Orbison House Counts Successes in First Year of Helping the Homeless : Mental health: Residents of center say the partnership of private and public agencies helps them maintain a new, permanent way of life.

For Vivian Barnes, being mentally ill and homeless was like being stuck on a cruel roller-coaster ride--it was dizzying, terrifying and disorienting, and there was no way to make it stop.

But Barnes, a diminutive woman with a ready smile, found a way off last year. Diagnosed as manic-depressive, she was one of nine people who entered Orbison House in Hollywood, touted as the county’s first public-private effort to create permanent housing for the homeless mentally ill.

On Friday, residents of the peach-colored house with the white picket fence gathered to celebrate the program’s first birthday, surrounded by county mental health officials and social workers.

In an emotional speech, Barnes recounted her transition from being one of at least 20,000 mentally ill people living in nightmarish conditions on the streets of Los Angeles to her current situation, where she has her own apartment, cooks her own meals and works to pay her $321 monthly rent.

“Now, when I think I’m on that roller-coaster ride, they bring it to a stop,” Barnes said of program operators, who monitor the residents at the house on Camerford Avenue but let them live independently.

“I have a place to come home to, to rest my head on my bed, as opposed to freezing to death in my car like I did so many times,” Barnes said. “I love it. I get to call it my home.” Francis Dowling, acting director of the county’s Department of Mental Health, said Orbison House is a model for caring for the mentally ill at a time when the government’s efforts are being dismantled due to crippling budget cuts.

Over the last five years, the department has suffered a 25% cut in funding for community-based mental health services, accounting for inflation, even with a $32-million bailout from county supervisors, Dowling said in an interview. Eight major county-operated clinics have closed, and county-funded private services have been sharply reduced.

In times of such funding cuts, public-private partnerships like Orbison House represent one of the brightest hopes for those people who are too mentally ill to get off the streets, but too psychologically impaired to survive there, Dowling said.

Dowling said several similar projects, which could provide housing for hundreds of people, are in the works. “This is only the beginning,” he said, his hand sweeping around a living room full of residents. “This is the wave of the future.”

The shelter is named after Roy Orbison, whose widow, Barbara, raised more than $600,000 for homeless causes at a benefit last year after the singer’s death. The money was given to homeless organizations throughout Los Angeles County, including at least $40,000 to a nonprofit development group, A Community of Friends, which joined with the Portals mental health rehabilitation agency and county and state agencies in setting up the project.

“Roy was dedicated to helping others,” Mrs. Orbison said Friday. “He would have been very pleased to see how he made a difference.” The Orbison House is actually a large five-bedroom house and an adjacent four-unit apartment building. Residents must agree to participate in case management, work 20 hours a week, take their medication, stay “clean and sober,” clean house and manage their money.

What makes it unique, resident Edward Decker said, is that it is not a transitional or temporary shelter. He has been able to set up a permanent address, a crucial step in gaining employment and government benefits, and he has the peace of mind of knowing he won’t be asked to leave.

“It’s kind of like being independent, with training wheels,” beamed another resident, Ted Jackson, who said he has re-entered the world after years of being homeless, depressed and suicidal. “The wheels are just high enough off the ground so that you only use them when you need them.”