The Robert Ravitz Crisis Center is one step closer to being built.
The Oklahoma City Council voted Tuesday to approve the final plans for the multi-million dollar center, which will be a new landing place for people experiencing mental health crises or struggling with substance abuse.
The center is part of Oklahoma City’s $1.1 billion MAPS 4 program. In 2019, residents voted to use nearly $45 million toward building mental health and substance abuse crisis facilities and transitional housing.
A portion of that funding – $12.27 million – was allocated for the Robert Ravitz Crisis Center construction. The Arnall Family Foundation also contributed $3 million to the project.
The treatment facility is named in honor of the decades-long Oklahoma County public defender, Robert “Bob” Ravitz, who championed the rights of people with mental illnesses in the criminal legal system. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Cooper v. Oklahoma, a landmark case that resulted in a unanimous ruling to protect the rights of defendants awaiting competency to stand trial.
The center will be owned by the city and operated by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. City officials said the center is intended to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and jail stays for people who are in crisis.
“Too often, people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis needlessly end up in emergency rooms or jails,” said Statewide Crisis Services Director Lauren Stover. “The Robert Ravitz Crisis Center represents a major investment in a crisis response system that gives people a safe place to stabilize, access treatment and begin recovery outside of hospital emergency departments or the criminal justice system.”
The center will have space for emergency assessments and stabilization. It will also connect people experiencing mental health crises to ongoing support.
The center will include an urgent recovery center with 25 observation stations and a social living area. There are also plans for two crisis stabilization wings with up to 16 beds, a group therapy room, a calming room, a social living area and an outdoor courtyard. The center will also have administrative offices, a kitchen and a cafeteria.
It will be located at 1200 NE 13th St., on the east side of the OU Health Sciences campus and at the corner of the Innovation District. It’s directly west of the former location for Mental Health Association Oklahoma’s Lottie House, which is being demolished to make room for the new facility.
Construction is expected to begin early this summer, and the Robert Ravitz Crisis Center is scheduled to open in 2027.