{"id":445363,"date":"2026-01-29T15:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445363\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:01:11","slug":"residents-outraged-over-proposed-mental-health-facility-in-horry-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445363\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents outraged over proposed mental health facility in Horry Co."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE)  \u2014 A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated the location of a proposed mental health facility in an Oak Arbor neighborhood. <\/p>\n<p>The Asha Vista Behavioral Institute plans to open a 78-bed facility in a former assisted living center in front of the neighborhood, following a settlement agreement with Horry County.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated the location of a proposed mental health facility in an Oak Arbor neighborhood. (Credit: Kara Riskus\/WPDE)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/846ba3b4-a1d8-413c-8ee6-65143c822030-Screenshot20260128231348.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated the location of a proposed mental health facility in an Oak Arbor neighborhood. (Credit: Kara Riskus\/WPDE)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wpde.com\/news\/local-politics\/rep-johnson-responds-to-mcmasters-state-of-the-state-address-january-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">READ MORE: Rep. Johnson responds to McMaster&#8217;s State of the State Address<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some residents expressed concerns about safety and property values, with one resident stating, &#8220;Let them sue us. I would rather spend my tax on dealing with it that way than finding a place where people can really heal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asha Vista argues the facility is needed due to a lack of treatment beds in the area. <\/p>\n<p>However, Gina Waller, director of the Lighthouse Behavioral Health Hospital, disputed this claim, stating, &#8220;At Lighthouse, we have 105 acute care stabilization beds&#8230; we are never full.&#8221; <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated the location of a proposed mental health facility in an Oak Arbor neighborhood. (Credit: Kara Riskus\/WPDE)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5a9d6c66-630e-49ee-a205-06587df1823a-Screenshot20260128231403.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated the location of a proposed mental health facility in an Oak Arbor neighborhood. (Credit: Kara Riskus\/WPDE)<\/p>\n<p>Fran Sauvageau, CEO of Asha Vista, responded, &#8220;There aren&#8217;t enough beds for this population, especially in the south stretch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wpde.com\/news\/local\/myrtle-beach-shooting-case-dismissed-due-to-lack-of-evidence-after-victims-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">READ MORE: Myrtle Beach shooting case dismissed due to lack of evidence after victim&#8217;s death<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During the meeting, Asha Vista representatives agreed to work with residents to address safety concerns. <\/p>\n<p>The Horry County Council is set to vote on the proposal on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) \u2014 A town hall meeting turned heated as residents and mental health advocates debated&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-445363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}