Maria Hutkin, May 6, 2014

Dear Mayor and SLO Council Members,

I live at 1684 Knoll Drive, and walk past the Sunny Acres building often.  I am writing to oppose Transitions Mental Health Association’s (“TMHA”) proposed plan for a multi-unit, live-in mental health facility at the site.  The building and surrounding area are particularly bad for this use given the close proximity to residential neighborhoods, a day-care center and a high school.

I have served meals at the Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter and the Prado Day Center, and I have monitored the overnight overflow homeless shelter several times.  I have witnessed homeless, mentally ill people in our community who need expanded services and facilities, so I am loathe to oppose TMHA or any project that would provide those services.  My opposition is not to the project, it is to the location.  I live a mile away and I don’t have young children, so I am not arguing “not in my backyard,” I am arguing not in an area surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

It is bad land use/city planning to create a risk of danger and authorize incompatible uses that may cause continuous future problems for the community.  Unlike small group homes within neighborhoods, the proposed project would centralize as many as 70 or more people with severe mental illnesses (TMHA’s executive director stated that “most people we have in our programs are people who have a substantial impairment with mental illness.”) The impact on surrounding neighborhoods will be exponentially greater than the impact of small group homes.  This type of facility is suited to a less densely populated area, and should be more than a short walk from a day-care center and a high school.

The fact the County has given TMHA an option to purchase the building is disturbing given the scarcity of details about the project.  The description of the project as “low income housing” seems inexact.  The residents will presumably have severe mental illnesses.  Will patients who have committed physical assault live there?  Will patients who have committed sexual assault live there?  Will drug addicts live there?  Will schizophrenic patients live there?  What safeguards will be provided?  How will the residents be monitored?  What if they stop taking their medications?  These may be unfounded concerns.  I don’t know, because the project has been described primarily as “low income housing” and “studio apartments.”

I ask that you require detailed information and public debate before even considering the possibility of converting precious public open space to a multi-building mental health facility.

Respectfully submitted,

Maria Hutkin
1684 Knoll Dr.
San Luis Obispo