KTLA LA County Care Groundbreaking

Описание: From KTLA aired on March 6, 2026
Latest Omgivning Project: L.A. County transforms vacant buildings into ‘mental health treatment village
By Lily Darrow

Los Angeles County leaders are breaking ground Friday on a new mental health treatment complex that will transform long-vacant buildings on a historic Norwalk hospital campus into a “village” for care and supportive housing.

County Supervisor Janice Hahn, state Sen. Bob Archuleta and other state and county officials are scheduled to take part in the ceremony at the Metropolitan State Hospital campus on Norwalk Boulevard.

The project, known as the L.A. County Care Community, will convert six unused buildings into a “mental healthcare village” designed to serve people with a wide range of behavioral health needs.

Plans call for a campus-style complex with locked psychiatric treatment beds, interim housing and permanent supportive housing arranged around a shared courtyard.

“This is exactly the type of project voters want us to be building,” Hahn said in a statement. “These buildings are doing no one any good sitting empty. By locking arms with the state, LA County will take these vacant buildings and transform them into a mental healthcare village where we can provide safe, professional, caring treatment and housing to people who desperately need it.”

County officials say the project is funded with $65 million from Proposition 1, a statewide measure approved by voters in 2024 to expand behavioral health treatment infrastructure.

Initial plans call for renovating two buildings to house 32 subacute mental health treatment beds, a level of care considered one of the county’s most urgent needs for people with serious mental illness.

In total, the broader redevelopment effort is expected to include 50 permanent supportive housing units and 70 interim housing units, allowing people to move from treatment into housing on the same campus.

The Metropolitan State Hospital campus, which opened in 1916, once housed thousands of psychiatric patients. Today it has far fewer patients and includes numerous vacant buildings across its 162-acre property.

County leaders say redeveloping the unused structures will help address the region’s growing behavioral health crisis, though some disability rights advocates have raised concerns about ensuring patients are able to transition back into community living.

From https://ktla.com/news/local-news/l-a-...