(Image: City of Seattle)
Seattle’s mayor is putting forward a $27 million plan that his office says will “emphasize diversion and health programs” while allowing the city to move forward with plans to crack down on public drug use.
Mayor Bruce Harrell unveiled the proposed legislation this week out of the “Fentanyl Systems Work Group” formed in June after the Seattle City Council did not support an earlier proposal that officials said lacked adequate plans and resources to provide support for treating addiction and providing options beyond incarceration.
“Success will not – and cannot – be measured on how many people cycle through jail; instead, our focus is on improving connections to lifesaving treatment and expanding program options to better meet the needs of those with substance use issues,” Harrell said in a statement announcing the proposed legislation.
The city council will now start to debate and shape the proposal that has become a priority issue in the city as drug overdoses have continued to soar amid a pitched battle in the city over public safety concerns.
Under the plan brought forward by Harrell Monday, the city would put more than $27 million toward enhanced treatment facilities, new addiction services, and improved overdose response for first responders including $7 million this year in capital investments in facilities to provide services such as post-overdose care, opioid medication delivery, health hub services, long-term care management, and drop-in support.
The administration says it will use funding from opioid lawsuit settlements “resulting from the City’s efforts to hold large pharmaceutical companies accountable” to dedicate $20 million toward “a long-term multi-year strategy and plan to increase treatment and overdose response services” and “access to mobile opioid medication delivery, and harm reduction services.” The funding would also boost the Seattle Fire Department’s new “post overdose response team.”
Harrell’s office emphasized the spending will be done “considering input from the community stakeholders on the use of these funds,” hoping to address concerns from human services providers over how the spending will be prioritized.
Groups like the Downtown Seattle Association and the Seattle Police Officers Guild union have strongly criticized officials for being slow to respond to new state law making low level drug crimes in Washington a gross misdemeanor and giving the state a harder stance on drug law penalties.
The effort comes amid continued efforts for the city to address its ongoing crises of homelessness and street disorder and under the growing impact of increasing addiction and overdoses due to the wide availability of relatively cheap and powerful drugs like fentanyl. Around 100 people a month have died of drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning in King County so far in 2023, totals officials say continue to rise.
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20 pedestrian fatalities in 2022 in Seattle. $30.7 million spent that year to address the issue. At the current rate, 2023 will see 1200 deaths from substance abuse, and this didn’t just come out of the blue. I find it pretty appalling that the council mandates controversial measures to protect pedestrians, but can’t find enough common ground to invest in programs to halt substance abuse deaths, let alone commit to them with the kind of rapturous zeal that Vision Zero and Tammy Morales approach pedestrian deaths with. They’ll probably debate this $27 million effort, paid for by the pharma bro pricks that made this issue, into the ground.
Seattle’s 2022 budget was $7.4 billion.
Comparing this against the tiny sliver spent on bike/ped/car safety seems like an odd choice.
It’s not odd when criticizing the lack of political desire for solving our substance abuse/homelessness issue. The point I’m trying to make is that we are gung-ho AF in this town for absolute zero deaths for pedestrians, restructuring everything to save even the most clueless of pedestrians. Full commitment to absolutely never seeing another human die by walking or biking in this town.
So where’s the “Never Another Addiction Death” campaign? I’m trying to say that we care a disproportionate amount about the MAMIL and the pedestrian with no self-awareness, and we barely try to empathize with the people experiencing addiction. It’s kind of absurd if you compare the amount of dollars spent on each life saved.
Pedestrians/cyclists: $1,535,000 per human life
Substance Abuse Victims: $22,500 per human life
Is it that odd?
I’m a former homeless addict, you will NEVER stop all overdoses. This city doesn’t even have what it takes to stop the homelessness. Some people are despondent, and don’t have the will to live, and would also rather be homeless.
They also currently give the assistance to what they deem the neediest cases, in which there’s a high overlap of those types of homeless.
Meanwhile people who need very little assistance like myself are told “you aren’t homeless enough” because it hasn’t been 2 or 3 times, or you’re not addicted.
I just want to clarify that I’m not suggesting we approach the problem with a zero tolerance expectation. I think that concept is ridiculous and impossible to respect. Real life doesn’t yield results like that – it’s a political gimmick that gets votes. I’m just comparing the political will to solve these two problems to highlight the skewed priorities of our voter base. I’m sure all the Vision Zero SDOT employees will jump all over the comparison because they feel threatened, but seriously – the council should be able to make a significant impact, and should have a long time ago.
For context, peak COVID deaths for king county was around 10/day, although the average is closer to 30/month over the span of the pandemic. This still feels like a lackluster response to a public health crisis that is killing around 100/month
Oops, bad quick math on my part, since Feb 2020 the average is around 80-90 deaths/month
Agreed. Wholeheartedly.
Every little bit helps.
Why does anyone listen to the Seattle police offices guild? They also said that initially January 6th was caused by “antifa” and went on Tucker Carlson. Do we actually think they are a legitimate organization?
“…gross misdemeanor and giving the state a harder stance…” I’m sure this is what every addict reminds themselves just before. Right.
Increase “access to mobile opioid medication delivery.”
I assume this means increasing access to Narcan and other meds for treating opioid use disorder, and not a new proposal to deliver opioids to street addicts. At least I hope so!
I’m still trying to figure out why I should care if someone overdoses on street Fentanyl. You know it’s dangerous, you know it can kill you, but you do it anyway. You’re taking a chance. You may lose. If the city really wants to help, it can pass out information cards to users directing them to places that will offer them addiction treatment or to a DSHS office that can sign them up for medical care (Apple Health) But why all the coddling? Why all the hand holding? Give users the information they need and get them off the streets.
If only we bring them more foil for smoking meth, a box of needles, a tent and ask them extra nicely to stop smoking fentanyl then we will solve this crisis! It would be fascist to send someone to jail for their hundredth arrest. Evidence based solutions! That guy in the camo coat swinging the machete on the playground is our “houseless neighbor”. I am sure he was born and raised in Fremont and is not from Idaho. We should definitely double down on the stat quo “harm reduction” strategy as overdose deaths skyrocket because it is working so well.