This office building in Paso Robles is being purchased by SLO County to establish an in-patient mental health crisis facility for adults and children.
County Supervisors have taken a giant leap towards establishing its first mental health care facility for adults and children, acquiring a 3-story building in Paso Robles.
In a project that began in November 2024 with the approval to seek grant funding from the State’s Prop. 1, this latest step was to approve acceptance of a $21.63 million grant from the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) and enter into a Program Funding Agreement with Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., according to a staff report from County Behavioral Health Department.
The grant requires a matching amount of $2.16M, which the County is paying for with $1.62M out of the Opioid Settlement Funds, and $540,000 in savings from the Mental Health Services Act. Both are 1-time sources of monies.
The Community was lucky to have been chosen for the competitive grant program. “The State received 294 BHCIP Round 1: Launch Ready grant applications totaling over $8 billion,” the report said. “In May 2025, the State conditionally awarded approximately $3.3 billion to 124 projects statewide.”
The grant money will allow the County to purchase a 3-story former Community Health Centers of the Central Coast medical office building located next to the Post Office in Downtown Paso (416 Spring St.). The County also has a Behavioral Health outpatient office in the same area.
Community Health Centers agreed to sell the building to the County for more than $6.8M. The property is already marked as “Sold” on various real estate websites.
The County expects the sale to be completed by the end of March. That will start up the extensive renovations that are expected to be finished sometime during the 2028/29 fiscal year. The grant monies must be spent within five years or before June 30, 2030, so there should be plenty of wiggle room on the timeline.
The County intends to create a 16-bed psychiatric health facility — 12 beds for adults and four for children, the report said.
It will also build an eight-bed adult crisis residential treatment program and a two-bed children and youth “crisis residential treatment program, with space to expand to add two additional beds (four total beds) if fiscally sustainable.”
Readers might think that doesn’t sound like much, given the extent of the much-publicized mental health crisis happening everywhere, but compared to what the County has now, it’s a big improvement.
“Currently,” the report explained, “both youth and adults from San Luis Obispo County are sent out of county each year for behavioral health treatment due to the lack of local facilities and treatment.
“There are no youth behavioral health crisis treatment beds in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, and there is only one 16-bed inpatient psychiatric health facility in San Luis Obispo County. The proposed behavioral health treatment facility would enable more individuals to receive care locally rather than out of county.”
The building sits on 0.89 acres and covers some 21,039 square feet off-street with parking.
“The property is walkable to many services, public transit, adjacent to the Post Office, the County Department of Social Services, and a Health Agency building providing Behavioral Health outpatient and Public Health services. The property historically has been a healthcare facility.”
The big grant should pay for everything they need. “In addition to acquisition,” the report said, “the BHCIP grant will cover construction design drawings and permitting, interior demolition and renovation of a 3-story building to become a behavioral health treatment facility, furniture, fixtures, and equipment, project management and oversight by County Public Works, site work to meet accessibility requirements, and post-construction commissioning.”
County staff will now get to work on a Request for Qualifications/Proposals for design and construction services, the report said.
Over the next two years they anticipate awarding the contracts for design and construction, obtaining permits and starting construction.
Then they must select program operators and “obtain State approvals for operations,” with the target completion date sometime in FY 2028/29.
