March 11, 2021 — A property on Whitmore Lane, just outside Ukiah city limits, is out of commission even as its potential uses multiply.
Last March, CEO Carmel Angelo commandeered a former skilled nursing facility to use as an alternate care site for people who did not have another safe place to isolate or quarantine during the pandemic. According to a CEO report from April of last year, “the monthly lease rate of $31,550 is approximately $415 per bed, per month.” That comes out to 76 beds, but no one has been in the building since February 11. The county bought the building in August with $2.2 million of CARES Act funding.
Now repairs are estimated at $2.8 million, after two rainstorms that damaged the roof and the HVAC system on the roof of the 27,000 square foot building.
Doug Anderson, the assistant facilities manager with the county, briefed the board of supervisors during the mid year budget review this week. He said the building had known leaks when the county bought it, and that the capacity is 100 beds. It has 33 rooms, a commercial kitchen, nursing stations, and a laundry facility. And fixing the currently flat roof, which is not up to code, will be complicated, after what Supervisor Glenn McGourty described as a spectacular failure.
With Old Howard Hospital off the table as a psychiatric health facility, some are eyeing Whitmore Lane’s potential as a puff. But Dr. Mimi Doohan, who still serves as a deputy public health officer, is also interested in using it as an addiction clinic, funded with a combination of philanthropy, grants and government money. By fall of last year, she was interviewing stakeholders and raising money in Mendocino County for a Safe Haven clinic, which would include drug rehabilitation, street medicine, medical respite with hospice detox and a pharmacy, according to documents at the Healthforce Center at UCSF. Safe Haven is an initiative of the Arlene and Michael Rosen Foundation, which specializes in medical philanthropy and has also funded the Ukiah Valley Street Medicine Program and the Mendonoma Health Alliance. Doohan spearheaded the Street Medicine Program and the family medicine residency program at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley hospital.
Angelo did not commit to any one use of the building, but offered to bring forward an agenda item about it later this month, during a discussion about Measure B.