Funding falls through for Santa Clara County mental health facilities

Santa Clara County wants to demolish the facility at 101 Jose Figueres Ave. and build a two-story 83-bed mental health facility. The county sought $74 million in Prop. 1 funding for this project, which was not awarded. Photo by Joyce Chu.

Santa Clara County applied for $74.2 million in Proposition 1 funding to build a new 83‑bed mental health facility on Jose Figueres Avenue in San Jose, but received no funding in the first round. That leaves key county projects in limbo, forcing officials to reapply and search for alternate financing.

Meanwhile, three private or nonprofit projects in the county were awarded a total of $42 million from Prop 1, which will add 228 treatment beds and open between late 2026 and spring 2027.

Among these awardees is the nonprofit HealthRIGHT 360, whose CEO, Vitka Eisen, a Class of 2013 San Francisco Fellow with the LeaderSpring Center, is leading the development of a 60‑bed residential treatment center. She emphasized a holistic recovery model, including up to 90‑day stays, medical supervision, counseling, job‑training links, and group activities—because “recovery is more than just stopping using drugs... finding things that replace the time people have spent using drugs with other things that give them joy and pleasure”