Humboldt County board hears MHSA annual update, outlines $11.2 million draft plan and seeks public input

Oliver Gonzalez, Humboldt County program manager for the Mental Health Services Act, presented a draft MHSA annual update and opened a public hearing, outlining roughly $11.2 million in proposed MHSA spending and inviting public comment through 5 p.m. the day of the hearing.

The plan presented by Gonzalez allocates the draft funding across the MHSA categories: about 70% for Community Services and Support (CSS), roughly 21% for Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI), about 5% for Innovation (INN), and roughly 2% for Workforce Education and Training (WET). Gonzalez said the county’s Full Service Partnership (FSP) programs remain a major component of CSS and highlighted planned new and continuing programs, including an early psychosis program and locally driven pilot projects.

The update described a new Humboldt Early Psychosis Intervention program (HEPI) budgeted at about $250,000 to provide individual therapy, family support, peer support, medication referrals and case management to qualifying youth. The draft also includes $112,500 for a program identified as CARE (listed in the plan as a local partnership with the City of Eureka and other jurisdictions intended to provide person- and family‑centered de‑escalation and linkage services) and about $87,000 for a tribal organization capacity effort to increase organizational provider access.

Under PEI, the county reported six Local Implementation Agreement (LIA) awards selected from more than 20 applicants; staff described the awardees and brief project aims as: Black Humboldt (Community Wellness and Cultural Healing Initiative), First 5 Humboldt (expanding developmental screening and staff training), Fortuna Union High School District (community resource fairs), Humboldt Senior Resource Center (neurofeedback training for older adults), Redwood Community Action Agency (brief work/emotional freedom technique training and staff-led participant education), and Southern Humboldt Family Resource Center (parenting programs and Spanish-language groups). Gonzalez said LIAs are one‑time awards (maximum award cited as up to $24,900) intended to seed locally designed PEI activities.

The county’s Innovation portfolio includes a Resident Engagement and Support Team (RESS) project focused on case management and peer support to prevent homelessness; staff said Innovation projects follow a five‑year window and must identify longer‑term funding before the end of the Innovation term (the presenter noted RESS will need a different funding stream by about October 2026 because of its approval date). The WET section in the draft includes potential contracts for cultural‑humility training and continued access to the Relias e‑learning training platform used by behavioral health staff.

Gonzalez summarized community outreach: the county held 11 meetings with 115 participants and collected 56 demographic forms (about 49% response rate). He said the top themes across meetings and comment forms were expanded access to services (raised in eight meetings and seven comment forms), increased support for youth (three meetings and seven comment forms), and bilingual and culturally responsive services (four meetings and five comment forms). Gonzalez also noted demographic breakdowns from the surveys and cautioned that some language‑access contacts did not complete the survey even when Spanish presentations were held.

Members of the public urged the board and staff to retain the early psychosis intervention work. One commenter, speaking during the public comment period, said, “I’d really like to advocate to try as much as possible to keep the HEPI program. I just feel like so many people do experience their first psychotic symptoms as young adults, and that program seems really vital to me.” The comment was recorded as public input to be included in planning.

Gonzalez told the board this is the county’s final MHSA annual update under the current statutory framework and that state guidance is changing; he said the county must begin planning for a new Behavioral Health Services framework and that draft requirements from the state are still in flux. He said the county expects the new rules to take effect in July 2026, with a draft due to the state earlier in the calendar year, and that staff will publish a calendar of public meetings and more digestible guidance materials for the community.

Next steps listed by staff include analysis of written and spoken comments from this hearing, forwarding the revised plan to the county behavioral health administration for consideration, and routing the plan to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, with staff aiming for a June 24 hearing and an intended plan effective date of July 1.

The board accepted public comments during the hearing and Gonzalez said written comments would be accepted until 5 p.m. the same day. Board members and staff asked clarifying questions about the state timeline, the Innovation sunset and LIA selection process; staff emphasized some state guidance remains draft and that the county plans to provide regular updates to the advisory board as the transition proceeds.