City officials want to set aside at least 40 units in a proposed affordable rental complex in Chinatown for chronically homeless people with mental illnesses.

The plan is getting support from advocates, but spurring concerns for residents, who worry the concentration of the mentally ill will be bad for the neighborhood.

"This isn't the right mix," said Lynne Matusow, a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board. "This is going to create more of a problem."

Several Chinatown community groups have already come out strongly against the proposal, and dozens of residents are expected to turn out tonight for a presentation on the project at the Downtown Neighborhood Board.

The proposed River Street apartments — which the city wants to develop with the help of a nonprofit — would include a minimum of 100 studio and one-bedroom units and have round-the-clock security and support for tenants.

Debbie Kim Morikawa, director of the city Department of Community Services, said the project is based on a successful national model that aims to get people who are chronically homeless off the street by first putting a roof over their heads, then addressing other problems, such as mental illness or substance abuse.

CATERING TO RESIDENTS

She said the project would cater largely to people already living in Chinatown. "If you move the housing too far away, people are not going to go," she said, adding that the people who have been on the streets for more than a year are under-served in the area.

"They're the ones we're trying to give options to," she said.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann first announced plans to develop the affordable rental project in 2006, at the Chinatown revitalization summit. The project was meant to address growing concerns about the homeless population in Chinatown, but city officials were still not sure then what populations the project would help.

The city went to community groups early this year to discuss the initial proposals for who the building would house. And Morikawa said community members were told at that time the project would target people who are chronically homeless — many of whom have mental health problems — along with singles, couples and small families.

But residents and merchants, some of whom supported the apartment project after those first meetings, said they weren't told people with mental illness would be such a big part of the plan. The city's proposal to require at least 40 apartments — or 40 percent of all available units — go to those with mental illnesses was only recently made public in talks with residents.

OPPOSITION

Most units will go to other homeless populations, including small families who have found themselves on the streets largely for economic reasons.

Victor Lim, a director of the Lum Society, a Chinatown community group that owns a property near the proposed River Street project site, said he is concerned about how the mentally ill would be supervised in the project and he added no amount of support staff could oversee the tenants off premises.

"If it doesn't work, we're stuck with it," he said.

Lim added that he has heard from a variety of groups who are against the plan, mainly because they don't like the idea of a concentration of mentally ill people so near to where so many students and elderly walk and shop.

"We are very, very concerned," Lim said.

But advocates say people who are chronically homeless and have mental illnesses should be given a chance, and are no more likely than other populations to cause trouble.

Terry Brooks, president of Housing Solutions Inc., pointed out he has had few problems at an affordable rental complex in Mo'ili'ili that the organization operates largely for formerly homeless people with mental health issues.

"What we found is that given the chance, these people seem to be pretty adaptable," he said, adding he sees more problems at his other rental complexes, where transitioning homeless without mental illnesses are housed.

But Brooks said the agency that runs the city project should have programs in place to make sure homeless with mental illnesses have access to services.

"I think the key," he said, "is to make certain that from somewhere they have medical services to address their condition."