A 24/7 Westside Crisis Drop-Off Center

Where can police or families take someone in crisis today?

Only a few places, and none of them is a no-refusal drop-off:

In an emergency, call 911. For a mental health or substance use crisis, call or text 988.

What is SaMo Bridge?

SaMo Bridge is Santa Monica's 24/7 diversion hub at Main Street and Pico Boulevard, open to people referred by police. In its first year it placed 81% of the people it connected into housing or treatment immediately, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported on May 22, 2026. It shows what a front door can do. It is not open to fire, outreach or families, and it is not a sobering or psychiatric observation unit.

What is missing?

A receiving center that never says no. The model has five parts: 23-hour observation, a sobering unit, medical clearance, psychiatric urgent care, and a warm handoff to detox or a bed. Police, fire and outreach drop off in under ten minutes and get back to work.

Money has been on the table. In 2023 the City secured $1.5 million in federal and $1.5 million in state funding toward a Santa Monica Behavioral Health Center meant as a 24/7 destination for first responders. As far as we can find, no site, operator or opening date has been announced. The Westside Cities Council of Governments is planning a campus "safe landing" model, and LA County's 2026-29 Behavioral Health Services Act plan lists law enforcement drop-off as a crisis service. We know of no Westside site chosen yet.

How would a drop-off center work?

It would work like the centers that already do this elsewhere:

• Phoenix and Tucson (Connections Health Solutions): officers back on patrol in under ten minutes under a no-wrong-door policy, with 60 to 70% stabilized and moved to community care within 24 hours (company-reported, 2021 and 2024).
• San Antonio Restoration Center: police drop off without notice to a sobering unit, medical clinic and crisis care. Opened 2008.
• LA County's Murphy Sobering Center on Skid Row: 50 beds, stays under 24 hours.

For the Westside we ask for a no-refusal standard, a target of under ten minutes for police drop-off, and a direct line into recovery beds so people move up as they stabilize: more freedom, then housing, then work.

Who pays for it?

Mostly money that already exists: County Behavioral Health Services Act crisis dollars, Medi-Cal Community Supports for the sobering unit, the 2023 Behavioral Health Center funds, and any rescinded Prop 1 treatment-facility funds the state reallocates. The first step is a report on where the 2023 funds stand.

Where does this initiative stand?

It is a resident draft. Nothing has been submitted to the City Council. We propose a Councilmember Discussion Item directing staff to report within 60 days on the status of the 2023 funds, a site, an operator, an opening date, and a "no refusal, under ten minutes" standard. We are also asking Westside neighborhood and community councils to support a crisis drop-off with a letter or an agenda item, so the County hears that the Westside wants one.

How would we know it is working?

Two numbers: police drop-off minutes, and the share of encampment and hold calls that end at a destination instead of "advised" or "gone on arrival," measured from SMPD open data.