Capitol Hill property owners, businesses, and residents are preparing to push back on a planned King County mental health crisis center on Broadway.
Plans for a $1.25 billion network of five crisis care centers across the county include the former Polyclinic building at Broadway and Union, CHS has learned.
County officials are planning to hold a hastily organized meeting with community members Thursday.
Opposition to the Broadway center is already in place as rumors of the planned location have grown in recent months.
The massive 114,000-square-foot Polyclinic building now part of the Optum rebrand has been on the market for lease. A “rebuild letter,” also known as a “Zoning Verification Letter” and issued to confirm whether a property can be rebuilt to its original condition and use, was filed for the property in February. The letters are typically part of the process around a commercial property’s sale or refinancing.
CHS reported here in March as the county put out a call for providers to bid to be part of the program and opened the first of five centers in Kirkland.
The Crisis Care Center program is supported by the county levy approved by voters in 2023. Costing median-value homeowners an estimated $121 a year over a nine year period, the levy could raise as much as $1.25 billion through 2032 to fund creation of the five crisis care centers and increase mental health services in the county.
Connections Health Solutions runs the first facility in the program that is envisioned to create a network of five walk-in centers by 2030. Under the deal, Connections was funded to purchase the $39 million Kirkland facility and operate the 24/7 mental health care center.
The centers will provide services ranging from urgent care and prescription refills to multi-week treatment.
The county’s Department of Community and Human Services said it aims to choose behavioral health organizations to run the second and third crisis care centers by the end of the year. The final two operators are expected to be chosen by 2026, with the goal of all five crisis care centers open in 2030.
The county says it also has expanded the number of 24/7 mobile crisis responders it supports including more than 20 teams that “travel across the county to de-escalate behavioral health crises and support people in person.” You can call or text 988 or the Regional Crisis Line at 206-461-3222.
The planned Broadway and Union location would fall in a transitional zone between Capitol Hill’s Pike/Pine nightlife district and First Hill’s medical facility core. It is across the street from the Capitol Hill Stoup Brewing beer hall and brewery and the Harvard Market shopping center.
Community pushback on the plan includes concerns about adding the facility to the area’s ongoing public safety challenges around drug use and street disorder.
Addiction and mental health issues, meanwhile, remain a growing crisis and the city and the county have devoted larger budgets to try to address the issues. Siting facilities can be tricky. A major proposed “supportive housing” facility on Belmont Ave from the Downtown Emergency Service Center has faced opposition from nearby residents and property owners.
Other new facilities to try to address the challenges are also coming after city officials opted to locate a new CARE Department headquarters for its East Precinct Community Crisis Responders on Madison.
Broadway, meanwhile, will be home to a new $79 million Constellation Center skills training, and employment academy as part of an affordable housing development from Community Roots Housing currently under construction and planned to open in 2027.
King County officials have so far kept the Broadway and Union plans quiet and have not publicized details of the community meeting scheduled for Thursday.
CHS has questions out to the county and will update when we learn more.
UPDATE 3:30 PM: In a statement, DCHS director Kelly Rider says Thursday’s meeting is an early step in the process as the county is emphasizing that the plan is “not a done deal.”
“That is what the Thursday community meeting will be about—creating space to ask questions and share information,” Rider says in the statement. “A broader community engagement process will take place if the building is deemed viable, as with any buildings purchased by King County.”
The full statement is below.
Two years ago, voters approved the Crisis Care Center Levy to fund five Crisis Care Centers across King County. These centers are a place for anyone to go to get urgent care for a wide range of mental health and substance use crises, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We know that treatment works, and we need more of it. There is currently no place in Seattle to walk in and receive care if you are experiencing a behavioral health crisis. King County was asked to move with urgency to create more places for people to go around the region for crisis care and is working to fulfill voters’ mandate to open four more centers in the near future, including in Central (Seattle), South, and East King County, plus one for youth. The first crisis care center in Kirkland is already seeing results. The site is serving more than 28 people a day, and 40% of referrals are coming from first responders and law enforcement.
King County has identified a potential Crisis Care Center building at 1145 Broadway, formerly owned by Polyclinic/Optum. This building is already a medical facility with the same infrastructure needed for a Crisis Care Center to operate effectively, including the right square footage. The space is zoned for this purpose and is centrally located and close to three hospital emergency departments and near major transportation corridors.
King County is seeking to meet directly with community members, businesses, and neighborhood associations, who have shared questions and concerns. That is what the Thursday community meeting will be about—creating space to ask questions and share information. A broader community engagement process will take place if the building is deemed viable, as with any buildings purchased by King County. This initial meeting is to help answer early questions and ensures the broader community does not waste their time discussing a site that will never be pursued.
Consistent with the Crisis Care Center Implementation Plan, the County cannot acquire a building for a Crisis Care Center site until 30 days after the King County Council receives a notification letter describing the details of the sale and rationale for purchase, reflecting the necessary assessments for suitability.
The county says it is organizing Thursday’s meeting in conjunction with the GSBA chamber of commerce.
DCHS says it plans to continue community outreach efforts related to the Broadway and Union site “through June.”
The building from above from a recent real estate listing (Image: CBRE)
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This is the PERFECT location for a facility like this. Local opposition to these projects baffles me. That corner is already a hotbed of disorder, drug use, and litter. This facility would mitigate those very issues. Don’t these business owners want the problem to be solved?
Agreed. This facility would be a huge help to our neighborhood. Can’t come soon enough in my opinion.
A simple walk around pioneer square shows that these types of facilities create a permanent environment of disorder, drug use, and litter.
Correct – this facility will produces more problems than it solves as the magnet effect draws more issues to this already challenged area.
These types of facilities? There are none of these types of facilities in Pioneer square. Bread of Life or the DESC building there are nothing like this proposed facility.
Please elucidate.
Completely agree. This is literally what we need, where we need it, to help those in crisis all around us on the streets. I’m in full support. I also think the small fenced in lot on the south side of this building should be turned into a park, but that’s another matter.
You’re delusional. All these facilities do is entrench and ruin places.
Open them in Queen Anne, and let’s see what happens.
Mitigate? It will entrench it.
I live quite literally across the street from this, and I agree. If we want to solve something we can’t fight the solution.
Sorry, you’ve got it backwards. This facility would NOT mitigate those very issues, it would exacerbate them. How? One of the three types of clients it would serve are “24-hour observation” type clients. Most of these are people high on meth or other drugs brought in from all over Seattle (from White Center to far north Seattle) by police. 23 hours and 59 minutes after they come in, they are released directly onto Capitol Hill and First Hill Streets. Police have NO capacity to take them back to White Center or wherever they came from. So, they will exit onto Broadway, Seneca or Harvard into the waiting arms of their drug dealers. I live one block away from the Polyclinic-Broadway. We are already drowning in the drugs, crime, and litter. This proposed facility will make our streets unendurable.
If they enforce the SODA it will not be a problem now will it?
To my understanding, they’re not much enforcing it.
It will give the people freaking out on Broadway somewhere to go. Currently there are no drop in centers for this on the Hill or anywhere in Seattle. I fail to understand how a place intended to stabilize someone will make the problem worse than just letting them freak out on the street.
I think the main concern is that it will bring in additional drug users and homeless. Might want to consider that.
The people freaking out on on Broadway are where they want to be Doing their drugs at the bus stop and wherever. The problem will become worse because people from all over the county will be brought into this center and released.
As a progressive, supporter of crisis care centers, and a care recipient myself, I believe you’re raising important points. You and I both want to know… What is the discharge plan for crisis care recipients?
These centers *can* detain people for longer than 23 hours. But the centers can’t hold people forever after they stabilize (nor should they!!) Im concerned that patients will only get beds+psych meds, instead of the comprehensive therapy and mix of medical and psychiatric treatment that may be the best way to help folks get better.
If folks are released directly outside the center with scant support (“treat ’em & street’ em” ) then they may be vulnerable to predators. Drug dealers, but also sexual assault and other harms. The people released may be in an unfamiliar neighborhood, on strong psychotropic drugs that alleviate delusions but suppress thinking and self-reflection.. or even worse, *not* taking their psych drugs and undergoing tough withdrawal symptoms that make illegal drugs more appealing. I don’t know for sure.
King County has the desire and capacity to prevent the above from happening. The county crisis care planners are amazing, smart folks trying to implement a much-needed new model of care. But we need to make sure they have their plans in place before forging ahead.
Agreed! It’s already a medical building, which is what the mental health crisis centers are. The aim for these crisis centers is to provide medical care for our selves, friends, family, neighbors and the unhoused when it is needed most. This is an accessible location. I’ll be writing to the county in support of this location.
Respectfully, no, not necessarily. Let’s have a more rounded conversation such as why are they drawn here or other places? Why can’t we target cheaper real estate and pump the difference into better treatment options? We already have similar facilities in the neighbourhood, what’s the data from those showing us? Just from my observation, they seem to make things worse. Just walk past them any time of day (or night, if you dare).
“Let’s have a more rounded conversation”
You missed the conversations???? OH!
There were conversations. You didn’t attend.
I have been attending regularly Smooth and I agree with youngfogey.
I spent a few hours. There is nothing better. There will be nothing better. A medical facility fell from the sky in the exact spot we needed it. Yet it’s not viable?
This is going to waste time and money on a crisis that needed solving yesterday. We need to go now fast. The plan is in place. The building is in place. The money is here.
Waiting is inflation.
What similar facilities are you speaking of? I don’t see anything like this on the hill?
Yes.
What many of us are worried about is the walk-in-walk-out policy, and severe cases who are pushed out the door, regardless of the time of day or their need for further help, 23 hours and 59 minutes after they arrive. That’s the part of the center’s plan that many of us are opposed to, not the mandatory long-term treatment that actually helps people in crisis.
I just think you are fearful of the world with your thought process.
A process working overtime to make up excuses out of thin air. Your “worries” are all self imposed without rational thought.
Have you ever thought of therapy? Same with your pal Madam Flowers. Her fear of transportation infrastructure and people old black tired and broken sitting. ESPECIALLY THAT! brrrrr!
I would very non scarility softy and kindly suggest. That instead of fearing? Get knowledgeable. Knowledge is confidence.
I will ask again. What is this Madam Flowers? Oh, right this moment a message from God: is it Rachel Savage? If so, how did Rachel Savage become Madam Flowers? Why are people speaking in code?…
The alternative is no facility and they freak out on the street? I fail to see how doing nothing is better than creating a space where people can get stable and a referral to a longer term facility.
It’s a no brainer. A pot o’ gold fell from the sky and we want to send it back…lol
UW just laid off 32 staff at their brand new 150-bed facility because.. King County’s Public Defender office is understaffed and underfunded.
Is that at all related?
no it is not. or rather only tangentially as an indicator that social services and offices serving the needs of the public, whatever their means, need more help. this facility would be useful and welcome here.
I would much rather open these in Queen Anne, Magnolia and West Seattle, and have them support the city.
Will you get over yourself already
Nope. You know I’m right, you know Chris on First Hill is right. You’re just a troll.
No one could genuinely live in a place and ask for more drug addicts and criminals to be released onto the streets in that area.
This place is not an opium den. It is a treatment facility. I could understand the beef if this was a new DESC residential building but it is not…. A crisis center seems to be perfectly within need for the neighborhood.
Likewise.
huh? that was a bit broken or I am. I am not following you. Huh?
Capitol Hill is significantly denser than any of those areas & would thus be able to more readily serve the people who need it. This is just some NIMBY nonsense.
It’s pretty clear that the City intends to turn Capitol Hill into its containment zone for mental health crisis and drug use crisis. Residents are just expected to put up with the dangers involved, or leave.
We left after decades on CH. It is fabulous living away from chaos, dirt, grime, graffiti, constant hostility, meltdowns on sidewalks, in grocery stores and in the middle of streets.
There is a great big beautiful world outside of Capitol Hill.
Where did you go? We think of leaving but there are still many positives about the Hill and Seattle hard to give up.
NOT IN MY BACK YARD!!!!!
Seriously you all suck so much. Why can’t we house mental health facilities here? We need them all over. Here and everywhere else. I hate NIMBYism.
So how long have you been a volunteer for Mutual Aid?
And why can’t you put on your grown up pants and contribute to a more substantial and constructive conversation, rather than hating on everyone who opposes those ideas? Where’s your empathy for the (resident) folks who get beaten up by a random drug addict (happened just two weeks ago across the street from me)? How very democratic.
Well you kind of suck too. Nothing but ranting sucks.
That’s exactly my feelings as well. It getting worse with every day and if people think the new crisis center will help, they are wrong. The neighborhood will get much worse. So much money was already invested in this problem, nothing changed. They should start thinking, why it doesn’t work and leave capitol hill alone with all of those, who don’t want help.
Agreed. The city and king county is turning Capitol Hill into the dumping grounds. Crazy drug riffraff zone. This facility will be like a dirty bomb.
Belltown and Aurora Ave N. would like a chat.
Yet the rent still goes up every year. Fancy that.
There’s nothing new about the City’s effort to concentrate mental health and crisis services on Capitol Hill, at least south of Roy.
Constellation Center, DESC’s supportive housing facility, and now the proposed crisis care center only the newest additions to the supportive services in the neighborhood. Plymouth Housing and Sound Mental Health, among others, have long been fixtures here.
The planners always make noises about sharing the burden across the city, then claim that since so many of the services clients will need already exist on Capitol and First Hills (transit, DSHS, Harborview and other medical facilities, etc) it only makes sense to put the new programs here.
The key question is going to be how well any of these new facilities will be managed. In the meantime, community residents might ask the city why it can’t increase the services available to residents in other parts of the city so we can all share the load.
“The key question is going to be how well any of these new facilities will be managed.”
BINGO! You sexy :O)
That’s exactly it. Outside the facility will need support. But inside is where the magic happens.
We are in a SODA. So theoretically? The patrolling is baked in.
But how the joint runs is 100% it. If they can run a safe clean facility. They win. If they can’t? They will have to fight every one of us and they know it. It’s a no fail mission in every way. I’d rather build a rocket to the moon. We may blow up a few people. But we’d get there eventually.
Drug addiction is a rocket that does nothing but blow up on the launcher. You’ll never get to the moon. It’s impossible.
I feel like this is the right location for a project like this. The people who are most in support of these types of projects live in this district and around this facility. Belltown is certainly oversubscribed on these types of projects. In the past all the crises centers have been forced into Belltown where residents didn’t vote in favor of these projects.
Capitol Hill overloaded for more than Belltown I believe. For decades…
I can see it too. The “get them off the streets. Seems to be “cram them into SODA zones.” as the answer
I have been very critical of the city’s inability to come to grips with encampments and open drug use on Capitol Hill, but this is a good move. There are too many people with mental health issues that gravitate to the Hill. A facility like this could help them get to, and maintain, a stable mental place.
Just by the way, after having been removed twice or more, encampment back in Broadway Hill Park.
It is the same group of unhoused that refuse supportive housing. They won’t accept treatment or services and keep coming back to Broadway Hill park. They migrate up and down Republican and keep re establishing an encampment at area parks
At some point we should look into actually applying laws like “occupying public areas” -> it’s illegal to do so. I cannot build a house in a city park, I can’t camp in state camps illegally – but somehow, it’s OK for people to camp, pollute, damage and destroy Seattle city parks. Unacceptable.
I agree completely. The rest of us have to obey the laws. Why not drug addicts? If the addicts and mentally ill can’t handle the responsibilities of living in a community, then they need far more help than an overnight stay or a bowl of soup. These people are in serious crisis. They need serious, long term assistance, and protection from dealers and other predators. And that means off the streets without the freedom to roam loose until they they can demonstrate responsible behavior and the ability to consistently protect themselves.
lol, you’re describing a prison but trying not to.
Ignorant people trying to solve complicated problems with limited thier simpleton solutions.
Finland , often held up as an ideal, does use prison
Carrots and sticks.
Mandatory treatment. But that will never fly in Seattle. Because…Seattle
Remember when living next to a park was a good thing?
Presented with the above attempt to address the problem the naysayer’s alternative solutions are conspicuously absent. Maybe setups where someone in crisis who has to take the train and 2 busses to get help is probably not viable? I also enjoyed the implication elsewhere that all right thinking people should move out of town.
Typo – “brebrand”
Why is it that there’s been no public notice and no community input about this? From what I understand, the site information was “leaked” and now the rumor appears to be true. Yet another unhappy blindside from the County.
Capitol Hill and First Hill are saturated with drug treatment, medical, psychiatric, homeless, and low-income housing services. We absolutely cannot absorb one more large treatment center! And why are Capitol and First hills always the de facto choice for all this? Why not West Seattle, Phinney Ridge, or Northgate? Or better yet, there’s a LOT of empty County-owned empty buildings right downtown! If you want a centralized location on multiple transit lines, downtown would seem perfect!
Capitol and First hills are rapidly becoming destabilized zones, not neighborhoods. Businesses are closing and moving elsewhere. Just how long will QFC-Harvard Market and Whole Foods Market remain in the area? Both lose huge amounts of money every single day from shoplifters. Drug paraphernalia has tripled in the last year alone (I know because I’m active on a volunteer Boylston street cleanup). Crime is up. 9-1-1 calls are WAY up and we’ve been told by East Precinct staff that they can’t possibly respond to it all. I’ve lived on First Hill a long time. 7 years ago residents could walk safely anywhere on our Hill, day or night. Now, most residents won’t go out at night, and many won’t walk during the daytime unless they have a pal with them. Plopping this Critical Care Center at the intersection of First and Capitol Hills will destablize us further into a large “treatment zone,” no longer neighborhoods.
Same reason why few of the DESC or LIHI problem magnets are publicized much – because if people knew about it, they’d push back on it for obvious reasons – these buildings, and these centers do little to help. They simply cement the problems into the neighborhood. The THS building off Seneca is a prime example – another magnet for problems.
I live in a LIHI. What problems? I live here and it’s nice man.
Can someone please investigate DESC and LIHI? Especially LIHI. Maybe Sharewheel too. We have spent close to a billion dollars over last ten years. What have we achieved?
” low-income housing services.”
What’s the beef with that?
I’m all for low income housing services but methinks I smell a rat. A billion dollars
Where’d it go? Has there ever been an accounting? What have we gained for a billion dollars? Would really like to see LIHI and Sharon Lee open the books, if they have not yet doneso.
the voters approved the rat. every penny of it.
The voters are not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. Have you not noticed this? The voters in Seattle often go like lemmings for whatever The Stranger or newly free agent Hannah Krieg tell them they should do. Critical thinking would be so great. Does anyone do that anymore?
Because I can’t find information about the actual meeting anywhere, I ended up writing a mail to [email protected] declaring my “against” vote, and my concerns about the site’s location and the incredibly negative outcomes it will have on the neighborhood.
Aside from the few anarchists in this comment section; for all those who have families, livelihoods and those who want to enjoy a safe community away from all the criminals should do the same.
I’ll be there when the meeting information is published as well, we need to say stop to these crazy ideas and get back the community, or we’re going to be doomed to become the next Detroit.
Thursday, May 15, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM (Please arrive early 12:00 noon)
Wyckoff Auditorium on Seattle University’s campus (Bannan Building)
901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
(Wyckoff Auditorium is in the Bannan building on the second floor. Elevators to the room are on the right side of the building.)
Thank you. I appreciate it a lot.
But, who the hell can take time off work to show up to an event like this at 1230-130 on a Thursday :(
I’m hoping the letters I was able to send to the emails of the officials who are considering this idea takes place of my attendance on Thursday.
I’m sure that the short notice, midday schedule, and placing it in the middle of a place no cars can get to was all on purpose.
But you want addicts and the mentally ill to go how far to where for daily help?
You need to take a look at you first. You can’t manage a coherent thought stream. It’s all from a person who’s not worldly. Not well rounded. Not analytically inclined.
You got a lot to work to do on yourself before you started telling others how it is and how it should be.
You compassion is misguided. Borderline evil. But you will never see that.
You ain’t a saint.
Detroit?…LMAO!
Okay…What’s wrong with Detroit? The car industry?
Me and three friends voted against your “against” and emailed letters of support.
Well good for you and your three friends!
I have no problem with the center moving forward, but am frustrated that KC isn’t posting the time and location of the meeting. Unless I’m missing it?
Thursday, May 15, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM (Please arrive early 12:00 noon)
Wyckoff Auditorium on Seattle University’s campus (Bannan Building)
901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
(Wyckoff Auditorium is in the Bannan building on the second floor. Elevators to the room are on the right side of the building.)
Thanks! Mind sharing the link, or where you found this info?
It was shared in our building through a friend of a friend. The county sure didn’t make it easy to find.
This is not how public meetings should be done. Let people know it’s happening. Not psst! public meeting it’s secret!
Thanks so much for the info. Why was meeting
info not publicized at all, I am wondering?
While those in crisis certainly need help, I’m a partially disabled senior citizen who has been physically attacked by a drug addict, and threatened with a butcher knife by another. I don’t see how letting addicts or the mentally ill walk in and walk out of short term help will do them any good.
Problems like theirs need long term enforced treatment. Simply shipping addicts and the mentally ill in from around the city to be pushed out the door 23 hours and 59 minutes later will only make things worse for everyone.
Neighbors like myself will be even more afraid to go outside and the clients in crisis won’t get the help they need. As it stands, drug dealers are sure to be waiting outside the center’s door, ready to make yet another sale. Successful crisis centers are located away from homes and schools (and drug dealers). This neighborhood is already saturated with problems and mostly unsuccessful attempts at solutions.
In my opinion, this deal is all about money. It’s not about helping those in need. It’s not about protecting local residents or children at local schools. f it were, the County would have been far more open about the whole thing. They’ve been hiding their intentions from the very beginning.
I agree with everything you wrote. Sadly, our city believes that your needs don’t supersede the perceived civil rights of drug addicts and criminals. Seattle decided 11-12 years ago that the needs of a few deplorables are more important than those of the many taxpaying, hard-working, and voting citizens of Capitol Hill. It seems like every year it doubles down on this idiotic premise. Our tax dollars are churned into useless programs that do nothing to help these people who don’t want help; this facility will likely be yet-another example. Seattle doesn’t care about Capitol Hill children, women, the elderly, and the disabled. We’re on our own.
lol, this is fascist claptrap
“I agree with everything you wrote. Sadly, our city believes that your needs don’t supersede the perceived civil rights of drug addicts and criminals.”
Of course you’d agree. The sock puppets are invading the blog.
Let us talk civil rights. But before we do? CH people are cared for. I am a disabled dude. Ding fine tyvm.
Also? MAGA Madam Flowers wants it to be a “purge”, Where we vanish people forcibly into treatment far away in a black zone nobodies knows about. And nobody will complain about.
Here’s the hard truth. You and that other chick are totally bonkers. Get educated. Try rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty. It’ll change your perspective.
So Smooth, what the heck is ” Madam MAGA Flowers. “? I have not the slightest clue.
“Deplorables” has not worked well in the past. Just so you know….
lol! My EXACT same thought.
I was like “Oh that’s going to go over well. Let’s see what happens!” And sure nuff…lol
Ata boy…the brains of the outfit right here people.
“While those in crisis certainly need help, I’m a partially disabled senior citizen who has been physically attacked by a drug addict, and threatened with a butcher knife by another.”
Seriously? That sounds like such bullshit. Total bullshit on that I call. Drug addicts do not attack people. That’s the LAST thing they’d do. Why? THEY’LL GO TO JAIL FOR A YEAR+!!!
Listen sweetie. Some of us KNOW what is going on. You? Just try hard to get people on your side with your routine. You are not real. You have no control over anything and it frightens you.
I dunno. As I have said before, I almost got seriously punched in the damn head outside of QFC. He tried. I avoided. You think the drug zombies on Broadway don’t do this shit? If so, you are mistaken, dear friend.
Ummm…okay…Pepper spray solves that. And your trip sounds more like real life to me is all. My lie detector is pretty keen on some things.
If someone took a swing at me? They’d die in place.
I am not trying to diminish it or say it’s crap. Of course shit happens.
All I am saying is that’s not often and it has some wicked repercussions. Drugged or not? Most if not all wouldn’t randomly take a swing at a stranger for no reason.
I have lived on the streets man. I get an ear up when someone says they are random violence victims over an angry mental health issue or just “drugged out”. There’s usually a trigger of some kind. Simply walking by isn’t a reason.
Also? They do not want to get involved with the law. Just like us. There’s no alt reasoning that says “fuggit! Crime free baby!” and just go around robbin’ shootin’ steaslin etc.
They will steal your shit in a heartbeat. THAT is real. It’s survival. Randomly punching people isn’t survival. It’s begging for help. It’s the non verbal version of “What do I have to do to get help.”
Now an angry mental health issue is very different.
You don’t get “randomly” punched/attacked. Nope…You see that shit coming a mile away. It’s called ‘survival instincts’. You walk around people like that. Ignore them. Call the cops. Whatever. But they are not hiding and easy to spot. If you can’t avoid it? Then there’s something wrong. Pepper spray is for those moments. But I have rarely came to a situation I had no options. I am a big proponent of options. They save lives.
I am an incredibly broken human. But I have no fear around here. Other than my shit getting stolen while not paying attention. Someone rides off on my scooter. That happens.
Sound advice.
And no, fortunately doesnt happen often. Am generally not fearful, still. But this one time, with no provocation, no engagement whatever, out of the blue, guy takes a swing as im just walking by. Obviously very angry, don’t know if drugs, mental or both. Fortunately did not connect and I kept moving. Point is these open drug scenes are sick messes and the city has been far too willing to tolerate them for far too long. Tired of it.
Worst I’ve seen on the hill.
I was sitting here as I am now. I glance out the window because someone is havin’ things in a big way. I hear rages a couple times a week. There’s a couple that screams at each other. Homeless of course. The stress of being homeless sucks.
Anyway. It was the summer after Covid. There was a dude with a kitchen knife. Screaming “I’ll kill you” and lunging at people walking on pine from Broadway. He was clearly trying to scare people. Not actually “kill” anyone. But he was scary awright. I had the cops on their way. They ended up getting him. At the 76 station. He’d went around the block. I had left to see if I could chase him down and saw the cops grab him and went down there.
That was a “whoa!” moment. It was before the recent random stab incidents with the bus driver and the one 11 victim stab spree. But knives are everywhere around here. Tons o’ guns. Every mfer has a gun it seems.
I see scuffles sometimes. But it’s rare. Very rare. It’s normally a lot of yelling. I just kinda see and hear it all from my tiny desk.
Yeah, it’s normally navigable. Anyone living on the Hill knows the unwritten rules. But I do worry a little about the totally unexpected guy suddenly aiming at my head for no reason. The Black Swan. The guy stabbing me for food he demanded and I did not want to give (Belltown not Capitol Hill). Confrontations not advisable. Assume they all have knives. If I were living that life I would sure AF be carrying a knife.
Is the county/city government the best people to plan and care for mental illness clients? What are the successful programs they have installed in our state?
Where are the stats that support their success rates or trackable outcomes? Have we heard from the clients that they have been helped?
The 50 million dollars they want to spend could help many people to go to existing nonprofit or private programs with continuing support for their clients.
Helping someone with mental illness is not a 23-hour 59-minute help program. It can take a lifetime of support with built-in constant checking in, therapy, and on-the-ground support (people).
I would know, as mental illness has touched two of my family members and it has ripped my family apart, and the current laws do not help the client or their families.
At the very least, having the crisis center in a once-upon-a-time family-friendly, walkable, senior citizen, school area gives the drug dealers a one-location shopping spot to deal drugs 24 hours a day!
Please come to my neighborhood from midnight to 6 am to see what the government has done to my neighborhood!
Really well said Liz. What is your neighborhood, if you are comfortable saying?
Spring, Bolyston, Madison, Seneca.
FYI one block from the Poly Clinic location.
FYI there is a High school next door that will become an elementary school with in three years. Students use the public transportation. I would not want my child riding a bus with a mentally ill or drug out person on the bus with them.
Please pull up the 911 call logs and you can track the rise in crime in the area it has tripled in the past two years.
If the City was concerned about safety of the crisis clients, and the people living and working next to clinic they would have chosen to locate the clinic in the “Stay out of drugs area zone”. The city already admits they only have resources to staff for the crimes in this zone!
Do you currently let your kid on the 60 route?
Thanks Liz. Not sure though how a center serving people with drug issues could be placed in a SODA zone.
“Students use the public transportation. I would not want my child riding a bus with a mentally ill or drug out person on the bus with them.”
That’s been happnin’ since the invention of public transpo. Kids are sturdier than you think. I see tons of kids on transit these days. They are getting more comfortable using it.
After years of county and city policies that made Seattle and Capitol Hill a magnet for drug addicts and lawlessness, you would think they would throw the community a line. Instead they are throwing us another grenade.
“Community pushback on the plan includes concerns about adding the facility to the area’s ongoing public safety challenges around drug use and street disorder.”
So, it would be better to have it in a neighborhood where the druggies don’t tend to hand out? And attract them to that neighborhood?
Yes. They have concentrated here because of easy access to drugs, no law enforcement, too many “housing first” projects dumped in the neighborhood in recent years, tolerance of open drug use and camping, and gross mismanagement by the city, county, state and courts. Moving them out of a densely populated neighborhood and an entrenched drug dealing corner is exactly what needs to happen. Moving them to an area where they are not impacting as many residents, a business district on the ropes because of this self-created crisis, and the historic center of the LGBTQ community is exactly what needs to happen. I think Seattle and Capitol Hill already bear way too much of the responsibility for the drug shtshw. The state should open a new mandatory treatment facility in eastern Washington for chronic offenders with drug and mental health issues. Get them out of here. Get them away from easy access to drugs. Send them back to family. If that doesn’t work, send them to prison. Yes I am a nimby and not a naive, virtue-signaling fool.
wowwwww….You ARE naive. And extremely virtue signally.
Did you read it or just mash enter?
They’ve got some points Smooth. Eastern Washington may be a bridge too far but mandatory treatment yes. I don’t see virtue signaling here…
The way it works is like this.
You go to drug court/Mental health court.
You are either going to meetings. hospital and/or treatment. You get a PO a social worker, a shrink, a family doc.
They guide you through the 2-5 years probation and you are on your own. Dismissed w/o prejudice.
Of course. The issue is you can’t cage people forever. There’s no lifetime probation for most stuff. The extra special exceptional learners get the life treatment.
What we all hope for is success. Here’s the bad news. There’s no such thing as perfection. Least of all us humans. Add drugs, mental health issues, societal issues.etc. and boom.
I know people project their fears and amp them with hyperbole. Trump doesn’t help. Fear is a tool. When you give into fear you are done. You’ll never grow. You can’t cry wolf then wonder why everyone isn’t running around frantically trying to stop it. I have seen “go beat up the bad guy for me” manipulation too.
It’s all boiled down to one issue. A preponderance. What would a reasonable person think. “Reasonable” carries all the weight.
Someone with nothing but problems and questions is reasonable. We all know people like that. People like that tend to never educate themselves. They get stuck. For example. If I got swung on? I’d by some pepper spray and carry it around if I knew otherwise.
I have just always been forced to figure it out myself. My whole life. I can do some amazing things out of thin air on a whim. Practice. Practice. Practice.
The brain is like a muscle. The more you feed it, work it and rest it? The bigger it gets. Being bipolar my brain never turns off until I am exhausted. I am always thinking about or doing something.
I do know the system works. But it’s underfunded of course. Most of what we need doesn’t even exist as a result.
Fear and easy solutions is how we got Trump.
Okie doke. So the answer is what? Clearly you have more experience with the system than I do Smooth. What do you think needs to happen?
Me personally? If I was King?
First of all…I have enough on my plate as King of the Idiots. But let’s imagine I didn’t have a gig already.
First thing I’d do is sit people down and ask. ”
“What’s it going to take to make this happen here?”
Then take that plan and fast track it.
Now, everyone can fight that if they want. But when someone tells you that realistically? After all the arguing? It’s going to happen and it is going to happen there. Period. No other options. Had this place not been on the table? We got a whole other argument/s to make for sure. THEN and only then would the “nay” arguments get traction.
This notion that the “crazies will pour in from miles around into our tiny village” is about 99% ignorance.
It is actually the teeny tiny parking lot/bus stop that they will be pouring into. They will all go home after their appointments. The unstable patients get to stay. But nobody is “turned away”. NOBODY! *drops dead*.
That’s why we need it now. People ARE being turned away. There’s not an abundance of places to go. Jail and limited beds elsewhere. No free ORCA cards either to go home on. It’s a drug, mental health facility. Not a methadone clinic or whatever.
That particular area will need extra attention for sure.
So my suggestion is, instead of costing time and money? Negotiate some concessions. Like a beat cop or whatever. Or even if like businesses start to take a dive? We lift them up like we do patients at the facility. Inject extra security *poof* overnight w/o a long process and trying to find the personnel etc. It simply triggers. It could be infrastructure. Like extra cameras. Lights. A fucking Olympic swimming pool! But state it and say “We can do it here and now if we get this.” Shit…Monetary subsidies are on the table.
You tell 5 arguing kids “look, it’s going to happen so suck it up and take what you can get.” That’s exactly what happens. In the USMC…The same. It’s the same everywhere including you and I.
At some point someone needs to step forward with some common sense answers to this crap I am hearing from businesses especially. Negotiate a deal! THIS is part of being a business owner. It is NOT being King.
That’s my fuckin’ job.
Well ok King. Now You got me with the Olympic pool. I love to swim so where’s it gonna be? Oh I know! Cal Anderson Park! Would be so great. Beat cop. Love that too. Exactly what we need. But so now we’re just transactional like our POS president? Can you explain why the idea that “crazies” will not pour in is 99% ignorant? I’m sure I have some degree of ignorance but nowhere near 99% I am at least hoping. l will be happy with under 50%. Suck it up? Nah. We’ve been sucking it up for the last five or more years. Done sucking it up. Respectfully as always Smooth. You always present interesting ideas.
You missed it…
The people who come through the system(They are already picking up arrests) will be sent to jail, court, OR to the facility with probation prolly.
Today they just book and release.
My point was there’s got to be some conditions under which we can put a facility there that’s already a medical building. MY point is, other than cold hard cash. I am not sure what Molly Cow to business interests wants for “compensation” for compromise. Yes, a bribe. The legal way.
Does she want extra cops? Infrastructure?
Why not think in those terms as opposed to simply no under any circumstances?
Also…I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about the businesses exclusively. Not us peoples. That’s a different argument. Not the one I just typed.
I don’t think it even dawned on me she was answering your post at the time because I try to recall it and can’t. I normally simply respond directly to posts. I am not like that. I am pretty in your face actually.
I agree, I am done “sucking it up” too. But we ain’t got far to go now. Don’t get down. It’s gonna be okay. If it goes bad? You can tell me “I told you so”
I don’t understand the push back. This is GOOD NEWS! Have lived around here for years. Much better to take people suffering off the street than let them wallow on these corners (which they do already!!). This is an improvement. Plus we ALL voted for this!
Theyre haters who imagine a better world is brought through even more incarceration in the most incarcerated country on the planet in absolute and per capita. Theyre the social neglecters who are constantly baffled that they cant neglect their way to an imagined way it should be.
I didn’t vote for this. What are you talking about?
This was a public vote 2 years ago in the 2023 Crisis Care Levy. Cap Hill / First hill overwhelming supported this, nearly 90% support.
They do not know and do not care. Until, they start to look silly.
I just let em’ ramble “waddabouts” and “grand solutions” and just roll my eyes.
Truth is? They can’t stop it. They can only complain. I never bother saying they could change it if they were part of the process. And they rail at those very people allllll the time.
I am always impressed by the talent that pops up in comment sections. Of course you have to recognise it in the first place. These people never do. They can’t read past anything. They have limited knowledge and come with simpleton solutions that sound logically fullproof to them.
They just don’t know and educated them only makes them more dangerous. How? Because while it may sound 100% perfect on this issue? There’s still the issues of prejudiced to muddy their thinking.
Since when is affordable housing a crime magnet? Only the completely ignorant bigoted racists think it. We are all crazy drug addicts! We are losers! Below me! and the ilk. That’s where all the reasons come from. That’s the bottomless “well of reasons”. They are all about the same reasons. But it never ends. Never any new reasons. The same reasons built on ignorance and prejudices to unreasonable and really, intolerable levels. They’ll never get it. They do not want to because they feel they do not have to. They just want to complain.
There’s 2 things wrong with it.
It costs money….no…that’s it…one thing really I guess?
And if we have to do it? We must do it THEIR way. Not the way the experts determine. Because, they know better. End of argument.
This is SODA now and the cops and security are everywhere. It’s a fucking militarised zone for all intensive purposes. By deliberate design.
Thus? Putting in this facility sounds perfectly logical and entirely reasonable.
For the uninformed ranters on here:
1. The levy funding this crisis center was approved by voters in 2023 with 56.7% of the vote.
2. This is one of 5 crisis centers funded by this levy. The other 4 are spread around King County. Capitol Hill is not “bearing the entire burden.”
3. Prior to the centers funded by this levy there were zero walk in mental health facilities open 24/7 in King County, and the only other options were the very nearby hospital emergency departments (which are already over capacity with all of the other emergency health needs and lack of available beds), or jail.
4. The crisis centers will provide 23 hour stabilizing care, but patients can stay up to 14 days if they need additional stabilization. So, patients will not be “dumped” onto the street after 23 hours if they aren’t stable. This is much better than the same people being stuck in emergency department waiting rooms and leaving without getting any care or in jail where their symptoms would likely worsen before being released.
5. There is enormous stigma around mental health. Most mental health cases are not the visible ones we see on the street, but are prevalent in every community on the planet. Untreated mental illness can destroy lives to the point where people end up homeless or even dead. This crisis center will likely not solve all of the visible problems related to mental health we see on the street (although it can help), but for MANY people (housed, unhoused, and from all walks of life) this will likely be a life saving resource. This is why a majority of King County voters voted for this.
I give you big squeeezes!
I am #5,
I am bipolar with 2 ruptured discs. (L4-5). I wanted to die. It was all wayyyy tooo much.
Long story short. During my exploits. The cops found me. The bipolar 0351 in the forest. You see the first Rambo movie? It was a lot like that…lol Totally not a fun job that day for the cops army. Fortunately, I didn’t hurt anyone. How is beyond me. It was a day.
So I ended up in mental health court. Then back in a cage where I proceeded to beat the shit outta 3 dudes. 2 hours later I was released. Turns out the caging thing was not something I liked at all. Not one bit. Sweating like a racehorse in court. Dripping wet not moving a muscle. I did NOT want to be there at all.
After that day. I went to get and intake at COMPASS and they gave me meds. changed those. adjusted those. Changed one and added another. I take 11 pills in the morning for all kinds of shit. I am getting old. I take pain killers and muscle relaxers. Bipolar meds. cholesterol, blood pressure and so on.
Turns out I had blocked arteries in my legs. 68% and 79% respectively. So I am on blood thinners.
Fact is. That day was the best day of my life. I figured it out. The hard way. But I got there. And thanks Judge Dave Severn. He came and let me out at 6AM in the morning on a Saturday to let me out of jail OR. My ex wife playing games is all. He somehow got word I was picked up in the middle of the night. I was in jail like 5 hours. He remembered what happened the last time I saw him…lmao!
Lots of great stuff has happened since. I have given back as much as I can using my talents. I am a producer by trade. I have done some promo work for United Way, Salvation Army, Community Action and stuff. I show up and volunteer occasionally. It depends on my mood and my back mostly. But I do it. It’s fun. Meet cool people, Raise some chaos pullin’ weeds at Cal Anderson with friends.
They ain’t caught me yet!
Rough story. Sincerely hope lots of great stuff continues to happen for you Smooth.
Hey…we are doing pretty good these days. I appreciate you for that.
I am in the process of writing a story for the blog and another paper about Medicaid cuts.
You’ll see it here if he prints it in a couple few days.
Let us know.
So we can expect MAGA Madam Flowers supporters flooding the zone with this stuff? There’s a lotta folks here with some pretty wild solutions.
The more I look into this? The more I see it as a slam dunk.
It’s about a perfect a situation as you get ANYWHERE. We got lucky here.
Stop bickering.
How about say “Okay…We build it it here. But we need x, y z? Like maybe increased security?”
Fighting this is a waste of time money and effort. It’s no wonder we get everything done 1/2 assed around here. Do it once, do it right. Quit with the bullshit.
Ask for something in return hey? Tell em’ you want 5K a month so Molly doesn’t go belly up.
Whatever. Be creative. It’s going to happen. So you gonna spend all the time money blood sweat and tears fighting and losing? Orrr…????
Be a part and ask for stuff and possibly(likely) get stuff?
I might feel better about it if good security in place around the building. But LIHI and Sharon Lee apparently promised security in those buildings and that has apparently not been delivered. Promises promises. And once it’s in, it’s in. If we’re going to do this, we have to ensure it will not take the neighborhood down.
Rules w/o enforcement are only suggestions