Rehab center plan draws protest

San Pedro neighborhood opposes addiction facility

- BY SANDRA MCDONALD

CARLIN STIEHL For The Times

A BANNER shows residents' concerns about an addiction facility opening there.

San Pedro residents are fighting plans for a drug rehabilitation center in their neighborhood, in a dispute pitting the concerns of community members against the need for facilities to treat people with drug addiction and mental health challenges.

The nonprofit Fred Brown Recovery Services is seeking to acquire the five-acre property at 2100 Western Ave. and turn it into Serenity Recovery Campus, a 122-bed inpatient recovery facility that would serve “veterans, the justice-involved, the unhoused, and those with co-occuring conditions,” the organization said in a two-page information notice sent to area residents. The facility also would serve about 1,000 people on an outpatient basis.

A community forum on the project at the Peck Park Auditorium this week drew roughly 400 people, mostly in opposition.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who has lived for more than 20 years in the South Shores neighborhood where the project is planned, said facilities such as Fred Brown are sorely needed to address homelessness and drug abuse. Her comments were met with jeers and heckles.

"I expected to be booed tonight," she said to the crowd.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who called the Tuesday night meeting, stood up again and again to urge those attending to show respect to Hahn and representatives of Fred Brown.

“We can do better,” said McOsker, who has voiced concerns over the project but has said the state has ultimate authority over the project.