Board approves budget changes to repurpose reentry facility into behavioral‑health treatment center

Napa County supervisors on Tuesday approved funding moves and a new capital project to convert the county’s vacant reentry facility at 2200 Napa Highway into a behavioral‑health treatment campus that will house residential substance‑use treatment, a sobering center and a facility to support SB 43 conservatorship placements.

The board voted unanimously on two linked actions: a budget amendment to enable the county to close the facility acquisition and a resolution creating a capital improvement project for design and engineering work. The moves follow a complex legal and financial process to lift prior restrictions tied to the original bonds used to buy the reentry building.

Jennifer Yasamoto, director of the county Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), told the board the county worked for nearly a year to resolve legal and funding limits that had restricted the building to reentry uses. The county defeased the prior bonds, she said, which “unlocks what was previously locked down for a very prescribed use and paves the way for the county to do something innovative with that property.” Yasamoto outlined a plan to locate three interlocking programs at the site: expanded residential withdrawal management and residential treatment beds, a sobering center for people needing supervised medical support, and an SB 43‑designated facility to receive people under the state’s revised LPS conservatorship law.

Supervisors approved two procedural motions: first, to complete the facility acquisition and adjust county budgets to transfer funds into the Community Corrections Partnership (CCP) appropriation. The motion included a correction made on the dais; staff indicated a corrected transfer amount in the board packet. The CCP contributed funds to support the transaction; county CEO Ryan Alsop told the board the CCP had provided significant support for the purchase. Second, supervisors created a new CIP (project 25050) titled “HHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Center,” approved an initial $300,000 appropriation for engineering and design services and authorized a $300,000 transfer to fund that work.

Yasamoto said the new campus will allow the county to expand residential treatment capacity from 38 to as many as 58 beds and to create a site for sobering services and SB 43 placements. She described the project as part of a larger statewide shift in how counties deliver behavioral health care and noted the county will pursue grant funding, including the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP), to offset construction costs. Ryan Alsop, the county CEO, emphasized the Community Corrections Partnership’s financial participation and called the agreement a partnership between criminal justice stakeholders and behavioral‑health staff.

Supervisors and staff stressed the operational work ahead: procuring providers through a request for proposals, sequencing moves because probation currently uses the facility for offices, and coordinating with multiple county departments. Multiple board members described the item as a generational opportunity to create local treatment capacity and reduce reliance on emergency departments and jails for people experiencing severe substance‑use or co‑occurring mental‑health crises.

The board passed both motions unanimously. Supervisors asked staff to prepare implementation timelines, pursue grant funding and return with updates on provider procurement and construction scheduling.