“For us, it is location, location, location,” said Timothy Bement, a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals. “I haven’t heard a whole lot that really justifies why you feel as an organization that” it must go here.
Supporters were disappointed, saying the decision will lead to a delay in providing vital new crisis treatment and intervention services. But their search for a new location in Montgomery County begins immediately.
Proponents said the proposed crisis center is a critical and final piece of a three-part model to help residents struggling with mental illness and substance abuse.
“While the proposed location of the Crisis Now receiving center will change, our community’s need for this innovative level of service will not change,” said Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Services (ADAMHS).
Montgomery County ADAMHS wanted to convert the former AAA building at 825 S. Ludlow St. into a new 24/7 protective care facility that provides “stabilization services” for adults in the throes of a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
ADAMHS already has contracted with RI International to operate a new Crisis Now model, which includes a new hotline that officially launched at the start of this year and already has fielded more than 1,200 calls.
Later this year, the hotline — 833-580-CALL or 833-580-2255 — will be replaced with an easier-to-remember number: 988. That also will serve as the new number for the national suicide prevention hotline.
RI International also helped create four new mobile crisis response teams to be dispatched when callers’ issues cannot be resolved by phone.
Mobile teams, including trained professionals like clinicians, were dispatched to respond to 3-4% of the calls to the new hotline.
Supporters say the next step is to open a crisis receiving center, which would mean community members in crisis have someone to call, someone to come to them and somewhere to go.
The new center will be a comfortable and inviting alternative to sterile emergency rooms, and it will have trained professionals to help people get the immediate and long-term assistance they need, said Jones-Kelley, with ADAMHS.
Patients will receive treatment, referrals and other kinds of support, and RI International has similar types of facilities in other communities around the nation.
Under the proposal, the crisis receiving center would be a locked, secure facility with psychiatric, nursing and clinical staff, and it would have a maximum capacity of 32 patients, said Susan Vincent, a city planner.
But variances are required to open protective care facilities within 1,000 feet of schools, and the AAA property is located about 680 feet from Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School, Vincent said.
Also, the proposed center would need another variance because it is within 1,000 feet of a similar type of facility: Daybreak’s emergency shelter is only about 245 feet away.
Karin Manovich, a South Park resident whose kids attended Chaminade Julienne, said she has great sympathy for people fighting mental illness and addiction, but said this is the wrong place for this project, especially given existing zoning rules.
“Law enforcement for the entire county will be dropping off both addicts and mentally ill adults in crisis to the doorstep of CJ,” she said. “Why does this county facility have to be in an area already saturated with high-impact social services agencies?”
She said there must be a vacant building or plot of land somewhere else in the city or county without a school so close by that will work just as well.
City planning staff recommended denial of the variance and conditional use requests, and critics included nearby businesses, residents and institutions. The zoning appeals board unanimously voted against the zoning requests.
Some opponents asked why even have a zoning code if it’s just going to be ignored, and they also claimed that approving the request would set a dangerous precedent.
“We believe that this location is really not suitable for Chaminade Julienne,” said Joseph Geraghty, chair of CJ’s board of trustees.
Geraghty said Chaminade Julienne has made significant investments in its property, and the surrounding area has pockets of new development.
Geraghty said the AAA property could be turned into new housing or other uses, and people are rightfully concerned about the proposed facility’s impact on safety.
The midtown area just south of downtown is home to a variety of businesses, including Old Scratch Pizza, Ghostlight Coffee, Rinse Cycle and BarryStaff.
Additionally, the former Montgomery County fairgrounds property south of the AAA building is being targeted for redevelopment.
Thomas Castellanos, a member of RI International’s executive team, said they looked at about 50 properties across the county but felt this was the best option.
He said RI International’s facilities across the nation go to great lengths to be good neighbors.
Tina Rezash Rogal, director of strategic initiatives and communication for Montgomery County ADAMHS, said many of the comments she’s heard in the last couple of months from people who objected to the proposed facility were “laced with stigma and fear.”
She said, “The truth is most people with mental illness don’t walk around with syringes in their arms. Most people with mental illness do not panhandle. Most people with mental illness are a greater risk of harming themselves than harming others.”
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