The Berkeley Wellness Center, an arts-focused community space for people with mental health challenges, is closing this month after a change to how California allocates funding for behavioral health programs meant it lost funding from Alameda County.
The center on University Avenue in downtown Berkeley is one of seven wellness centers in the county due to close, according to Laura Weissberger, executive director of Bonita House, which operates Berkeley Wellness Center (BWC) and the Casa Ubuntu Wellness Center in East Oakland. One wellness center, located in Hayward, will remain open.
The loss of funding is due to the implementation of Proposition 1, a ballot initiative narrowly approved by voters in 2024 that sought to reform and expand the state behavioral health system. The law directed more of California’s mental health funding toward housing for the homeless, said James Wagner, a deputy director with the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department…