CUDA: The only state run mental health facility in Cleveland is an aging and time-worn building next door to Metro Health Medical Center. A proposal to give the 100-bed hospital a new and improved home has been under consideration for 15 years, but the possibility of state funding has only recently made the hospital a reality. NOW, the only problem is finding a place to put it. Councilman Roosevelt Coats represents Cleveland’s 10th ward. He believes that the corner of Coit Road and 140th street in Collinwood is just what the county has been looking for.
COATS: We have so many people walking the streets today that need that kind of help. I think it’s going to be good for the county, good for the city, and I think it’s going to be good for the community. It fills a necessary void.
CUDA: Last summer, the US department of labor bought roughly half of the 49 acre former home of the Fisher Body complex to create the new Cleveland Job Corps Campus. Coats is eyeing the remaining still-vacant half for the new hospital. But the void he’s really talking about filling isn’t land, but JOBS. Where some see the stigma of a mental institution, he sees an opportunity for economic revitalization. He even sees a potential partnership between the hospital and the Job Corps training programs in healthcare
COATS: I think it’s a win-win for all of us if we could make this happen.
CUDA: The plan is by no means a done deal, but Coats is optimistic. He plans to show the proposed site to state and county officials today. Gretchen Cuda, 90.3.