Supervisors OK New Behavioral Health Impact Fund, But No Money Allocated Yet

By Elizabeth Ireland, Times of San Diego

October 12, 2022

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a policy to establish a new Behavioral Health Impact Fund, intended to award grants for services and infrastructure to expand behavioral health options in the region.

The proposal for the fund was introduced by Chairman Nathan Fletcher, and Tuesday’s action only established the fund without allocating money to it.

“We funded some great projects with the original version of the impact fund we established through a partnership with the city of San Diego,” Fletcher said. “Those funds are nearly depleted, and we want to replicate that model, but this time have it be solely managed by the county of San Diego. This will give us more flexibility to fund a wider variety of projects all over the county.”

Fletcher proposed the initial fund in 2019 to provide one-time funding for mental health and drug treatment providers to expand their services. He approached San Diego about the idea to use settlement money from a legal dispute involving redevelopment money to fund the capital projects. All projects supported with the $25 million were in the city.

The first money from that initial fund was disbursed in May 2021. Funded projects included:

About $7.5 million remains from the original impact fund and will be spent in partnership with the city.

City News Service contributed to this article.

Times of San Diego is an independent online news site covering the San Diego metropolitan area. Our journalists report on politics, crime, business, sports, education, arts, the military and everyday life in San Diego. No subscription is required, and you can sign up for a free daily newsletter with a summary of the latest news.