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The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is looking to relocate and rebuild Sempervirens, Eureka’s aging psychiatric hospital.

At last night’s meeting, the Eureka City Council unanimously approved a letter of support for a county-submitted grant application seeking funding for the proposed facility, which would be built on a parking lot at the corner of Fifth and I streets, across the street from the Humboldt County Courthouse, next to the county’s Public Health Branch. 

For nearly 60 years, the 16-bed facility has been housed in the Clark Complex, the former general hospital campus built in 1906. Over the years, the building has fallen into disrepair with structural issues that have put the facility’s license and operations at risk.

Beck appeared via Zoom.

“Without a new facility, Sempervirens is limited to the number of years that it has left to provide services at 720 Wood Street,” DHHS Executive Director Connie Beck told the city council. “I think we have $2.6 million worth of maintenance that needs to be done, and no matter how much maintenance we do … we don’t meet [licensing] requirements anymore.”

Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel asked if the county had plans to expand capacity at Sempervirens’ new location. Beck said the backlog of deferred maintenance at the current facility would prevent the county from increasing the number of beds at the new, proposed location. “But there’s always room for improvement in the number of beds that we have locally, it just wouldn’t be for Sempervirens,” she added.

One such place would be Hyperion Crisis Residential Treatment Facility, located at 528 N Street, which offers a variety of inpatient and outpatient mental health services, including case management, access to housing resources and more, all billable through Medi-Cal. Someday soon, the county and Mad River Community Hospital will provide additional mental health care and crisis stabilization services for people of all ages at the Humboldt County Behavioral Health Crisis Triage Center in Arcata.

“There are a lot of additional services that are coming online,” Beck said. “There’s a really a lot happening within Behavioral Health that we’re trying to get ready for [in addition to] the services we currently provide.”

Councilmember Leslie Castellano thanked Beck and her staff for their commitment to bolstering local mental health services, reiterating Bergel’s previous point about expanding services at Sempervirens.

“I do appreciate that there will be increased capacity at Mad River, but I also think it could be useful to increase the licensing – or at least understand what might be needed to increase the licensing capacity – at Sempervirens in the future,” Castellano said. “I’m anticipating that we’ll need possibly even more services.”

After a bit of additional discussion, the council approved the letter of support in a 5-0 vote. The full text of the letter can be found here.

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What else happened at last night’s meeting? I’m glad you asked!

• The city council met for a special meeting at 5 p.m. to discuss the city’s “objective design standards” and how those rules impact neighborhood character. The presentation, led by Development Services Director Cristin Kenyon, focused on the importance of street-facing housing aesthetics and “missing middle housing,” types of housing configurations that land somewhere between single-family homes and mid-rise apartments, including duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, etc. The presentation was the second in a three-part series from city staff on neighborhood character.
• The city council also received a presentation from the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) on local unmet transit needs. HCAOG is currently seeking public input on local transit priorities. If you’ve got a public transit-related request you’ll want to take their survey – linked here.