He grew up resenting the concrete, cold to the touch and cold to the soul, that walled in his grandmother at a mental health hospital.
So here was Don Horsley, seven decades removed from that experience, speaking at the groundbreaking of a $155 million campus for some of San Mateo County’s most vulnerable mentally ill residents.
“I remember going to visit her at Napa State Hospital. And Napa State Hospital was not a lot different than this,” Horsley said, “this” being the Cordilleras Mental Health Center that will be bulldozed once the new campus is complete.
“It was all concrete and slamming doors. Because of that, being a little boy, seeing a state hospital and women who are essentially locked up in a concrete monstrosity, I guess touched something inside me such that I was always interested in doing better for people who have mental health issues.”
“Doing better for people” is a theme that sounds through the years of Don Horsley, a former teacher, police officer and the elected San Mateo County sheriff.
Now, as Horsley’s third and final term on the Board of Supervisors representing District 3 comes to a close, here’s a look at seven ways Horsley has impacted San Mateo County.
1. A New Playbook for Mental Health
In San Mateo County’s four largest cities – San Mateo, Daly City, South San Francisco and Daly City – a mental health clinician partners with police to respond to individuals undergoing a behavioral health crisis. It’s showing promising results.
In Half Moon Bay, the CARES team is staffed by a 2-person, bilingual mobile unit made up of a specially trained behavioral health professional and emergency medical technician. The vehicle is purposely understated.
In Half Moon Bay, the city contracts with a local nonprofit, El Centro de Libertad, to respond to mental health-related emergency calls traditionally answered by fire, ambulance or law enforcement, from Devil’s Slide to southern Half Moon Bay. The Crisis Assistance Response & Evaluation Team, or CARES, launched in March 2022.
And among the oaks and woodlands in the hills above Redwood City, a new era in treating the county’s most vulnerable residents is taking shape. The 121-bed Cordilleras mental health campus will replace a decades-old drab concrete building, a site that prompted Horsley to recall visiting his grandmother in a similar facility.
Taken together, these programs (which receive County funding and support) and the $155 million project to build a new mental health campus represent a cultural shift in addressing mental health — a shift championed by Horsley.
2. Parks Rebirth
On a recent morning, the sun broke through the coastal fog to reveal a view that never grows old: the waves of the Pacific Ocean pounding a sandy beach. This area where Tunitas Creek empties into the Pacific will soon become a new park – and the first beach park managed by San Mateo County Parks. A groundbreaking this month followed an extensive financing and planning process with the Peninsula Open Space Trust, Coastal Conservancy and the community.
Creating services for future Tunitas visitors – restrooms, accessible trails, parking – is the latest in a string of County investments in parks and open spaces.
Horsley, center, at the December 2022 groundbreaking for visitor services at what will become Tunitas Creek Beach Park, with (from left) Mike Callagy, San Mateo County chief executive; Walter Moore, Peninsula Open Space Trust; Deborah Hirst, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District; and Nicholas Calderon, San Mateo County Parks.
Just a decade ago, coming out of the Great Recession, the County faced such a budget shortfall that County Parks folded as a stand-along department and became a division of the Public Works Department. Now County Parks, with an infusion of funding from the local Measure K half-cent sales tax, is on its own and back in a big way.
“Supervisor Horsley was integral to the resurgence of San Mateo County Parks,” said Walter Moore, president of Peninsula Open Space Trust. “He not only understood the importance of these parks to county residents, but also how to rally the resources to take on legacy projects such as Tunitas Creek Beach. His drive to do so was based on his own strongly held personal belief that these lands need to be protected and available to all.”
“Don has always understood and valued the synergy between protecting open space and natural habitats with preserving and sustaining agricultural lands on the Coastside,” said Ana Ruiz, general manager of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
“His sponsorship secured Measure K funding to help Midpen acquire Cloverdale Ranch near Pescadero, which will become our 27th open space preserve, as a tangible, lasting example of his legacy in serving the Coastside community.”
3. Housing for the Most Vulnerable
As Board president in 2022, Horsley has led what the Los Angeles Times called “a bold pledge” – to end homelessness by the end of the year.
Work progresses on the County’s first Navigation Center, which will provide services and temporary housing to further the goal of ending homelessness.
While the County has not declared an end to homelessness, significant progress is visible on a number of fronts:
• Nearing completion of the County’s first Navigation Center, which will provide 240 safe temporary living spaces for individuals and couples along with intensive support services. These services will be designed to help clients find and maintain stable housing.
• Awarding $2.4 million in grants to launch or expand innovative initiatives to end homelessness.
• Purchasing five former motels/hotels for conversion into permanent or temporary housing for individuals who are unsheltered or at serious risk of becoming unsheltered.
• Investing a total of $254 million in Measure K funds to create and renovate affordable housing countywide.
“When we asked voters to approve Measure K in 2016, we specifically called out the need to provide affordable homes. We are making good on that pledge,” Horsley said.
“If we are going to thrive as a region and thrive as a community that cares, we absolutely must ensure that working families and the most vulnerable among us have safe, clean and affordable housing,” he said. “We cannot have a community of haves and have nots. That is not sustainable and it is not morally defensible.”
4. Curbing Gun Violence
With mass shootings and other forms of gun violence rocking the United States, Horsley has championed an initiative to remove guns from the hands of felons, stalkers and other people prohibited from possessing firearms.
Firearms are exchanged for cash with no questions asked at County-sponsored buyback events. These were among the handguns collected at a recent buyback in San Carlos.
Julia Weber, implementation director and domestic violence expert at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called the County’s approach “cutting edge.”
The Board of Supervisors pledged $2 million toward the program over two years from the Measure K half-cent sales tax.
In recent years, the Board has launched several gun-safety measures, including:
• A Safe Storage ordinance, which applies to firearms owners in unincorporated areas
• A Gun Dealer ordinance, which requires firearms dealers in unincorporated areas to acquire a locally issued license, among other measures
• Providing financial support for gun buy-back events.
“Fewer guns means fewer chances for guns falling into the wrong hands,” Horsley said. “You can keep your family safer if you get rid of unwanted firearms. It’s tragic but over half of all suicides occur with the use of a firearm.”
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