New Franklin County mental health and addiction center gets $4.5 million from Columbus

Bill Bush, Columbus Dispatch
Updated ·3 min read

The Columbus City Council on Monday voted to allocate $4.5 million toward the estimated $60 million Franklin County Mental Health and Addiction Crisis Care Center under construction in South Franklinton, bringing the city's total contribution to $11 million, an increase of 10%.

The city in 2020 had pledged $10 million in capital dollars toward the center, billed as a facility to help stabilize mental health or addiction crises cases without using a hospital emergency room.

Workers on Monday hang drywall inside the $60-million Franklin County Mental Health and Addiction Crisis Care Center under construction in South Franklinton. Columbus City Council voted Monday evening to provide $4.5 million to the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County to finish the building, which will open in spring 2024. When it opens, the center will serve up to 80 individuals at any point in time and offer critical mental health and addiction crisis intervention services including walk-in and inpatient units.

The facility is the result of a multi-sector, communitywide commitment to ensure better results and care for individuals and families experiencing a mental health or addiction-related crisis, said Erika Clark Jones, CEO of the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County, or ADAMH.

Set to open sometime next spring, "this facility is uniquely designed by our community, for our community," said Juliet Dorris-Williams, executive director of the P.E.E.R Center, a drop-in wellness, recovery and support operation for persons living with mental health, addiction and trauma concerns.

The Dispatch reported in January 2022 that more than $44 million had been raised toward what was then an estimated $50-million construction cost to build the center, an initiative of Franklin County, the ADAMH Board and the Central Ohio Hospital Council.

The center is being built on a three-acre site that ADAMH owns on Harmon Avenue on the east side of South Souder Avenue, across from the Franklin County Children's Services building and south of Interstate 70 in South Franklinton.

Site of Franklin County Crisis Care Center now under construction on Harmon Avenue on the east side of South Souder Avenue, across the street from Franklin County Children's Services in South Franklinton.
Site of Franklin County Crisis Care Center now under construction on Harmon Avenue on the east side of South Souder Avenue, across the street from Franklin County Children's Services in South Franklinton.

About 21% of Franklin County's 1.3 million residents have a mental health emergency annually, and about 10% abuse or are dependent on drugs or alcohol. On average in Franklin County, there are 30,000 mental health episodes each year requiring treatment, 21,800 of which include a visit to a hospital emergency room.

The new Franklin County Crisis Care Center is under construction on the West Side. Columbus City Council voted Monday to provide $4.5 million dollars in capital funds to the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County to finish the building, which will open in Spring 2025. When it opens, the center will serve up to 80 individuals at any point in time and offer critical mental health and addiction crisis intervention services including walk-in and inpatient units.

Water and sewer rates increasing

In other city business Monday, the City Council approved increasing city residential water and sewer rates. The overall impact on a typical residential customer's bill inside the city of Columbus is an increase of 4.72%, and for a typical outside city residential customer, the overall bill impact is 5.0%.

City of Columbus residents with a household of four or more with water use of 30 centum cubic feet (ccf) of water per quarter are estimated to see their total bill increase $63.62 per year. One ccf equals 748 gallons of water.

Section of High Street to close for 'Holiday Hop'

City Council also passed an ordinance supporting closing a section of North High Street between Russell Street and West 2nd Avenue. on Dec. 2 to "become a pedestrian-only winter wonderland" and create a community market during Holiday Hop, a Short North gallery hop. The city also provided a $15,000 grant toward the event.

"Holiday Hop is a legendary Columbus tradition where we welcome all to our community to experience art and culture," Betsy Pandora, executive director of the Short North Alliance, told the council during Monday's meeting.

But this year, Pandora said, "we will do what we have never done before" by closing a section of North High Street to create an "open streets" concept that will allow for pedestrians to interact with street vendors without worrying about vehicular traffic.

In other action, the council:

  • Approved $75,000 for city Department of Development to hire a marketing firm to create a communications strategy to "educate audiences" on how the department helps to make Columbus a more equitable community through economic development tools like tax abatements and sharing with certain employers part of their employees' city income taxes. The firm hired is to be determined early next year.

  • Approved giving $1 million to COSI science museum for upgrading and improving its elevator systems.

(Editor's note: The total amount that the city has pledged to construct the Franklin County Mental Health and Addiction Crisis Care Center was corrected to $11 million from an earlier version published online.)

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus gives $4.5M to Franklin County crisis care center