Families, staff and residents urge San Francisco Health Commission to halt plan to relocate 82 Behavioral Health Center residents

Dozens of residents, family members, nurses and staff told the San Francisco Health Commission on June 16 they oppose a Department of Public Health proposal to repurpose beds at the Behavioral Health Center (BHC) and relocate people who now live in the Adult Residential Facility (ARF) and Residential Care for the Elderly (RCFE).

The public commenters said the ARF and RCFE are therapeutic, staffed settings that have provided long-term stability for people with serious mental illness and long histories of housing instability. Several speakers pressed the commission to halt the relocation plan and find other ways to add locked psychiatric rehabilitation beds without displacing current residents.

Why it matters: Speakers described long-term relationships between residents and staff, language-appropriate care, and clinical skills at the BHC that they said cannot be replicated easily at other boarding care sites. Petition signatures and repeated testimony signaled broad opposition from residents and staff; commissioners…