NORWALK – State and county officials gathered last week to break ground on a project that will transform several long-vacant buildings at the campus of Metropolitan State Hospital into a mental health treatment and supportive housing village aimed at expanding services for people experiencing serious behavioral health challenges.
The project, known as the Los Angeles County Care Community, will repurpose six unused buildings on the hospital campus into a coordinated treatment and housing campus with 162 beds for people who need mental health services and stable housing.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn joined Bob Archuleta and other county and state officials at the groundbreaking in Norwalk.
The development is a $106 million project funded in part by $65 million from Proposition 1, the Behavioral Health Infrastructure Bond Act approved by voters in 2024 to expand mental health treatment facilities across California.
Officials said the campus will offer multiple levels of care in one location. Plans call for two locked mental health rehabilitation centers with 32 beds for young adults ages 18 to 25 who need intensive treatment. The site will also include a 70-bed interim housing facility providing wraparound mental health services and two permanent supportive housing buildings with 60 apartments for adults exiting homelessness. A sixth building will serve as a shared community space with case management offices, wellness areas and other support services.
Hahn, who proposed the project, said the initiative reflects an effort to repurpose unused public property to address the region’s growing mental health needs.
“These buildings are doing no one any good sitting empty,” Hahn said. “At the same time, we have residents who are struggling with serious mental illness and have nowhere to go. By locking arms with the state, Los Angeles County is transforming these vacant buildings into a mental health care village where people can get the safe, professional and compassionate treatment and housing they need.”
The project became possible after the passage of Senate Bill 1336, authored by Archuleta, which allows the state to lease approximately 13 acres on the hospital campus to Los Angeles County for behavioral health programs.