Officials from all over Washington state are taking a policy pledge that puts “treatment first” as the main way to lower the number of homeless people in the state.
Future 42, a non-profit group, made the policy pledge to fight back against the “housing-first” method that places like King County and Seattle have been using.
The pledge offers alternatives to putting homes first, such as:
If someone is addicted to drugs and gets taxpayer-funded supportive housing, they have to go to a drug treatment center. Take money away from safe places to use drugs that offer clean needles. Set up rules for land use that will make it illegal for safe consumption places to be built in the future. Help build more beds for people with mental health problems. Make sure that repeat offenders who have been caught and convicted of drug-related crimes more than once get the minimum sentence. Once there are more options for alternative shelter, strict rules should be made to deal with illegal camps. Stop people from begging in public places. Work with groups that have already shown they can help with drug use and homelessness.
Nate Nehring, director of Future 42 Snohomish County, says that a housing-first approach works well for some groups, like victims of domestic violence or families with children who are having trouble paying their bills. But, he says, the housing-first approach has not been working as the opioid crisis gets worse.
According to Nehring, it has become clear over the last few months and even years that the housing-first method is not working for people who are struggling with drug addiction. He told The Center Square this over the phone. “If you give someone with a serious drug problem the keys to their own unit, we often see drugs getting into other units.”
It’s harder when the people who aren’t getting care don’t have a place to live.
Nehring thinks that involuntary commitment is a good choice when jail is not an option.
He said, “I don’t think it’s okay to leave people doing drugs on the street.”
As part of the plan, more resources will be made available to help people who are forced to follow the rules set out in Ricky’s Law, which is also called the “involuntary treatment act.” According to Nehring, in Washington, people with mental illness who are a danger to themselves or others have been able to be committed against their will in the past. A judge can sentence them to involuntary commitment.
In essence, Ricky’s Law lets the court force someone who doesn’t want to go to treatment to do so no matter what.
Snohomish County’s homeless numbers have gotten better. The most recent Point-In-Time Count of homeless people showed that the number of homeless people in the county dropped by 9.7%. Nehring did say, though, that homelessness is still a big problem. He also said that the problem of drug abuse has continued to be a problem in the area.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) passed its five-year plan in 2023. The plan’s goal is to increase housing stock as a way to help the county’s growing homelessness problem.
The KCRHA’s plan says that building more homes to help people who are homeless could cost between $450 million and $1.1 billion a year for the next 10 years. Since 2019, this group has been in charge of coordinating service and funding for homeless people throughout all of King County.
The Center Square previously wrote about how Seattle officials were openly questioning the region’s “housing-first” strategy. Tiffany Washington, Seattle’s Deputy Mayor, said at a March meeting of the Housing and Human Services Committee that the fentanyl and mental health disasters have changed the city’s emphasis on housing first. In the end, Washington thought that the system wasn’t set up to deal with the widespread mental health problem.
Over 50 government leaders from all over the state have signed the Future 42 policy pledge. As of this writing, neither King County nor Seattle government leaders had signed.
“I hope that people will propose laws to get things going in their own communities as the next step,” Nehring said.
