Siskiyou County wins $23.7 million BCHIP award to build integrated behavioral health center

Siskiyou County Health and Human Services announced a conditional award of $23,700,000 from the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BCHIP) to build a new outpatient clinic and expanded services for mental health and substance use disorders. "This project, we're calling the Siskiyou Integrated Wellness Center," Program Manager Madeline Bryant said, describing an integrated facility to wrap services around clients.

County presenters framed the grant as arising from Proposition 1, the statewide voter measure that established a behavioral health infrastructure bond administered by the Department of Health Care Services. Sarah Evans, MHSA coordinator, summarized Prop 1 and said BCHIP is intended to expand treatment infrastructure for people with complex behavioral health needs; in March 2024 voters approved the bond program that created these funds.

Bryant told the board the county received a conditional award letter and that the county's planned match for the BCHIP predevelopment/planning grant is 10%. "We will not [be] using any general fund dollars for this," she said, and identified three match sources: the equity of the county-owned lot proposed for the project (the transcript identifies the parcel variously as "Moonlit Oaks" and later as "Wilmette Oaks"), approximately $1,500,000 from the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) fund as cash match, and $1,000,000 from opioid settlement funds. The county plans to build on a lot adjacent to the department's current leased building, which staff said simplified meeting the grant timeline.

Presenters said the conceptual site plan includes substantial space for staff, client parking and county fleet parking, with a trauma-informed design that emphasizes natural light and a welcoming atrium. Bryant described procurement next steps: the department is expediting an architect procurement to produce full drawings and is completing required documentation for DHCS to issue a funding agreement. She said the grant window ends in 2031 and the department's internal timeline aims to complete construction in 2029, allowing time for typical construction delays.

Board members pressed for operational detail. One supervisor asked about size; the presenter described the new building as roughly 27,000 square feet. County staff and supervisors also discussed current lease costs: the current lease was described in the meeting as about $44,000 per month (approximately $500,000 a year), an expense the county hopes to redirect into services once a county-owned facility is in place. The presenters encouraged continued stakeholder input and said security and accessibility considerations will be raised with the selected architect.

The BCHIP award was described in the presentation as highly competitive—240 applications with 66 awards—and county staff framed the conditional award as a rare opportunity to expand local behavioral health infrastructure with significant long-term service benefits.