Transitional Living Center
The transitional mental health facility provides a variety of housing options for the mentally ill including patients coming out of Institutions of Mental Disease (IMDs), individuals requiring a Board and Care facility, the temporarily homeless, and individuals requiring a period of extensive evaluation. Intensive case management services and structured but individualized programming are provided by the Tulare County Department of Health and Human Services.
The project involved the rehabilitation of a Board and Care facility that was being abandoned and sold. Three agencies (The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Visalia, the County of Tulare Department of Health and Human Services, and the Housing Authority of Tulare County), collaborated to save the property for an affordable housing purpose, and to make a liability into an asset for the community. The property was placed on the market in the spring of 2002 and final rehabilitation was completed by July of 2003.
The facility consists of a large 11-bedroom house, nine one-bedroom apartments with a laundry room, a large community building and a garage all on a 1.7-acre site. The design was particularly well suited for the different clients and housing options needed because of the large house and the individual units with a community building for treatment and recreation space. All bedrooms are double occupancy stretching the total capacity to 40 occupants. The site presents a park-like setting that brightens and opens up the whole surrounding area.