Local mental health advocates gathered at City Hall Thursday, protesting Mayor Richard Daley’s decision to close four South Side outpatient mental health clinics.

The protest, which started at the city's Woodlawn clinic and finished with a press conference at City Hall, was attended by 50 people, including representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness and other community organizations.

“It’s no surprise that the clinics that are being closed are in the spots where Chicago wants to hold the Olympics,” said Ebonee Stevenson of Southside Together Organizing for Power, a South Side community group.

The advocacy group, also known as STOP, has been defending South Siders who have lost their homes due to recent gentrification projects.

“In addition to people being pushed out of their neighborhoods, they’re being pushed out of their mental health clinics too,” Stevenson said.

William Robinson, a patient for five years at the Woodlawn clinic at 6337 S. Woodlawn Ave., said he thinks the South Side is being unfairly targeted by the city because of the Olympics.

“They’re closing everything on the Southeast Side,” Robinson said. “They’re making room for the Olympics at our expense.”

The clinics scheduled to close are Woodlawn, Back of the Yards, Beverly/Morgan Park and Greater Grand/Mid-South.

Robinson said the proximity was essential for him to cope with his mental illness. When he first started attending the Woodlawn clinic, he was afraid of leaving his house and would never have considered travelling far to seek treatment.

“If everyone has to go to the North Side, some people are going to stop going,” he said. “Then they might revert back to their old behavior.”

Tim Hadac, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health argues that the large number of South Side clinics being closed is because most of the mental health clinics in Chicago happen to be on the South Side.

Of the city’s 12 public mental health centers, nine are on the South Side.

Hadac said there will still be ample opportunity for all patients to receive treatment from their same therapists and the overall quality of their care will be improved as a result.

Many protesters also felt the city could have done more financially to protect these clinics.

Over the past several weeks, Daley and Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Dr. Terry Mason have said the state budget is being reduced by $1.2 million, causing Chicago to consolidate its mental health clinics over the next few months. 

But Robinson said the city has the funds to keep the clinics open, but they are choosing to spend them elsewhere.

“They’ve got money in reserve,” Robinson said. “If they can find money for the Buckingham Fountain, find money for Olympics 2016, then they can find money for us.” The city is in the midst of a multimillion dollar renovation of the Grant Park fountain.

Mason and Daley have both said mental health funding is a state issue and that the city cannot control what happens with the clinics.

“We didn't cut. It was the state of Illinois that didn't fund us," Daley said in a press conference on Jan. 22. “They have cut state mental health facilities all over the state. That is state money. Underline that. S-A-T-E [sic] money.”

Hadac echoed these remarks, saying that local municipalities are not supposed to be involved with providing mental health care.

“Mental health is supposed to be funded completely by the state,” Hadac said. “It’s 100 percent their obligation.”

Hadac said Chicago pays about $6 million a year toward mental health clinics and the state pays $7 million.

“Over the years, they [Illinois] have underfunded many public needs such as education and mental health care,” he said. “We’ve usually been able to step in but we can no longer operate this way.”

Hadac said the protesters seem to have their anger aimed in the wrong direction, and that many patients might get better care after the closings.

“Basically all 12 of them were being run poorly,” Hadac said. “These closings will help us bring all of our patients to better facilities if they choose to return.”

“We hope to retain all patients, and the bottom line is that everyone gets served.”