CARE Community Crisis Responders (Image: City of Seattle)
CHASE left the corner earlier this year (Image: Google Maps)
The city says the plan for a new service center for the city’s CARE mental and behavioral health emergencies team inside a former bank at Broadway and Pike is not a done deal yet but officials and the property’s owners are “taking steps to determine the suitability and feasibility,” a representative for the department tells CHS.
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess and Davonte Belle of the city’s CARE Department dedicated to assisting Seattle Police with crisis response announced the planned new facility amid a roster of initiatives at a community public safety meeting last month.
At the meeting, Belle announced the effort to establish a Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) station on the street level of the Harvard Market shopping center in a space left empty when Chase Bank departed the challenged corner.
The city tells CHS it is still working out an agreement with the shopping center’s owners. CHS reported here in September as the local ownership group has put the Harvard Market property up for sale for $25 million amid ongoing public safety concerns in the area.
“Were an agreement reached to utilize that location, it would serve as a base from which the Seattle CARE Department’s Community Crisis Responders (aka: CARE Team) could assist the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct in providing much needed resources to community members experiencing crises, mental illness and substance use challenges,” a CARE representative tells CHS.
Officials say the center would be CARE’s “base of operations in East Precinct” where Community Crisis Responders would “specifically utilize the location to maintain resources necessary to carry out their core job functions, such as communications equipment and supplies needed to support community members experiencing crises.”
The new center would be part of the continued expansion of the CARE department which is planned to include two additional similar centers elsewhere in Seattle.
(Image: City of Seattle)
“While the effort to secure a base or a workspace for CCRs in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood is a top priority for the Seattle CARE Department, a definitive timeline for a decision has not been established at this time,” the representative said.
CHS reported here in August as Seattle swore in its first Chief of the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) Department. Amy Barden will oversee the city’s 911 operations and its new CARE crisis response effort. Barden has led the department since it was launched last year.
Mayor Bruce Harrell directed $1.9 million in federal funding to be used to power an expansion of CARE that will increase the size of the department and expand it to citywide, seven day a week service starting with an expansion including Capitol Hill and the Central District.
The program began as a small, $1.5 million CARE team pilot hoped to help be the start of bigger changes in how the city responds to mental health and drug crisis 911 calls. It included funding for only six responders and has been hampered by limitations on the types of 911 calls it is allowed to respond to.
With a new contract agreement with the city’s police officers that includes the ability to move more work around public safety like automated traffic tickets and property damage to teams outside the department, and the federal funding, the Harrell administration is moving forward with expanding the CARE pilot to what it says will be a full-fledged, citywide effort.
Any money changing hands in the agreement for the new space would be a pretty good deal for the Harvard Market’s owners. Ownership told CHS earlier this year that CHASE left with multiple years left on its lease in an agreement that keeps the financial giant paying for the space but doesn’t keep the shopping center from moving a new tenant into the suite.
CORRECTION: We have updated this post to correct the spelling of Davonte Belle’s name. Also, congratulations to the recently married chief Amy (Smith) Barden– we have updated her name throughout.
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I am still skeptical this isn’t self dealing with cushy gigs for friends and families etc. Donors network of “job seekers”
Are you basing your opinion off of any other knowledge of the CARE program, or just your own assumptions & the minimal information about the program available in this post?
Wherever there are homeless services, there are more and more homeless.
You thought this block was sketchy before? Just wait.
So…..you think it’d be better if the city DIDN’T provide those services? That the homeless folks will magically disappear or become housed? Huh.
Yup, I do. I think it’s necessary.
I answered the one above down here.
Are you basing your opinion off of any other knowledge of @Noticer’s mindset, or just your own assumptions & the minimal information about his opinion available in his comment?
My read is that @Noticer is concerned about the service location, not the service’s existence. @Noticer is correct about the neighborhood impact of service location. Without a robust harm reduction program for neighbors, the service site could prove quite disruptive to quality of life.
My thing is they are piling people up in a tiny area. The plans are to pack the hill with apartments basically. The need for housing is great. However many areas are against affordable housing in their neighborhoods. Thus the “cram it in here” approach.
They call us “bleeding heart libs” around here. So dumping the worlds issues on OUR doorstep seems absolutely okay with the NIMBY crowd. “We do not want to deal with that. But you do, so deal with it.” attitudes. Until that’s unacceptable. Then you get Trump where you shall abide or be forced to.
The current city council just stole 350 million from the poor.
It goes on and on. My point is they 1/2 step everything. Until they eliminate it. Then say it’s a mess. Rinse, repeat.
So the location? Meh. Not ideal. This needs to be OFF Broadway. OFF Pike and Pine. A block here or there matters not. A retail shop would be logical for that space.
Like cleaning up 3rd ave. Then opening a methadone clinic there and 4 bail bondsman…A gun store maybe. AND of course, a smoke shop…lol
This is about consolidating as compact as possible. All the things the monied do not want to see or hear about.
I think you’re responding to/looking at the wrong comment…? The commenter I asked that question of wasn’t Noticer, it was Smoothtooperate, who mentioned they thought the program was “cushy gigs for friends and families etc. Donors network of “job seekers””
No thanks. Will do nothing except further entrench that corner to highly unstable addicts.
If you walk around the Hill enough you start to see that where the “services” are so are the worst addicts. The church on republican and 11th is a magnet for the meth and fent heads.
Do something about all these homeless people and drug addicts!
No, not that!
No, not that! I think that is exactly what she is saying. Seattle’s drug addict enabling programs have grown the problem to the extent that we now have the highest number of homeless drug addicts on the street per capita of any city in the country. Our “harm reduction” approach is obviously not working. It is time for a law enforcement response and mandatory treatment or jail or a one-way bus ticket back to mommy and daddy.
That’s some kinda bullshit you got there bud.
Eugene, Oregon has one of the highest homeless populations per capita in the United States, with about 432 homeless people per 100,000 people.
However, a 2022 study found that differences in homelessness rates across the country are primarily due to housing costs, not drug addiction, mental illness, or poverty. West Coast cities like Seattle have homelessness rates that are five times higher than areas with lower housing costs.
Other cities with large homeless populations include:
Some major contributors to the housing and homelessness crises include:
Stop with the gaslighting already. I am not talking about the number of homeless people per capita. I am talking about the number of people living on the street. New York for example has an extensive shelter system and less of a tolerance for urban camping. We have 7 times the number of rough sleepers per capita relative to NYC.
Gaslighting isn’t just someone not agreeing with ya, bud.
What is the percent of the homeless population that has an addiction and/or mental illness problem? Do you really believe those people just need housing?
Here’s more actual facts…Because I know what’s next. A ‘waddabout’ strawman.
The percentages of individuals experiencing homelessness by race was: White 48%, African American 25%, Asian 2%, Native American 15%, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 4%, Multi-racial 6%.[1] In a survey conducted in 2019, 84% of homeless people in Seattle/King County lived in Seattle/King County prior to losing their housing, 11% lived in another county in Washington prior to losing their housing, and 5% lived out of state prior to losing their housing.[2] Homelessness in Seattle is considered to be a crisis.[3] It has been proposed that to address the crisis Seattle needs more permanent supportive housing.[4]
A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the country are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing, with West Coast cities like Seattle having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs like Arkansas, West Virginia, Detroit, and Chicago even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.[5][6]: 1
Blah blah blah. “5% lived out of state prior to losing housing”, “11% from outside King County”. What a bunch of bullshit from a biased and flawed study from over a decade ago based on self reporting. What I want to see is a current survey of every drug addict camping on Capitol Hill by a qualified team of researches that aren’t pushing an agenda. Where did they come from and why did they come here? Research each individual rather than rely on self reporting. It wouldn’t surprise me if your statistics are reversed and that less than 10% became homeless in the city of Seattle. They are coming here because they have worn out there welcome everywhere else, drugs are abundant, enforcement is non-existent, and we coddle and enable their addiction. We are dealing with way more than our fair share of the burden of the national drug epidemic due to our misguided approach, and the more we concentrate well-intended but disastrously ineffective services here, the worse it gets.
Do you have better statistics, or do you just call into question all data that doesn’t say what you want it to say?
Biased and flawed .. that’s a kind way of saying curated and possibly forged data. I don’t trust much of the data collected in the point in time surveys – surveyors were often ‘volunteers,’ as a graded assignment, UW students collecting data at 2am in far flung places with no grounded training in now to conduct a survey, often coaching .. or just writing in response, to fit your course work, – because you needed to interview at least 10 people. … but hey, everyone is from King County, when you moved here from Florida to get clean and stay with your sister, that kicked you out after a few months, because you started using again and weren’t safe to live with .. huzzah, you had stable housing and became homeless in king county.
I really appreciate the facts. I’d also point out that those areas you highlight with lower housing costs also have winters cold enough to make it not survivable to sleep “rough” out on the street.
Yes of course, have the cops chase them out and make it someone else’s problem.
What a grown up, adult solution you came up with (how typically right wing).
And you can’t force people to get treatment, it would require action from the state legislature (and you would also need them to sign on to using the cops to basically criminalize the homeless since the state runs the prisons). Forcing drug addicts into treatment isn’t the worst idea, but it’s absolutely not legal at this time and even if the state passed a law, you’d have to make through federal courts to hold up so it would be at least a couple of years before you could even do anything.
Do you have any ideas that don’t look as if they were dreamed up by an elementary schooler?
Do you know what CARE is? This will be an emergency call center! About the only people who will be drawn to it are reps from the telecommunications industry.
For sure…But would it not be better for a retail shop? I can set up a call center in my living room if needed. But a retail shop would not do well.
How much time do you spend on this corner? At this point, they’d have to pay a retailer to take over that space. I’d rather see this go in than nothing at all–at least they’re trying SOMETHING.
In case you haven’t noticed, that corner (in front of the QFC) has been free of addicts for awhile now. I don’t know where they all went, probably to 12th & Jackson.
I’ve noticed. It’s not the utopia you see. I live one block away.
It’s better by magnitudes. I’ll give you that. But the bar was low. One of the worst scenes in America. Can you say “quiet quit” by the cops? THAT is the issue. Moving people along is not hard. Keeping them clear of large use retail is priority. Doing it small retail no better. Why? Less big retail. 100’s of small ones.
Transit as a whole is simply better than before it ever was. The amount of bodies in, on and around the train stations is very noticable. The clean is cleaner. But still needs work. But it’s wayyyy better too.
I was in the store about 6 months ago. I am noodling along with my music. Turn the corner and 1/2 way down I smell smoke. So I head to the security dude and said “I smell smoke down there” he’s like “?????”. “Smoke”? Yes…Like paper burning.
So my dude heads down the isle. Smells it and rolls into high gear. So I am self checking and the dude found the issue. A homeless dude put 1/2 a ciggy in his raggedy coat pocket and yup…lol
So it’s a couple levels better than that.
I never stop and drop my shit. I always have a backpack. They know the regulars. The newbie a year ago was training. Talking to the dude. (Same dude) and his back was turned. So new guys yells “sir!” *hand raised*. Dude turns, looks and says “No, and etc.” I had headphones on full blast. I just watched in my peripheral to see if he was comin or not. I read “no” then something and he had turned back.
But they still follow people. People do roam and hang out still. But no camps on the stairs etc. I’d go anywhere there’s shelter and make them move me in their shoes. They feel society has left them behind and vilifies them. They are correct.
The MAGA gets mad for saying ANYTHING they’d say to the poor and undeserving. Seen the merch? It’s disgusting and I am sorry our kids have to see the crap. Then see their parents wear it? Wow.
Stealing 350 million Jump Start cash was criminal. It’s the exact opposite of the voters. Then self served pet projects while bragging about how they are doing this and that. Like more housing budget than ever. Except the other 350 million of that was stolen by the MAGA city council.
So people can complain. But they are the very reason we can not do all hands on deck like the people voted for. It’s corrupt.
yeah the QFC entrance has been free of addicts recently. the riff raff just moved across the street to the streetcar stop in front of Neighbours.
I’m there almost every day either running an errand at the UPS store above or getting groceries at the QFC.
There’s always something shady going on. If you think that is “cleaned up” I wish you would have been around back in say 2019, when it was a decent corner and not whatever the heck it’s been since Covid and CHOP.
Yeah…It’s “better”. But that bar was very very low to start with.
The last couple of times I went down there, it definitely wasn’t free of addicts… Oh, there was private security and the steps were (finally) clear, but they can’t do anything about the people sitting on their pile of stolen goods, smoking fentanyl on the “public” part of the sidewalk… They were all down there checking out their newest stolen bike, trying to figure out how to get the u-lock on the top tube off. If you lost a smallish light blue Specialized recently, that’s where it ended up..
Let’s see .. where could they have gone… Broadway and – Thomas by the empty Jai Thai and scream storefronts, Harrison along Crossroads and behind the QFC, Republican and the church, both sides of QFC/harvard, the yoga place, both parks that have active camping again, the library, the open carports and garages along Boylston, the open alley garages, and the Melrose trail… just to name a few potential spots.
It’s the police! Hands down it’s the police! I’m fine with it. But I’m not fooled. I hope this cools down the block. I doubt it tho.
You are very optimistic.
Thanks you! It’s my natural hair color!
The NIMBYs here have poor reading comprehension