True North behavioral health application moves forward despite targeted opposition from Shasta officials
Signature Healthcare announced today it will move forward with a request for $150 million in state Prop. 1 funds to build a regional behavioral facility in Shasta. The decision comes despite last-minute opposition from a few Shasta officials last week.
A proposal to build a behavioral health facility that’s been dubbed “True North” will be submitted tomorrow, according to a press release from Signature Healthcare Services and Arch Collaborative that was released this afternoon.
The decision comes just days after a vote by a majority of the county board to issue a letter of opposition to the project based on statements by Shasta Mental Health Director Christy Coleman, who also holds the role of Health and Human Services director.
Coleman’s opposition to the project included vague claims about possible county costs and the number of needed beds, which she did not back with data or evidence. Nevertheless, Coleman and board Chair Kevin Crye convinced two other supervisors — Chris Kelstrom and Corkey Harmon — to sign on to the letter of opposition. Members of the collaborative were not invited to speak to the public as part of the special meeting called to oppose the proposal just two business days before the application was due.
While Coleman said her letter of support for the project was required for the collaborative to apply for state funds, Signature Healthcare and Arch Collaborative disagree, citing publicly available documentation for the grant that appears to contradict Coleman’s assertion.
The application will be submitted tomorrow, the group’s press release said. It represents a potential $200 million investment in behavioral health and substance use disorder infrastructure and could create 200 new healthcare jobs across the rural North State.
Should the grant be awarded, it would pair $150 million in state Prop. 1 funds with $50 million from the privately-owned Signature Healthcare Services, which operates 19 similar behavioral health facilities across the United States, including a number in California. The funds would provide capital expenses for the facility that would be owned and operated by Signature Healthcare Services.
The organization’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Eaks said via the press release today that he was stunned by the county’s actions last week and what he referred to as “the disregard for the urgency of the need and the extraordinary regional support behind the project.” More than 40 individuals and organizations across the North State have submitted letters of support for the project, including Supervisor Matt Plummer, Sheriff Michael Johnson and DA Stephanie Bridgett.
“What was most disheartening,” Eaks added in reference to comments made by Coleman during last week’s public meeting, “was hearing statements implying that Signature does not provide high-acuity behavioral health care – statements that contradict both our capabilities and our conversations with HHSA.”
The organization’s Vice President of Strategy and Planning Eric Kim used the press release to emphasize Signature’s focus on expanding access to care, saying other facilities owned by the organization are already serving Shasta clients in other counties.
“That’s why we’ve long wanted to serve the rural North State, where the lack of access is both urgent and undeniable,” Kim said. “Over the past year, one of our nine hospitals alone has cared for more than 60 children and adults from Shasta County.”
Kim said if the proposal is awarded, success will depend on identifying a collaborative path forward with Shasta County HHSA.
“This region deserves the same access to care as every other part of California, and we will continue to do our part,” Kim continued.
Arch Collaborative’s role has involved coordinating the community-driven grant application process for more than a year. Those involved in determining the facility needs include hospital administrators, law enforcement officials, behavioral health providers and more than 200 stakeholders across rural California, the group said today.
The Truth North Campus, the group wrote, is designed to address “the most urgent gaps identified in recent community assessments, including a shortage of crisis stabilization beds, inpatient psychiatric care, detox, and youth treatment options.”
If funded, Signature will build and operate a facility with 72 beds and an additional 32 client chairs focused on preventing individuals who are experiencing mental health and substance use crises from “languishing” in emergency rooms and jails as they await stabilization, detoxification and treatment.
A crisis stabilization unit that would hold clients for 23 hours or less is slated to include eight chairs for adults and four for youth and children. An additional social rehabilitation facility would include 16 beds for short-term stays, including non-medical detox. The campus is also planned to include an in-patient psychiatric unit with 16 beds and a partial hospitalization/intensive outpatient program that would include 20 client spaces and be open five hours a day, five days a week.
Kimberly Johnson, CEO of Arch Collaborative, said in the press release that the group is focused on finalizing an “incredibly strong proposal” to the state by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline, thanking Signature Healthcare Service for their persistence despite the last minute pushback.
“We’re deeply grateful for their willingness to remain at the table and for the community’s support as we stay focused on what matters most: submitting an extraordinary proposal that reflects the beauty and resilience of the true North State.”
Award decisions from the state are expected in spring 2026.
Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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The funny thing about this is I don’t see the people who are opposed to mental health facilities in North State offering any other solutions.
Jobs, a $200 million facility, care for the people who live with severe mental illness, free up the jail and emergency rooms, keep our Shasta County residents here instead of shipping them off to another facility in another County… Or just keep
ignoring the problems while people die on the streets from this illness!
What illness again?
The healthcare at the jail, like laundry services, are contracted out, but in neither case were those companies given a 75% subsidy to begin operation. I would imagine switching providers if the county is unhappy with their performance would have a much more predictable termination process and target vs. the huge scope of the newly proposed facility. Additionally. These examples do not have the vague element of perpetual collateral cost impacts to other tax payer supported services (i.e. the laundry guy wont impact law enforcement costs or property values).
If you leave out the philosophical debate to the merit of a mental health/drug addiction ward, there remains many financial reasons someone would not be super-jazzed for a treatment center.
FWIW: I find the biblical arguments for or against this proposal nauseating.
I moved up here from Sacramento 13 years ago. My girlfriends daughter was having a a passed down generational trauma suicidal mental crisis. I was stunned to find out that there was no check in, in-patient mental heath crisis facility of any kind in Shasa county. The only thing the county desk could say was that they had some kind of
daytime only care. But you can’t stay overnight. Blahh blahh.
Annelise, you story seems a little one sided. I thought “journalists” were supposed to be objective.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2025/california-psychiatric-hospitals-patients/
Linda: Sure, we can investigate Signature Health, when and if they have contracts in our community. Right now we’re looking into some community concerns about Wellpath, the for profit organization that has a current contract in our jail where another inmate just died.
Wellpath has gone bankrupt and is back just as dangerous as it was before. They have been sued several times because of their neglect and not having properly trained and licensed staff.
Isn’t that a little like closing the door after the bull has already run out?
Linda: Sure, we can investigate Signature Health, when and if they have contracts in our community.
—-Sign the contract BEFORE we investigate Signature Health—sounds like Nancy ” we have to pass the bill to see what’s in it”
Nick: Except we’re not talking about signing a contract. We’re talking about submitting a grant proposal.
Most of the pushback is from two overlapping groups of people: 1, folks who are skeptical of for-profit corporations being bankrolled and then perpetually maintained by taxpayers and 2, from people who dont believe drug abuse is a disease and that individual accountability has consequences. Overdose and leave the herd. It sounds harsh to soft ears but I dont want to leave a trail of tweeker bread crumbs to Redding’s new Tweeker Jiffy Lube for the losers in Arcata and San Francisco to follow.
Hi NC: on the issue of for-profit corporations, something that frustrates me is the inconsistency. We have a for-profit operator running healthcare in the jail, for instance.Is this bankrolling by the government? Why or why not.
Most Wellpath funding comes from government contracts, some comes from Shasta County’s general fund. So yeah, taxpayers pay, it really doesn’t matter what model being used. I guess there’s an argument that private for-profit company is frugal compared to a government-owned company. In Shasta County. I don’t think Wellpath. workers are unionized
” I dont want to leave a trail of tweeker bread crumbs to Redding’s new Tweeker Jiffy Lube for the losers in Arcata and San Francisco to follow.”—-We already have this problem, supporters of Signature Health just want a larger trail of bread crumbs—-
What an absurd and ridiculous statement.
Please explain how having mental health facilities in Shasta County is attracting more tweakers and druggies.
Otherwise you just sound bitter