In recommendations for community support systems, there are expectations of public involvement in unprecedented proportions; yet evidence of fundamental shifts in attitudes and behaviors toward the mentally ill is lacking. Considerations of the complexity of public acceptance led to the development of a scale used to measure the extent of support for the chronically mentally ill among 574 randomly selected adults in Leon County, Florida. Comparison of the general population with residents in a neighborhood known to be opposed to community-based services served to establish the validity of the scale. The findings led to recommendations for future research in this area.