News / Health / Clark County Health

Treatment site plan stirs worries in Brush Prairie

Agency wants to turn empty church into facility for teens

The Columbian

Published: November 30, 2015, 7:36pm

4 Photos

Daybreak Youth Services plans to open a 40-bed facility where teens can receive treatment for physical or mental illness and chemical dependency at the closed Bethesda Slavic Church in Brush Prairie. Neighbors fear the teens might be dangerous, and make the area unlivable. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

A proposed drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for teens in Brush Prairie may still be a year out from opening its doors, but already the facility is stirring controversy in the small community.

Daybreak Youth Services, which provides in-patient treatment for teens with mental health and chemical dependency conditions, is eyeing a nearly 30,000-square-foot closed church at 11910 N.E. 154th St. to build a 40-bed treatment facility for boys and girls. The project will be supported in part by a $1.5 million appropriation from the Legislature.

“In one location, we will treat addiction, mental health and physical health conditions,” said Annette Klinefelter, executive director of Daybreak Youth Services. “Traditionally, we’ve had disparate services requiring sending kids to multiple locations. This has been expensive, ineffective, and kids and families in need have fallen through the cracks.”

Daybreak’s current 16-bed facility off Falk Road in Vancouver treats boys, and there is no treatment facility for girls in Southwest Washington. Daybreak Youth Services, however, estimates that as many as 2,500 of Clark County’s children between the ages of 10 and 17 require inpatient psychiatric and addiction services.

But nearby residents fear the facility will make the area unlivable. Janelle Webb has been rallying her friends and neighbors to speak out against siting the facility just down the street from her home.

Webb said she fears that the facility may impact safety and property values in the neighborhood, and said Daybreak has not done enough to ease those concerns.

“We want the community to know we’re not against youth treatment,” Webb said. “We want the youth to get all the help that they need. However, not in our backyard.”

Hak Kim, who owns the Brush Prairie General Store just east of the proposed facility, said the project is “a bad deal for the community.”

“I think it’s a bad deal for everything in this neighborhood,” Kim said. “These are people having problems with drugs, and they’re going to come in here and steal stuff and feed their habit.”

But Klinefelter said the children at the facility are extensively screened for risk factors such as a record of violence or theft. Only those determined to be safe are welcomed to a Daybreak facility. And even then, there are measures in place to protect nearby residents.

“The doors are locked, so they can’t just walk out the doors,” Klinefelter said. “All kids are within the line of sight to the staff, and the windows can’t break. We go to extensive lengths to ensure that the kids are safe and the community is safe.”

Daybreak representatives held a community meeting Monday to answer questions about the project, have been speaking to nearby residents one-on-one and have been distributing fliers with more information, Klinefelter said. They also are invited to call or email Daybreak in the coming weeks with comments or questions.

“The reality is that we’re in the midst of the public process,” Klinefelter said.

The proposal has gained the early support of community leaders, including the Clark County council, which may ultimately have the final say on whether the facility can open. The property is zoned to allow 10 residential treatment beds at a time. It will require a zoning change to allow the 40 beds Daybreak hopes for.

At a board time meeting about two weeks ago, Councilors David Madore and Tom Mielke voted to approve an emergency ordinance granting the zoning change. Councilor Jeanne Stewart was absent from that meeting. The emergency ordinance allowing Daybreak to apply for a conditional use permit preserves state funding for the facility. The council would need to pass the ordinance permanently in January at a public hearing.

County Community Services Director Vanessa Gaston, county Juvenile Court Administrator Patrick Escamilla and state Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas, also have voiced their support for the facility. All three urged the councilors to adopt the emergency ordinance.

“I just think we need to provide whatever support we can to get those kids to a path of healthy living,” said Pike, who reached out to the councilors to alert them of the organization’s needs.

Construction is slated for spring if the project moves forward, and because Daybreak is only retrofitting an existing building, the facility could open its doors to patients in a year.

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