Eureka Council Upholds Permit for Henderson Center Rehab Facility

A residential drug and alcohol use rehab facility planned for Eureka’s Henderson Center neighborhood has overcome a permit appeal and will focus on providing recovery services for women.

Most of those who spoke during The Eureka City Council’s April 1 hearing on the permit appeal enthusiastically supported the project, saying it will provide much-needed recovery services.

Sited at 309 Harris Street, on the corner of Harris and D streets, the facility will include a main residential house with two other buildings, at 319 and 325 Harris, for an office and individual and group counseling areas.

A conditional use permit for the project was approved by the city’s Planning Commission last February and the decision was appealed by a group of five appellants who also gathered 75 signatures on a petition.

The North Coast Substance Abuse Council plans a residential rehab center for up to 12 people and Wesley Harrison, the non-profit group’s executive director, said there’s acute need for recovery services for women, including pregnant women.

He said the Crossroads facility he operates on Myrtle Avenue has five beds for women and “my wait list is probably a mile long.”

The Henderson Center facility will follow Crossroads’ management approach.

“We have registered nurses, we have doctors and we have live-in staff that are there 24 hours a day,” Harrison said. “We have security cameras and the process of managing the individuals from referral throughout their process at our facility is one of evaluation, assessment, supervision, monitoring and behavioral health compliance.”

The new facility won’t offer detox services.

“It’s not a high end, very, very intense detox center where people are very unwell,” Harrison said. “This is right in the middle. where individuals are actively sober, they arrive sober at our facility – our job at our facility is to help individuals who have achieved sobriety and are in remission, to help them maintain that sobriety in a supervised, structured setting.”

Crossroads has been in operation since 1975 without neighborhood complaints.

“If my program was a nuisance, our name would be all over the news,” Harrison said.

That was backed up by Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens, who said Crossroads has had minimal police calls – less than that for City Hall, he said to some audience laughter – and “they’re not a problem for police and they’re very well-managed.”

The Henderson Center site now includes residents of the main house and a Fed Ex store and Harrison said paying move-out costs is part of the project.

He expects the new facility to open in early 2027.

Describing “substance use” as a pervasive concern, Harrison asked for community support.

“I’m not asking you to open your doors to the people we serve, I’m not asking you to do the work that is going to be needed to help this issue,” he said. “But what I am asking is that you allow us to use our money that we have scrimped and saved over the last four years to do this project – I’m asking you that you let us open our doors to these people and I’m asking that you let us do the work that we’ve been doing in this community for the last 50 years.”

There weren’t many arguments against that during the hearing’s public comment period.

Several people, including other care service providers, said they’re pleased women’s services will be offered.

A woman who said her work is “in drug treatment” emphasized the importance of recovery care.

“All of those amazing beds that we have that are available for people who are in need of housing, they don’t qualify for it unless they’ve graduated from somewhere like Wes’s program or are already enrolled in some sort of program – and there are not a lot of options here,” she said.

The appeal argued that the main house is a historic structure that demands review under the California Environmental Quality Act and a rehab facility is incompatible with the neighborhood.

Longtime Henderson Center resident Thea Stewart, one of the appellants, questioned the facility’s siting.

“Henderson Center has a large percentage of retired senior citizens and of course some families – I do not find this facility suitable,” she said.

A woman who lives near Henderson Center said she supports recovery services but “the problem here is the location.” She said home sales near the facility could be affected.

But staff told councilmembers a historic building can be exempted from CEQA and the project is consistent with the area’s zoning and Neighborhood Commercial land use designation.

Councilmember Kati Moulton related her experience with those who need help.

“This whole conversation has brought up how many people I have known in my life who have lost their battle with addiction, including some people who were waiting to get into a facility and how common it is for people to end up overdosing in the last 48 hours before they get in,” she said. “And when that spark happens and somebody says now I want to get my life right, that’s when you need to take advantage of that and give them that opportunity because any delay can cause that monkey, that demon, to get right back on top of them.”

The council’s vote to support the Planning Commission’s permit approval and deny the appeal was unanimous.