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.
“The crisis in this neighborhood and struggles of neighbors across Seattle will not be put on hold if we decide to pointlessly search for an alternative,” a letter provided to CHS in support of the Broadway crisis center from a group of Capitol Hill Branch Library workers reads. “Rather than prolong suffering and harm, it is imperative that the opening of this facility proceed quickly.”
In the letter, the library workers call out Capitol Hill business owners who have opposed the Broadway crisis center plans including ice cream entrepreneur Molly Moon Neitzel. “Neitzel is correct that Capitol Hill is experiencing crises, which is precisely why we need a crisis center here,” the group writes. “Just as a neighborhood with children needs a school, or a forest fire needs firefighters, or an ice cream store needs a freezer- the crisis is here and the need is here, and will not simply disappear because the facility gets strung along elsewhere.”
While the library workers are calling on the King County Council to move the Broadway crisis center plan forward as soon as possible, they are also calling on the county to change the crisis levy framework and operate the clinics with “qualified and publicly accountable public, unionized labor.”
Due to contracting restrictions, the county can not yet reveal if Arizona-headquartered service provider Connections that is operating the first Kirkland location in the crisis center network has made a bid to also operate the planned Broadway center. In February, the county selected Connections as its “Launch Ready” partner in a plan to purchase the $39 million Kirkland building while providing funding to operate a 24/7 mental health care facility.
Approved by county voters in the spring of 2023, the levy was planned to cost median-value homeowners an estimated $121 a year over a nine year period, raising 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.
In addition to buying and owning the properties, the levy will provide companies like Connections access to operations funding plus $2 million annually “in workforce funding to support, strengthen, and recruit their workforce.”
The Crisis Centers must provide 24/7 walk-in care, 23-Hour Observation Units for patients brought in by police “to receive immediate care to stabilize and stay for up to 23 hours,” and “crisis stabilization beds” where individuals can stay for up to 14 days “to receive focused behavioral health treatment.”
Legislation to approve the purchase of the Polyclinic property and opening the crisis center is now in front of the King County Council following Tuesday’s session where the matter was referred to the council’s Health, Housing, and Human Services Committee.
Officials say the hope is to close on the building by the end of 2025, putting the center on track for a 2027 opening.
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