Center for the Homeless Holds an Open House

A new building at the Hillview Mental Health Center that offers services for homeless adults with severe mental disabilities was celebrated with an opening ceremony Monday.

The building actually opened in February, but officials waited until Monday to celebrate.

“We wanted to be up and running before having this event,” said Eva McCraven, Hillview executive director. “We are full, with 15 people living there now.”

The new building, called the Homeless Transitional Housing Unit, has 15 single rooms for temporary housing, a commercial-style kitchen, two multipurpose rooms, a dining room, and shower and laundry facilities.

Mentally ill adults who are homeless can live there for a long as one year while working with the center’s staff to learn basic living skills that will allow them to move on to permanent housing.

Hillview President Carl McCraven said the new facility took 1 1/2 years to complete and cost $650,000 with funding provided by the Los Angeles Housing Department and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“This will help provide the services needed to get homeless adults with mental disabilities off the streets,” Carl McCraven said.

Hillview, a private nonprofit center, also offers 50 mentally ill adults long-term housing and a full scope of mental health services, except acute hospitalization.

A man who has lived at the new homeless unit since March said he would still be on the streets if not for the center.

“It has provided me with a foundation,” he said.