San Pedro neighbors are fighting plans to build an addiction recovery center

More than 200 people who live near a proposed rehabilitation center in San Pedro protested at the site Sunday afternoon, arguing the facility — which could share assets or move a nursing home — is not a good fit for the area.

Some residents are hoping that Tuesday evening’s town hall meeting will shed more light on the plan, which they say was unexpected.

The nonprofit Fred Brown’s Recovery Services wants to acquire the five-acre property at 2100 Western Avenue and turn it into a 122-bed inpatient recovery facility that will serve “veterans, justice-involved, homeless, and those with related conditions,” Fred Brown said in a two-page notice sent to area residents. This facility will also serve approximately 1,000 outpatients.

Protesters carried signs and banners, some reading “Future home for 1,000 local addicts” and “No Skid Row in San Pedro.”

Many residents, including Ivana Poste, said a similar but smaller and short-term treatment center in the area, run by Fred Brown, has made their neighborhood feel less safe in recent months.

“It felt like a little taste of what’s possible,” said Poste, a 36-year-old occupational therapist. Her husband’s car had been broken into, and she saw people she believed to be on drugs roaming the quiet area.

Poste supports recovery but said a large treatment center in the area would be difficult to manage. “They degrade us, we treat them badly because this community helps each other,” he said.

Some say San Pedro has other alternative medical facilities but almost no other low-cost nursing homes. “San Pedro has done enough,” said Maryanne Pesic, 72. “We need this like we need a hole in the head.”

In a statement sent by the Times, Fred Brown said he appreciates “the public’s engagement on this important issue and respects their right to express their views.” We are committed to ensuring that this is a respectful, open discussion based on accurate information, and we look forward to continuing discussions.”

While the controversy is focused in one area, similar battles are likely to play out elsewhere as nonprofit groups seek to expand resources to treat mental health issues, addictions and homelessness.

The five-acre property on Western Avenue, which houses a retirement home called Serenity Senior Village, was formerly a nursing home run by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The property has changed hands twice in the past five years.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

What’s driving the conflict between neighborhoods and treatment centers is the growing gap between supply and demand for all types of housing, UCLA public health professor Randall Kuhn said in an interview.

“All communities need to accept services at some point, but on the other hand, we are a democracy,” he said. Neither the city nor the county has agreed or given communities like San Pedro something to expect to deal with the problem, Kuhn said.

The project is in its early stages but has been pre-approved for more than $73 million in funding under California’s Proposition 1, a $6.4 billion bond measure approved by voters through 2024 to improve mental health and addiction treatment, state records show. Fred Brown said in a statement to The Times that the project budget and other costs are subject to change.

The place was run for decades by the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of Roman Catholic nuns who care for the elderly. The monks withdrew from the site in 2024, according to their website.

Richard Scandaliato, president of San Pedro’s South Shores Community Assn., said the area is close to a church with a daycare center and several schools.

Residents don’t object to mistreatment, he said, but they don’t think it should be in this area.

“What do you bring to society?” he asked.

Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Acton) has introduced a bill that would prevent drug and alcohol treatment centers from being too close to day care centers and schools, but the legislation has not yet been debated.

City Councilman Tim McOsker, who represents San Pedro and attended the protest, scheduled a public meeting about the project Tuesday night. McOsker said he was concerned that Fred Brown had never attempted a treatment center as large as the one he proposed on Western Avenue.

The banner expresses the concerns of local residents about placing a large addiction treatment center in the area.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

“It is a growth that could frustrate this organization, and there is no evidence that it has the capacity to do it,” he said in an interview.

McOsker is also concerned about the 70 or so residents who live in the area’s nursing home, Ocean View Living, who may be displaced from the area or find themselves as new neighbors to residents who are being rehabilitated.

Doug Epperhart, president of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, said his group is waiting to consider the project until more information is released. But he said he was not surprised by the concern.

“A community that jealously guards its way of life,” he said.