Defend the Residents of the SF ARF & RCFE!

Defend the Residents of the SF ARF & RCFE!

San Francisco's Behavior Health Center is a model of what enhanced board and care for people with severe mental health conditions should be. Run by the City and County of San Francisco, its residents are mostly people who have struggled in private board and care facilities due to their complex health needs, insurance or immigration status, or behavioral concerns. At the BHC, they have stabilized and formed a community with other residents and the staff, many of whom have worked at the BHC for a long time and are highly skilled and experienced.

Now, the SF Department of Public ...

San Francisco's Behavior Health Center is a model of what enhanced board and care for people with severe mental health conditions should be. Run by the City and County of San Francisco, its residents are mostly people who have struggled in private board and care facilities due to their complex health needs, insurance or immigration status, or behavioral concerns. At the BHC, they have stabilized and formed a community with other residents and the staff, many of whom have worked at the BHC for a long time and are highly skilled and experienced.

Now, the SF Department of Public Health is trying to displace the BHC's 82 residents in order to turn the center into a locked facility as part of Mayor Lurie's campaign promise to open 1500 new beds. The change would disrupt a community, risk decompensation for the residents — and the City currently cannot even tell residents where they would go. Private board and cares typically cannot meet the needs of these residents. Further, displacing one group of vulnerable people to house another group does nothing to increase the net number of treatment beds available. 

+

Community Petition

Please sign the petition to the Director of the SF DPH Daniel Tsai and the Public Health Commission demanding that they protect the residents of the BHC's Adult Residential Facility (ARF) and Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE).

We, the undersigned, declare our solidarity with the residents at the Adult Rehabilitation Facility (ARF) and the Residential Care for Elderly (RCFE) at the Behavioral Health Center (BHC) located on San Francisco General Hospital Campus at 887 Potrero Avenue, San Francisco.

We refuse the forced displacement of the 83 residents of the ARF and RCFE and demand that the City explore other locations for the opening of locked subacute treatment beds.

We are concerned for the health and well-being of residents if they are forced to relocate. We hear the residents when they say that they feel safe, that they are treated with kindness and dignity, and that their mental and physical health is stabilized because of the dedicated care of civil service providers at the BHC.

We understand the Behavioral Health Center has become a model of care for some of our city’s most vulnerable residents. We are proud to live and work in a city that supports and maintains the ARF and RCFE as part of our city’s public health infrastructure at San Francisco General Hospital. The City should seek to replicate it, not dismantle it.

  • Invalid phone number