Tag Archives: mental health

Mapping the buffer: Inside the safety and design planning for Broadway’s Crisis Center

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A .25 mile radius around the facility


 
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Central Crisis Care Center

As renovations begin on the former Polyclinic building that spans between Broadway and Harvard along Union, local safety planning for King County’s upcoming Central Crisis Care Center is moving forward on two tracks: an immediate evaluation of neighborhood security gaps and an eventual handoff to an operator-run advisory council once patients arrive.

Last week, CHS reported on the political process across two mayoral administrations that formed a new six-member advisory group responsible for a crucial $3 million safety and community plan to help the surrounding neighborhoods make a better home for the new crisis center when it opens in 2027.

Here is a look at what the group has been working on, the challenges and shortcomings it is facing — and a critical handoff that must be executed with a new group once the center opens. Continue reading →

As final mental competency period ends, First Hill homeless ax murder case heads to dismissal and civil commitment

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A memorial to Paul Ewell at the site where he was found murdered in 2024 (Image: United Way of King County)

Liam Kryger, the 27-year-old accused in two deadly attacks on sleeping homeless men killed in late night assaults on area streets in 2024, remains incompetent to stand trial, according to a newly filed state psychiatric evaluation.

The determination likely marks the end of his active criminal prosecution.

Kryger was arrested in early 2024 and initially charged with first-degree murder in the brutal ax slaying of 52-year-old Daravuth Van, who was killed while camping outside Town Hall Seattle. Prosecutors later added a second count of first-degree murder for the February 2024 killing of 68-year-old Paul Ewell, who was attacked while sleeping outside the Seattle Men’s Chorus building along 12th Ave.

Surveillance, phone location data, and a discarded ax purchased at a local Lowe’s linked Kryger to both homicides. Continue reading →

Remembering Joel’s Law after another Capitol Hill death of a person in crisis — UPDATE

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Friends consoling each other after Joel Reuter was shot and killed in a standoff with police in 2013 at Bellevue and Denny. His death would inspire Joel’s Law, a key reform to the state’s involuntary commitment statute (Image: CHS)

The death of a man in crisis who fell from a Capitol Hill apartment building Sunday despite hours of contact and attempted interventions with Seattle Police echoes with another death in the neighborhood that led to new laws around involuntary commitment more than a decade ago.

CHS reported here on the Sunday incident as the man fell from the Ben Lomond Apartments after police earlier in the day, despite his suffering reported “severe delusions and paranoia” and possible access to weapons, determined the man had not yet committed a crime, had not injured anyone else, and was not injured which can trigger SPD protocols that allow officers to enter private property to render medical aid. Continue reading →

Seattle’s CARE chief: City’s police alternative has grown — but SPD contract is limiting response

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CARE responders are dispatched around four times a day in the East Precinct (Source: seattle.gov)

Barden

The chief of Seattle’s police alternative for mental health and addiction crisis response told the City Council this week the same thing she has been saying in the CHS comments — Seattle City Hall has funded the growth of the new Community Assisted Response & Engagement Department but CARE crisis responders remain hamstrung and sidelined by the new contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild union.

“Under the constraints of the current SPOG contract, CARE responders are permitted to respond to persons in public space with no evidence of substance use, nor encampment,” Chief Amy Barden said in a briefing of the council’s public safety committee this week. “We had interpreted the contract to mean that so long as a person is not inside a place where they could be trespassed, CARE responders could help them. However, last week, we were advised that we were not permitted to be dispatched to any private property where someone could be trespassed, including outdoor parking lots. What this means — and this actually happened last night — is that somebody could be in a QFC parking lot, clearly struggling mentally or emotionally and when that QFC employee calls 911 and asks if we can send someone to provide resources, our only option is to send an officer.”

Barden says the limits restrict even the use of “dual dispatch” in which a crisis responder is sent along with an armed officer.

The department is costing the city around $6.5 million a year.

So far in 2026 according to the department’s reports, CARE responders have been dispatched 231 times around the East Precinct — around four times a day. Continue reading →

Seattle’s CARE Department makes three responses a day around Capitol Hill — That number is expected to rise in 2026

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(Image: CARE)

A heat map of CARE call for service responses so far in 2026 — Source: seattle.gov

By Brenna Gauchat

Seattle’s expanding force of crisis responders has been busy with calls across the East Precinct including Capitol Hill and the Central District about three times every day so far in 2026. Amy Barden, chief of Seattle’s CARE Department, says there is more to do to continue to address public safety around Capitol Hill.

After taking a brief sip of hot tea, helping a sore throat through a bad cold, Barden answered questions on how the new department plans to help tackle Capitol Hill’s most pressing safety concerns in the new year.

“Capitol Hill is not doing well,” Barden said this week in a community meeting with the GSBA chamber of commerce. “So it very much frustrates me when leaders are calling ‘mission accomplished’ about crime statistics.”

The neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and Central District aren’t the busiest areas for CARE right now. Currently, only around 18% of the department’s responses take place in the East Precinct. The city’s largest precinct geographically leads the way with CARE calls as the North Precinct generates more than 30% of the department’s current activity.

Still, the areas around the core of East Precinct near Broadway and Pike/Pine are some of the busiest for CARE, and responders can be seen there daily. Around 70% of East Precinct CARE work is currently taking place in these densely populated areas near downtown. Continue reading →

County will stick with Connections to operate its next Crisis Care Center set to open on Capitol Hill

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Connections will find a much different environment around Broadway and Union than its first county crisis center facility in Kirkland (Image: Connections Health Services)

The rapidly growing national provider of behavioral health services already running the county’s first facility in Kirkland has been selected to operate the coming Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union as it is lined up for a 2027 opening.

The King County Department of Community and Human Services announced Thursday that Connections Health Solutions has been selected to run the facility set to take shape in the former Polyclinic medical building on the edge of the First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

“Connections Health Solutions is a national leader in providing crisis care and was selected following a competitive Request for Proposal process,” the county said in its announcement. “The organization has a strong track record of delivering accessible, high-quality specialized care for people of all ages throughout the country.”

The county says the selection will be part of a careful approach to developing the new center while also addressing public safety concerns around the facility as it offers emergency and walk-in mental health services.

Continue reading →

King County Council approves funding plan for $56M Broadway Crisis Care Center — UPDATE

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From the real estate listing for the property

The King County Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a funding package for the planned $56 million Broadway Crisis Care Center that would keep the process on track for a 2027 opening of the facility.

UPDATE 6:00 PM: The council approved the package Tuesday afternoon clearing the way for a $41 million purchase of the property including a financing plan that would include millions in projected revenue from leasing portions of the building, potentially to Harborview. The plan includes another $15 million for the costs of upgrading the facility and funding a contract operator. Officials said Tuesday the funding includes resources to address public safety concerns including environmental design spending and funding security resources for the contract operator. The spending plan also will include transportation funding for patients after their stay at the center. An ordinance authorizing the issuance of bonds for Harborview to lease a portion of the property passed 6-3. The core financial ordinance to fund the builidng’s purchased was approved unanimously.

UPDATE 10/8/2025 9 AM: “Today, we’re responding to voters’ mandate to expand care and delivering on our commitment to ensuring anyone in crisis can receive timely, appropriate mental health care and treatment for substance use disorder when and where they need it,” King County Executive Shannon Braddock said in a statement sent to CHS. “This marks a critical step forward in expanding access to urgent behavioral health care across our region.”

“As we move ahead, our commitment remains firm: we will continue working closely with community members, the King County Council, and the City of Seattle to shape a center that reflects our shared needs and values — one that provides essential care today and builds a foundation for long-term impact for years to come.”

In its statement, the county also emphasized it has analyzed the property “as part of our standard due diligence process and is aware that repairs and maintenance have been needed.”

“These repairs and maintenance have consistently been a part of our financial planning,” the statement reads. “We are confident we can make the proper modifications to bring a Crisis Care Center online in this building.”

Original report: Legislation enabling the purchase of the former Polyclinic property at Broadway and Union was passed out of the council’s finance committee in September but not without debate over concerns surrounding the planned 24-7 walk-in and emergency care mental health clinic that would be the second location in a planned network of five centers across the county.

In September, the King County Council’s budget committee approved a set of ordinances to set up the fund that will pay for the acquisition and operation of the new levy-powered mental health crisis center at Broadway and Union as part of a planned $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county. Continue reading →

Report: King County Council mulling pause in Broadway Crisis Care Center process — UPDATE

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The proposed Broadway site

A member of the King County Council says he has prepared an “emergency resolution” calling for a 30-day pause on the county’s efforts to acquire the Polyclinic building at the corner of Broadway and Union where a $56 million Broadway Crisis Care Center is planned.

Reagan Dunn, representing the county’s southeast, is reportedly mulling the call for a pause over concerns about the proposed property deal raised by “a group of Capitol Hill business owners and residents,” KOMO reports:

The group sent a lengthy letter to King County Executive Shannon Braddock, County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay, and Department of Community and Health Services Director Kelly Rider last week, accusing them of potentially violating laws and triggering a devolving street crime situation like what happed with the failed Navigation Center in Little Saigon.

UPDATE: In a statement provided to CHS Tuesday, Dunn is reportedly pausing his call for a pause. “CM Dunn is not currently calling for the aforementioned delay pending the outcome of tomorrow’s hearing where we will learn more about the issue,” a spokesperson said.

CHS has not been provided with a copy of the letter but representatives from nearby Cancer Pathways and Perkins Glass spoke to the TV station about their concerns over the proposed center.

Continue reading →

More letters join mayor’s conditional support for Broadway Crisis Care Center plan

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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has given his conditional support to siting a new county mental health crisis center inside a former medical building at Broadway and Union. Capitol Hill community groups are also formally weighing on the proposal as the King County Council begins debate on the plan.

“The primary concerns from our community members are about the public safety effects of the Crisis Care Center. Many residents expressed a belief that the Crisis Care Center would improve the public safety of the area,” a letter from the Capitol Hill Community Council also conditionally supporting the plan reads. “Other community members question that belief, and we support the careful consideration of their concerns and a public safety plan that addresses concerns of community members.”

In their letter, the volunteer community group agreed the King County Department of Community and Human Services is so far showing “good faith effort” in answering the council’s questions and responding to concerns.

“While not all the forwarded questions were addressed, and while not all answers are as forthcoming as we may have hoped, we believe that this represents a good faith effort by King County to engage with the concerns of members of the community in a fair way,” the council’s letter continues. “Based on this action, and others including neighborhood walks with community members, we anticipate that King County will strive to be good neighbors and run the Crisis Care Center in a positive way that reflects and responds to the community in which it is housed.”

The full Capitol Hill Community Council letter is below.

CHS reported here in August on Harrell’s conditional support for the planned $56 million Broadway Crisis Care Center that would transform a former Polyclinic facility at Broadway and Union.

In his letter, Harrell said the county and a yet to be announced operator of the center must partner with the Seattle Police Department to assess the former Polyclinic building and its surroundings for safety, execute a “safe operations plan for the building and the surrounding exterior spaces, including public sidewalks and other publicly accessible spaces,” and enter into a Good Neighbor Agreement with the city that “obligates the provider to meet certain safety and disorder standards to be negotiated with the provider.” Requirements would include forming a citizen advisory committee to guide the emergency and walk-in clinic that is planned to be part of a voter-approved, $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county.

The mayor’s letter of support is a key milestone in the so far limited public process around the proposal.

Other groups are voicing support. Continue reading →

County can’t yet say who will run it but officials answering as many questions as they can about possible Broadway Crisis Care Center

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The Kirkland center

There are many questions surrounding the plan to locate one of five county Crisis Care Centers at Broadway and Union. One of the biggest — who will run it? — can’t be answered yet due to county procurement policies.

A spokesperson for the King County Department of Community and Human Services tells CHS they can’t reveal if the Arizona-headquartered service provider Connections that is operating its transformed Kirkland location as the first in the planned $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county has made a bid to also operate the planned Broadway center. Continue reading →