San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer announced Monday she will bring a resolution to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday to support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6 billion bond measure to modernize the Mental Health Services Act.
She was joined by San Diego City Councilman Raul Campillo, Crystal Irving, president of SEIU Local 221 and medical professionals.
“Proposition 1 will ensure local best practices and state funding are aligned, which will allow us to help more people get more people treated and on a path to a better quality of life,” Lawson-Remer said. “The way we treated mental health and addiction when the Mental Health Services Act was passed is not the same as it is today. The old way of funding behavioral health is no longer the right way. It’s time for a change.”
The March ballot initiative Proposition 1 is intended to “refocus billions of dollars in existing funds to prioritize individuals that have the greatest mental health needs, are living in encampments, or suffering from substance abuse issues,” according to a statement from Lawson-Remer’s office.
Earlier this month, Campillo authored and secured the votes from his colleagues on the San Diego City Council to support Proposition 1.
“San Diegans deserve dignified care,” Campillo said. “Proposition 1 will help our entire region address our mental illness and substance abuse crises by investing billions in behavioral health beds across California.”
Backers say Prop 1 as designed would help to build 11,150 new treatment beds and supportive housing, create 26,700 outpatient treatment slots, and set aside $1 billion for veteran housing along with recruiting and training 65,000 mental health workers if it passes.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday during their regularly scheduled 9 a.m. meeting.
Opponents of the ballot measure, a group known as Californians Against Proposition 1, deride the measure as “huge, expensive and destructive,” saying it would cost taxpayers more than $9 billion over the life of the bonds, while ordering the redirection of $30 billion in existing mental health services funds in the first decade, “cutting existing mental health services that are working.”
“Prop. 1 breaks promises made by the voters when they first passed the Mental Health Services Act in 2004,” according to the opposition group. “The idea then was to create permanent, dedicated funding for long-neglected mental health services, including prevention, early intervention, programs for youth, programs for struggling and under-served populations, including racially and ethnically diverse groups and LGBTQ people. The MHSA is a proven model, offering ‘anything it takes’ to help individuals who need a range of services.”
“Now, Prop. 1 would sharply reduce that funding, end its dedication to mental health programs and take a hatchet to dozens of programs across the state that cannot survive without MHSA funding. It orders counties to do more with less,” the group said.
City News Services contributed to this article.