Westside : Mental Health Clinic to Open in Hollywood Despite Protests

A mental health clinic scheduled to open in the heart of Hollywood overcame its final hurdle Wednesday after the Los Angeles City Council rejected a neighborhood appeal and cleared the way for the controversial project.

The plan, which won support from the 10 council members present, allows the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to open its largest clinic on Vine Street despite neighbors’ protests that the community already is saturated with social service agencies serving drug addicts, homeless people and runaways.

Members of the Vine Street Property Owners Assn. went before the City Council on Wednesday and angrily denounced the proposed facility, charging that the clinic would draw a dangerous clientele and further harm an area already suffering from a seedy reputation.

“This is just another straw breaking the back of Hollywood,” resident Chris Shabel warned the council. Tourists are afraid to visit, and business owners and renters are scared to stay in Hollywood, she added.

But supporters of the clinic said the neighbors’ fears are unfounded and that the Vine Street location is ideal for the clinic.

“[The mentally ill] are not violent individuals. In fact, [they are] less violent than the general population,” said Dr. Jerome Vaccaro, medical director Santa Monica West Mental Health Center. He said the clinic’s patients live in the area and can be most easily treated there.

The clinic, which will serve 1,400 patients a month, replaces a facility about three miles away that was closed because of damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The homeowners association’s defeat comes after similar decisions by the city’s board of zoning appeals and last week’s recommendation by the council’s Planning and Land Use Management committee to deny the neighbors’ appeal.

Association leaders vowed to continue their fight in court.