UPDATE!! Tonight is the meeting at Sorensdale park. 5:30pm Everyone please attend. We have strength in numbers!! La Familia has been a valued and largely unobtrusive neighbor in our community for more than 30 years. However, residents recently learned—through informal channels rather than direct notification—that La Familia plans to significantly change the scope of services at its 26081 Mocine Avenue (Hayward) location to include a 24-hour psychiatric crisis stabilization program. This would be a voluntary, unlocked facility in which individuals may leave at any time. Many of us would not have known about this change at all if not for a nearby neighbor posting information on a local community forum. Given the magnitude of the proposed operational change, the lack of proactive outreach has been deeply concerning. This facility is located within a small, low-density residential neighborhood, directly adjacent to approximately 500+ homes, near two schools: Harder Elementary School (1259 feet) and Sorensdale Adult School (1840 feet) and a baseball field for Tennyson Little League (1840 feet). While we fully support access to mental health care and respect La Familia’s mission, we are concerned that the location and operational model of a 24-hour psychiatric crisis facility is incompatible with this setting and presents foreseeable risks to neighborhood safety and stability. 
Residents’ concerns include, but are not limited to: -Public safety risks associated with patient elopement and crisis escalation outside the facility
-Increased law enforcement and emergency vehicle activity at all hours
-Noise, lighting, and general disruption inconsistent with residential use
-Additional strain on already limited local police and emergency services
-A lack of enforceable oversight, transparency, and accountability once the facility becomes operational By way of comparison, a similar facility in Hayward, The Regis, opened in February 2025. According to Police Chief Bryan Mathews, law enforcement is called to that location an average of once per week for disturbances. This documented call volume underscores the very real and ongoing public-safety impacts such facilities can have on surrounding neighborhoods, even when newly opened and ostensibly well managed. To date, residents have not been provided with clear or detailed information regarding patient population characteristics, security staffing levels, elopement prevention protocols, or incident data from similar facilities. Without mandatory disclosure requirements and enforceable operating conditions, the risks and impacts of this proposal are effectively shifted onto surrounding residents without consent or meaningful recourse. La Familia initially sought a variance to expand into its parking lot and rely on street and nearby shopping center parking. After neighbors raised concerns with both La Familia and the Building Department, that variance request was withdrawn. More recently, residents requested a neighborhood meeting to better understand the proposal. While a meeting was scheduled, it was held at a location that many neighbors—particularly elderly residents—did not feel safe attending or were unable to access. At La Familia’s request, residents submitted questions in advance of the meeting; however, none of those questions were addressed during the meeting or answered afterward, limiting meaningful community engagement. Although requests for an additional meeting closer to our neighborhood have been acknowledged, no firm date has been established. Meanwhile, construction is reportedly scheduled to begin in February 2026. Our concerns are not rooted in opposition to mental health services, nor are they driven by a “not in my backyard” mindset. Rather, they reflect a reasonable expectation that crisis services of this intensity be located in appropriately zoned medical or institutional settings—near hospitals or medical corridors—rather than embedded within small residential neighborhoods without adequate buffers, safeguards, and oversight. Our community supports mental health care. We do not support policies that compromise neighborhood safety and quality of life due to insufficient planning, transparency, or accountability. Please sign this petition and help us help our neighborhood.