by Garth Meyer
Youth health facility allcove Beach Cities will get its own building, with funding now reached, and a groundbreaking ceremony set for May 16.
The project is to be built on the northeast corner of the Beach Cities Health District campus in Redondo Beach. allcove (the “A” is not capitalized) has been housed in the former South Bay Hospital since 2022.
The new building is funded by a $6.3 million grant from the California Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program. BCHD is borrowing $4 million from a bank to complete the project.
The contractors are Menemsha of Torrance for the 9,500-square foot structure.
The BCHD previously received $1 million through Congressman Ted Lieu from a federal spending package.
allcove was developed at Stanford University to be a “one-stop shop” for people ages 12 to 25 for mental health, substance use, family services and employment services.
“I’ve seen young people come in guarded, anxious, barely making eye contact and weeks later begin to open up, advocate for themselves, reconnect with family, return to school, choose sobriety or simply believe that their life has value,” said John Hooper, an allcove Beach Cities peer specialist and former youth advisory group member. “… allcove is often the first place a young person feels safe enough to tell the truth about what they’re going through. It’s a space without stigma. Without cost barriers. Without labels. Just support, community and belonging.”
Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Janice Hahn obtained county funding of $1.5 million per year for the next three years to cover local allcove operating costs. ER
BCHD’s Measure BC went down in flames. It needed 2/3 YES votes and couldn’t even get 50%. BCHD’s $30M bond was the ONLY BOND in the Beach Cities to LOSE. Over $600M in other BONDS PASSED. So why was that?
Taxpayers DID NOT WANT TO PAY FOR ALLCOVE. The single largest expense in Measure BC was $9M for ALLCOVE. Voters said “HELL NO – WE DON’T WANT TO PAY” by roughly a 20-point margin. NO MEANS NO!
So what did BCHD DO? It BORROWED MONEY and INDEBTED TAXPAYERS AFTER THEY VOTED NO! And the payment for the next 15 years for ALLCOVE will come as REDUCED SERVICES to the same VOTERS & TAXPAYERS that VOTED NO.
ONLY BCHD’S EXECUTIVES AND BOARD COULD BE SO ARROGANT TO OVERRIDE THE WILL OF THE VOTERS!