San Mateo treatment center hits opposition

As an alternative to jail, sobering stations are where police officers bring individuals who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol to detox and potentially connect them with additional treatment services.

Neighbor Kolja Schluetter said Horizon hasn’t conducted enough outreach in the community — as many residents only found out about the proposal a few weeks ago — even though the county has been moving forward on it since last year. His son goes to the Episcopal Day School on Baldwin Avenue and said that having nearly 70 individuals with substance abuse disorders within the roughly two-block vicinity could put children in danger.

“I’m not against [treatment], but we cannot put in a facility where we basically weigh the outcomes of one vulnerable population, like drug addiction, over potentially safety concerns of children and seniors who are located close by,” he said.

San Mateo resident Kathryn Collins stated during a recent council meeting that she was concerned that the population living at the facility could put nearby residents and children at risk.

“We cannot let the county bring this into our community. This will negatively affect the city of San Mateo and its residents,” she said during the meeting.

The closest day care and preschools, such as Kids Konnect and the Episcopal Day School, are about two blocks away.

Without a sobering station

The county has been without a sobering station since May, when one of the county’s top behavioral health providers StarVista shut down. Between May 21 — when the center first closed — and the beginning of September 2025, DUI bookings in Maguire Correctional Facility more than doubled since the same time period a year before, going from 258 to 580.

The county is also in need of new residential treatment facilities. In addition to the sobering station, the StarVista shutdown led to the closure of numerous other services as a result, including counseling services, its early childhood department, DUI program and a shelter for teens and young adults. Caminar, one of the other top mental health providers, has also closed several of its programs over the past two years, including the county’s only long-term residential crisis center.

Community pushback

Due to Assembly Bill 531, the city will likely have little discretion over whether it can approve the entire project beyond basic design and code enforcement standards. Still, the county has very recently dealt with the time-intensive and costly repercussions of resident pushback to proposed facilities for vulnerable communities. It recently finished a contentious battle with the city of Millbrae after the latter opposed converting La Quinta Inn into affordable housing via Project Homekey, a statewide program offering local governments funding to convert hotels into housing for formerly homeless individuals. The dispute led to tense City Council meetings and a voting rights lawsuit — as city officials alleged the project violated the state Constitution. Two former councilmembers were even recalled after they refused to openly condemn the project.

The division gets to a broader concern about how much of a say nearby residents should have in whether to approve critical services for the area’s most vulnerable populations. Some argue that neighbors should have the power to decide whether large developments are constructed near them. But if such proposals are repeatedly rejected, the city and even surrounding jurisdictions could face cripplingly few services for those in most need, which could have long-term impacts to the entire county.

In some ways, the discourse parallels housing discussions in recent years. Due to neighborhoods repeatedly rejecting new development, the state started passing a bevy of laws, which in most cases, prevent cities from rejecting housing proposals largely based on nearby residents’ pushback.

Noelia Corzo, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said she understands the community’s concerns but is still supportive of the project, citing the mental health care gap the county currently faces.

“We are an urban community,” Corzo said. “We have schools and senior centers and residential areas all over our city and all over the county. There are few viable locations where you can be within less than a certain amount of feet of all of those facilities.”

She also added that while the county supported the project by providing some matching funds, it doesn’t have the ability to dictate where Horizon can purchase the property for the site.

“We don’t have any jurisdiction to tell a private entity, an independent entity, where they can purchase property,” she said. “They choose the location based on their needs.”

Indefinitely delaying the sobering station and treatment facility would also mean losing out on the last round of Proposition 1 funding from the state, which is designed to go toward these types of infrastructure projects. If the city or county wanted to build a project of this scale in the future, there is a higher chance it would need to foot the bill.

“This is San Mateo County’s final chance to secure this funding,” Horizon CEO Jaime Campos said via email.

Communication?

Councilmember Lisa Diaz Nash, who represents the district where the site is located, said she’s received over 150 emails over the last couple days about this project, none of which are in full support of the facility.

“Everyone is supportive of the services provided, but it’s the location, the fact that it’s surrounded by residents and it’s near schools and elder care places,” Nash said.

Nash said she’s especially concerned over Horizon’s and the county’s lack of communication and involvement with the city, which also means residents have unanswered questions, especially around safety and security.

“Conceptually, I think it would be best to put it someplace else. You can have all the best procedures in the world, but you never know what may happen,” Nash said. “I need a lot more information before I can get behind it.”

‘Rigorous monitoring’

The organization held a community meeting Feb. 19, which one public commenter said the meeting as “shockingly uninformative” and that many neighbors were not notified. One individual stated during the meeting that he was concerned that parts of San Mateo would start to look like San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

Horizon CEO Jaime Campos said via email that they welcomed the feedback received during the recent meeting and will continue providing as much information as needed to the city and county.

“This is a 24/7 licensed, staffed health care facility and importantly, is not a homeless shelter,” Campos said. “As a licensed health care facility, it will have structured admission protocols to screen for important safety factors, no client vehicles on site and rigorous client and facility monitoring.”

At Horizon’s Mission Street Recovery Station in Santa Clara, about 1.5% of cases escalate and involve a call with police after dropping someone off, he has previously said.

The county has already approved about $2 million in matching funds toward the project, but it could take until June before Horizon and the county are notified of whether they received the state funding and another couple years before the new development is constructed. The state funding comes from Proposition 1, which makes changes to the long-standing Mental Health Services Act and raises billions of dollars to fund treatment facilities and supportive housing infrastructure. To date, the county has not received any Proposition 1 money, however, the most recent round will prioritize counties that haven’t received such funds, Campos previously stated. If funded, construction would likely be completed by the end of 2028 or early 2029.