A cluster of long-vacant buildings at a sprawling state hospital in Norwalk could soon be transformed into housing for people living with mental illness.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill over the weekend allowing L.A. County to lease seven unused structures at Metropolitan State Hospital for new mental health housing and services.
L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who long advocated for repurposing abandoned property at Metropolitan, applauded the development.
“We’re battling a mental health crisis here in L.A. County, and we desperately need places where we can treat and house people who are struggling,” Hahn said. “About half of this acreage is not being used. When you drive through it, you can envision a much better purpose.”
The hospital’s past, present and future
Metropolitan State Hospital opened in 1916 in what was then a rural part of L.A. County. The hospital even had its own farm and dairy to help feed patients.
Today, Metropolitan has 826 beds for patients in the legal system, including those found incompetent to stand trial, those found not guilty by reason of insanity and those placed under conservatorship.
But much of the expansive campus has been abandoned for years. Tudor-style buildings that once contained administrative offices and staff housing are now boarded up, scattered across 162 acres of broad lawns and palm tree-lined streets.
State Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Norwalk) said his bill is aimed at turning seven of those empty buildings into a new courtyard mental health campus to serve unhoused adults and also people between ages 18 and 25 who are at a key transition point in their lives. He said the facilities…
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