DESC continues to set the standard for excellence in supportive housing, winning local and national recognition for the effectiveness of its programs. These links point to articles or other information provided by other organizations. DESC is not responsible for the content referenced by these links. These links are provided as a service for visitors to DESC’s web site, and our providing a link to an article does not imply endorsement or agreement with the content.
The stark contrast between Supplemental Security Income and rent prices highlights the urgent need for affordable housing.
The green line shows HUD’s Fair Market Rents (FMR) for the past 12 years in the private rental market in the Seattle-Bellevue metro area. The teal line shows the maximum an individual can receive in a monthly SSI payment. (Data source: HUD Office of Policy Development & Research and Social Security Administration.).
A report released last week by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reveals a troubling 18.1% increase in homelessness nationwide in 2024. The data is even more alarming for Washington state, where the number of individuals experiencing chronic homelessness surged by 56% (an additional 4,295 people) between 2023 and 2024.
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Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 19, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: DESC Sr. Communications Manager Jessica Schreindl, jschreindl@desc.org
DESC’s STAR Center to Open in Downtown Seattle: Providing Pathway Out of Homelessness for Vulnerable Adults
Seattle, WA – DESC is proud to announce its Stability Through Access and Resources (STAR) Center – a new model that will change how our community’s highest-needs population gets off the streets and into care. Scheduled to open by the end of March 2025, the STAR Center will serve as a behavioral health-focused non-congregate shelter program specifically for unsheltered adults facing significant mental health and substance use challenges. Funding for the STAR Center is being provided by the City of Seattle and King County and will be overseen by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
In addition to providing people shelter, the center will offer a wide range of services to help individuals meet their physical and mental health needs while assisting them in navigating a pathway to permanent housing.
Director of Clinical Programs Maggie Hostnick talks about the CSC during a tour in September. Listening are King County Director of the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) Leo Flor, DESC Associate Director of Mobile Response Freyton Castillo and King County Executive Dow Constantine.
It’s two stories in one, showing an intense level of suffering being experienced by people living with serious psychiatric conditions and the heavy toll that can take on the people attempting to relieve that suffering. And it’s vividly told, showing minute-by-minute examples of what inadequate support from the behavioral health crisis response system can look like.
Service providers have sounded the alarm
More than a year ago I joined with numerous colleagues across the behavioral health treatment continuum to sound the alarm to government leaders about the state of the crisis response system and scarcity of appropriate community supports, using phrases like “people in crisis” and “workforce challenges” and “the under-resourced behavioral health system.” The stories chronicled in this article are the raw versions of what those phrases mean.
People living with psychiatric conditions are not inherently dangerous, but in all walks of life danger rises with desperation. If you can’t get the help you need for the symptoms you are experiencing and the pain you are suffering, you can deteriorate in ways that might include diminished ability to regulate your emotions. When that leads to risks of harm to yourself or other people, you need more intense help, and you need it now, not sometime after waiting weeks for an evaluation as described in the article. Same-day evaluation with immediate placement into treatment used to be the norm in responding to these severe situations, but now DESC and other community providers are often left without that essential backup support.
So with a picture this bleak, what’s the way out?
Last year we and others proposed essentially the three-legged stool of a greatly enhanced crisis response system including the creation of places for people in crisis to receive immediate support, major support for the behavioral health workforce, and investment in the basic infrastructure everyone needs to have a healthy life, none more important than safe and affordable housing. We applaud King County’s recent announcement of plans to ask voters to approve a proposal to build many more crisis centers and to provide appropriate compensation and training to the behavioral health workforce. The state and federal governments should also provide resources to bolster this system. While enhancements to our crisis system’s capacity are urgently needed, solely building up the crisis response system is not sufficient to fully address the needs of people experiencing crises and frontline workers who are caring for them.
A whole lot of crisis can and will be prevented when we fully attend to the support systems and housing everyone needs. Evidence-based practices implemented at DESC and elsewhere, such as Housing First permanent supportive housing, Assertive Community Treatment, specialized outreach and crisis response programs, and routine behavioral healthcare services delivered in community-based settings for people with long histories of trauma, have been under immense strain during the pandemic. Normal supports have been weakened, and timely interventions not as available.
The Washington state Legislature has an opportunity to invest in these things
The state Legislature will be convening in January and has an opportunity to invest in behavioral health and affordable housing resources and the essential workforce that prevents people from experiencing a crisis and supports their recovery after a crisis.
There are reasons to be hopeful, at least in the long run. For one, there is an incredible behavioral health workforce, albeit a fractured and hurting one, to build on. At often great personal sacrifice, people continue to show up every day to carry out the proposition that people with psychiatric conditions deserve direct, personal care and can thrive when they get it. Likewise, people with these conditions want that help and care, and make use of it best when it’s consistently available and they aren’t fighting for survival.
System investments can lead us into a new era of behavioral health
The pandemic exacerbated all of this for sure. As that recedes there should be some level of natural improvement. Investments to restore and build the system we all need will get us through the current chaos and into a new era where everyone with psychiatric conditions can resume thriving and healthy lives.
DESC’s Director of Housing Noah Fay joined King County Executive Dow Constantine and Dept. of Community and Human Services Director Leo Flor to open our second emergency housing site, Health Through Housing Northgate.
In the video, Noah and Mr. Flor answer questions from the media about how HTH is transforming the service model and providing dignity and stability to our guests.
