Crisis Care Centers levy passing with 56% approval

The King County Crisis Care Centers levy returns are holding steady at a 56.6% approval rate as of Friday, April 28, 2023. The levy only needed 50% to pass.

County Executive Dow Constantine's office released a statement

"King County Executive Dow Constantine applauds the approval of the Crisis Care Centers initiative, a nine-year levy that will create a regional network of five Crisis Care Centers, restore and increase mental health residential treatment beds, and invest in the people who do the difficult, important, and historically underpaid work of providing mental health and substance use disorder services.

"Building upon the unanimous support of the King County Council and city leaders from across the region, voters’ approval of the levy’s generational investment in places for people in crisis to go will create more capacity in hospitals and create therapeutic alternatives to jail. The Crisis Care Centers levy will begin collections in 2024 and is the most significant local investment in behavioral health facilities in county history."

Now approved, the Crisis Care Centers levy will:

• Create Five Crisis Care Centers: Distributed geographically across the county, the centers will provide walk-in access and the potential for short-term stays to help people stabilize, depending on needs, with one center specifically serving youth.
• Preserve and Restore Residential Treatment Beds: Slow the loss of residential treatment options that provide behavioral health supportive housing or a psychiatric residential treatment bed for longer-term stays with supports.
• Invest in the Behavioral Health Workforce: Create career pathways through apprenticeship programming and access to higher education, credentialing, training, and wrap-around supports. It will also invest in equitable wages for the workforce at crisis care centers.

More information here