approved by the city’s Architectural Review Commission, was appealed by a neighbor of the site who advocated for a community arts center on the property instead.

But in a 4-0 vote, with Councilman Dan Carpenter absent, the council denied the appeal filed by Ray Righetti, who lives adjacent to the site located at 1600 Bishop St., above Johnson Avenue.

In a packed room, Righetti and another neighbor, Lanny Hernandez, spoke against the project, saying it could present problems for the neighborhood.

But 23 people spoke in support of the project, including neighbors of existing Transitions-Mental Health Association housing who said they haven’t experienced problems living nearby. TMHA owns and manages 116 beds in San Luis Obispo, and those beds have long waitlists.

Rob Clayton, a local clinical psychologist, said his clients’ conditions are worsened when they don’t have stable living situations, often leading to a “downward spiral.”

“It creates tremendous suffering for them and the people around them,” Clayton said. “Further, it creates a tremendous burden on the community.”

Calls for emergency mental health and law enforcement response and incarcerations increase when those suffering from mental illness don’t have homes, Clayton said.

“This proposal will save tremendous costs to the county, city and state,” he said.

TMHA will renovate the abandoned Sunny Acres orphanage and juvenile detention center, left vacant for 40 years, through a partnership with the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo.

In 2014, TMHA signed an “option to purchase agreement” with the county for a total of $1,100 to convert the derelict facility on 1.3 acres into affordable housing for its clients.

“It was left there to collect nothing but graffiti and blight in the heart of a social services complex,” Councilman John Ashbaugh said. “The county clearly didn’t want this property. Nobody came up with anything until Transitions came up with an adaptive reuse of the building. Housing for the mentally ill is a vital need to the community.”

The project will start construction in early 2018 and will open in late 2019 or early 2020, if all goes according to plan.

In a presentation to the council, Righetti sought to convince council members that an art center would have a greater benefit to the community. He said that shared, “inclusional” housing made more sense for the site than separate living quarters in individual units, and that other locations would make better sense for the facility.

“We have concern on our part, not because of the patients that will be there, not because of who they are, but because of problems that may occur after they take residency there,” Righetti said.

Righetti also said the project was an inefficient use of taxpayer money because it takes advantage of a variety of subsidies and cited a need for TMHA to provide adequate supervision, citing potential problems related to visitors of the housing.

About 35 percent of the project costs are slated to come from public sources, including city affordable housing funds and fee waivers.

The development will include a residence for an on-site manager, and it will provide supportive services such as case management, peer-to-peer guidance and supported employment.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Abandoned orphanage in SLO will be converted into home for mentally ill."