Why I oppose Horizon’s proposed detox center

The city of San Mateo and our  residents were not invited and, in fact, the city’s repeated requests for information and engagement, ignored.

When the city was first informed of the project in October, and again in December in this newspaper, I called on Horizon immediately to engage with our community with facts and information on its proposed parameters.  On March 16, I issued a written call to the county stating in no uncertain terms that I would not be supporting the siting of the center at the proposed San Mateo location.

At my initiation, the San Mateo City Council also formally requested that the county conduct a public meeting on the proposed siting. That meeting was not scheduled by the county until  March 24. By then, the Horizon Detox Center grant application had already been granted $25.5 million in state funding — without a single opportunity for the city and our residents to provide meaningful public input on the proposal.

In short, decisions had already been made and questions were unanswered — and the county’s meeting was simply an example of “too little, too late.”

Now, we have a chance to fully address this misguided, “top down” proposal.  

On Tuesday, April 7, at 11 a.m., the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will be discussing where to locate Horizon’s Detox Center. I urge San Mateo residents and community members to join me in attending, to ask questions and have your perspectives heard. The meeting will be at 500 County Center, first floor, Redwood City, or via Zoom. 

This remains a county-sponsored project — and the city of San Mateo has not even been formally presented with the project details to review. This is unacceptable.

The best way to resolve difficult issues is to engage directly with the people concerned, share all available information, listen to, and understand why people are concerned, and work with them on solutions that resolve those concerns. It takes time, it is hard, and the final solutions usually are compromises from the original goals. But that compromise solution considers everyone’s needs, which makes it much more likely to solve problems and reach consensus.

The only viable solution now is to site the Horizon Detox Center at a different location that meets site selection criteria, including neighborhood public safety and community consensus.

There are official, and unofficial, efforts underway to do just that. I applaud the leadership of Supervisor Jackie Speier and have been working closely with her to support her efforts to locate

Horizon elsewhere. We all need to support those efforts at a local, county and state level so people who need these essential support services — which include innovative behavioral health rehabilitation services within high quality short- and long-term residential facilities — can get the help they need, with full community support for years to come.

As I’ve said many times before, San Mateo is a generous community. We all want compassionate, effective services for the most vulnerable families and residents.  

However, the city of San Mateo and its residents deserve a detailed understanding early on of any proposed project’s parameters and the process for community input and views to be considered. I am disappointed that the county and Horizon did not meet their commitment to transparency and community collaboration on this particular proposal. Their failure to do so is a lost opportunity.

Lisa Diaz Nash is a member of the San Mateo City Council, representing District 1.