Low-cost mental health service in SLO to lose more than a quarter of its budget
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- Community Counseling Center in SLO will lose 28% of its $1.2M budget July 1
- Key funding losses jeopardize low-cost therapy for up to 400 vulnerable clients
- Center seeks private donors, real estate support to bridge $336K funding gap
An affordable mental health resource in San Luis Obispo will lose more than a quarter of its budget due to its funding sources being redirected under Proposition 1 and its grants canceled under the Trump administration.
Headquartered at 676 Pismo Street in downtown SLO, the Community Counseling Center provides low-cost, bilingual mental health services and therapy to individuals, couples and families on the Central Coast who otherwise would not be able to afford it. It has a second location in Paso Robles on 1244 Pine St. in Suite 202.
James Statler, the center’s executive director, told The Tribune most of the center’s clients have low to moderate incomes, no insurance or CenCal healthcare, which is the Central Coast’s version of the statewide MediCal program.
The center’s flagship program is its “no red tape” sliding scale payment program that allows anyone who is uninsured or otherwise couldn’t afford private practice therapy rates to pay what they can for mental health services.
Under funding cuts to the center, that program stands to go away.
“Hundreds of clients potentially are threatened to have access to the sliding scale program because we won’t have funds or capacity,” Statler said.
Between the redirection and cancellation of federal funds, the counseling center will lose 28% of its $1.2 million budget at the end of the month. That is approximately $336,000 in various grants and contracts lost.
Statler said the cuts would not result in the closure of the counseling center, but they do threaten the organization’s safety net and core sliding scale program.
The center would also have to lay off some employees, he said.
“Staffing the sliding scale program with therapists is also going to be a major challenge without these funds, so I’m worried about our safety net that’s there for clients that are the most indigent,” he said. “They’re vulnerable, they’re low income, and they come to us with little means and we’ve always been able to pick up all that slack.”
With the loss of funding, Statler isn’t sure how the center will manage to continue serving its most vulnerable communities, but it is getting creative with its solutions.
“I’m just wondering, how would we pick up that slack?”
Low-cost SLO mental health center sees funding slashed
The Community Counseling Center is one of the many nonprofits that have lost grants under the Trump administration’s federal funding freeze.
However, the center’s funding sources were also significantly impacted by the passage of Proposition 1 in California, which will redirect Mental Health Services Act money that currently funds the counseling center to behavioral health and housing programs by July of 2026.
Amid its own significant budget cuts, San Luis Obispo County has already begun phasing out its mental health grants.
Statler said the center will lose a $45,000 mental health grant it has received annually since 2007 and another $30,000 preventive health grant from the county as of July 1. The funds helped support the center’s subsidized sliding scale therapy for youth, LGBTQ+ and Spanish-speaking clients.
“That’s the biggest hit initially, because it’s just it’s gone,” he said.
Without those funds, the center would not be able to offer sliding scale payment to its low-income and uninsured clients. On average, clients utilizing the sliding scale program pay $20 to $30 — and sometimes less or nothing — for an hour of therapy, a fraction of the price of private practice therapy, Statler said. The programs serves 300 to 400 clients in the county a year, he said.
“No one’s turned away strictly due to inability to pay,” he said.
Now, with the money that supports the program slated for cancellation, they might be.
Another $100,000 grant funded by the American Rescue Plan Act will be cut by 60% on July 1, and will sunset completely in December 2026. The money supports the counseling center’s “Invest in the Nest” program that offers subsidized therapy for new and low-incomes families with young kids.
The rest of the center’s losses come from the elimination of its federal K-12 school mental health contracts.
The Trump administration recently moved to cancel $1 billion in mental health grants enacted in 2022 in response to school shootings, citing DEI priorities and racial discrimination against white and Asian American students as grounds for cancellation, the Associated Press reported.
The freeze will end the counseling center’s student mental wellness program, which it runs in partnership with local school districts.
Historically, the counseling center has partnered with districts that have counseling dollars in their budgets, but now, that money is gone.
“We’re a very affordable approach to bringing clinical support on campus, as opposed to the district having their own full-time clinicians,” Statler said. “But there’s been the cuts to the funding for that for districts.”
Right now, the future of those school programs is unclear, Statler said. San Luis Coastal Unified School District is the center’s largest funder for that program, but it told the center it “won’t have any dollars,” for the student wellness program, Statler said.
Those contracts account for 13% of the counseling center’s $1.2 million budget. Between the loss of those contracts and its canceled grants, the center will lost 28% of its funding on July 1.
“Those cuts will just get into not only our ability to subsidize clients, but those grants also help us staff therapists in those programs,” Statler said.
The center would have to lay off seven or eight therapists and one administrative staffer who coordinates the school programs, Statler said.
SLO counseling center fundraising, finding solutions for funding gaps
To overcome its budget losses, the Community Counseling Center is getting creative with its fundraising and cost-cutting strategies, but is still asking for help from the community.
All in all, the center needs to find over $300,000 to bridge its funding gap.
The center has a $1 million endowment from which it can withdraw a maximum of 3.75% every year, equivalent to $37,500.
To secure other funding sources, the center is turning to private foundations, corporate sponsors and its major donors, as well as other more creative sources, Statler said.
One example of a creative approach to fundraising is partnering with local real estate agents who will donate their commission to the center, he said. Statler himself has his real estate license and has vowed to donate the profits from all his sales.
“We’re feeling the challenge, and we’ve made some nimble responses, which are great, but we also are here for the community,” Statler said. “We’re not retracting at this moment with our service output.”
As for the school contacts, Statler said the center is working on a new model that would be cost-neutral for schools, but it would only serve students on CenCal or Medical by billing those providers directly instead of the schools.
“It’s a good initial solution, but it’ll leave out a big chunk of the student body,” Statler said.
The center is asking for donations to support its services while it finds long-term solutions.
To donate to the Community Counseling Center, visit its website at cccslo.org or call 805-543-7969.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 10:40 AM.
