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You can give early to GiveBIG!

Washington's 2023 GiveBIG event is set for May 2-3, but you can give early now. Every gift makes a difference. Please consider including DESC and our clients in your GiveBIG plans this year to support our community members’ goal in accessing safe, permanent, supportive housing. 

Make a gift and help us provide access to life-saving resources for those experiencing homelessness!  

Advocate: Fund crisis care AND fix the system to help prevent crises

Crisis Care Centers are vital first step

• The number of residential treatment beds in the county has dropped from 355 in 2018 to only 244 beds today.
• Local community agencies continue to see fewer people staying in or seeking jobs in the behavioral health field, and at a time when staff are under immense pressure. We must invest in the people who are providing compassionate care even when someone is in crisis.

The effects of behavioral health crises ripple out from individuals to our families and communities. These systemic problems have grown over time, and won't be solved overnight.

But you can help. Support additional crisis care now. Learn more here.

You can also WATCH: King County experts discuss the crisis care levy on ballot. DESC Director of Clinical Services Maggie Hostnick participated in a panel discussion on proposition 1. The Seattle Times and League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County presented the virtual forum.

Filling the gaps before and after crises

Additional crisis care centers will help connect everyone with more resources and care. But building the crisis care centers cannot be all that we do to try to solve the crisis in behavioral health care, especially when it's combined with homelessness or housing insecurity. We need to look at systemic changes to prevent crises from happening over and over.

Crisis is the new norm

Right now, crisis has become the norm in homelessness behavioral health. People are falling through the cracks, and programs and situations slide to the edge of the precipice. We can only try to catch them before they go over.

The bulk of ways in which the system can be fixed are simple, but it will take long-term commitment and more than a few levies to accomplish.  

DESC is working to fill the gaps where we can, most importantly by continuing to create lots of new supportive housing. Once people have housing they can stabilize and begin recovery. 

For the past two years, we have been implementing the Behavioral Health Response Team (BHRT), which addresses the pre-and-post-crisis periods in an individual's life. Actually composed of three teams--north, central and south King County--the team serves people referred to us by a range of responders for intensive support for a limited period, and each team provides mental health, substance use, medical and peer support. 

Once we have contacted an individual we work for 90 days to connect that person to resources and services that will help them avoid a crisis in the first place, or continue to recover after any immediate crisis response help ends. 

Crises averted

Pre-crisis: Earlier this year a police department asked the response team to help an adult living with developmental disabilities and untreated behavioral health conditions. This person had no support network, and was being neglected and facing eviction. The team helped them to connect with case management services and disability benefits and to obtain their own apartment where they now have 24/7 access to staff and services, as needed. 

Post-crisis: The team received a police referral for a pregnant person who had experienced a behavioral health crisis, and had no family. They still needed behavioral and medical care, and a place to stay. BHRT worked with them to address their health care needs, find safe shelter and eventually a permanent home.

Behavioral Health Response Team services not only help avert crises, they save taxpayers money by reducing use of expensive services that are already maxed out, keep people out of jail and hospitals and provide them with holistic care in their communities.

Help us continue to do this important work that bridges the gaps between services. Talk to your elected officials and neighbors about the need to fund ongoing behavioral health response that averts crisis.

Talk about grants

We're grateful to our grantors

A $150,000 grant from Coordinated Care funded two new wheelchair-accessible vans to help DESC clients get to and from appointments!

Partners in Care granted $5,000 to DESC, noting, "Partners in Care is sending a donation to your organization on behalf of a client who is grateful for your services...Thank you for the work that you do providing a wonderful service to the community."

Pacific Hospital Preservation & Development Authority's (PHPDA) Nimble Fund grant purchased a point-of-care testing/diagnostic machine that produces results right away. Most of our clients are in their 50s, often living with complex health conditions and facing shortened life expectancy. Because they are constantly having to move, they often encounter major barriers to accessing conventional medical facilities, especially when significant behavioral health conditions accompany their homelessness. Before they had this machine, DESC medical staff at our mental health center in downtown Seattle could test for some medical conditions, but clients had to wait there or return later for results from external laboratories. Thanks to PHPDA’s grant, staff can now start care, make referrals or order prescriptions without delay. 

Housing First policies, affordable housing and health care make the community better. You can act to support DESC's efforts: educate, advocate, donate, volunteer, attend an event or join our staff.

Volunteers in action

From tacos and cookies to sorting donations, our volunteers add the important extras

Thank you to our volunteers from Coppei Partners and a couple of volunteers from DESC for making tacos and chocolate chip cookies for Canaday House on April 1! They cooked, provided apple juice, served for about 45 minutes and then prepared extra plates. That way anyone who felt uncomfortable coming down for the meal could pick up a plate of tacos from the front desk. It was a full service meal.

Learn about Housing First from the experts

Mark your calendars for the 2024 Housing First Partners Conference in Atlanta, Georgia

DESC and the Pathways Housing First Institute, two leading organizations in the field of homelessness and housing first interventions, invite you to join us and our many partners at the seventh Housing First Partners Conference (HFPC 2024) in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 8-11, 2024.

HFPC is a biennial conference that brings together experts, practitioners, policymakers and advocates from across the globe to discuss and share innovative solutions to addressing homelessness through Housing First, a proven approach to ending homelessness that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, without preconditions of treatment and compliance, and then providing necessary supportive services to help people maintain their housing and improve their overall well-being. Housing First programs serve communities across the globe, with new adaptations to the model that effectively address the needs of diverse populations to end homelessness and build back their lives.

This convening is an essential platform for building knowledge, networks and partnerships to advance the Housing First movement and end homelessness. The conference aims to foster collaboration, inspire action and showcase the impact of Housing First interventions on individuals, families and communities.

At its core, HFPC represents the struggles and hopes of the people most impacted by Housing First – the hundreds of thousands who have already chartered their own recovery from homelessness, mental health conditions and substance use disorder, and an equally large number who may soon benefit from the stability, respect and hope that Housing First can bring them. For more information about HFPC 2024, please visit (hfpartnersconference.com)

Talk about media coverage

DESC in the news

• These 9 novel housing communities offer support beyond affordability. Building Design+Construction. DESC Burien is listed in this roundup. “Affordable housing and supportive living go hand in hand. These nine projects show how support for veterans, seniors, disabled persons and more is made possible.”

• How Hospitals Improve Health Equity Through Community-Centered Innovation. New England Journal of Medicine. DESC 1811 Eastlake is used as an example of how Housing First works, citing earlier studies: “After counting the cost of supportive housing at about $12,000, the net savings are about 13%, or $4,800 — resulting from decreased usage of jail services, emergency medical services, and hospitalizations.”

• Your taxes fund King County mental health, addiction programs: Here’s where the dollars go. Seattle Times: “The largest portion of funding — $19 million — went to crisis diversion, for 18 programs including DESC’s crisis solutions center, a place where people in a mental health crisis can be dropped off by law enforcement upon referral. DESC also runs several mobile crisis teams and respite beds for people recovering from mental health emergencies.”

• What can Denver’s next mayor do about homelessness? Here’s what 5 other cities are doing. The Denver Post. Daniel Malone was interviewed for the section on Seattle in this comprehensive article about the politics of homelessness.

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