New development off Broadway Avenue will provide 82 units of affordable housing to support people with chronic mental and behavioral health issues
EVERETT, Wash. – Compass Health, Northwest Washington’s behavioral healthcare leader, recently received $4.5 million in key funding from the Washington State Housing Trust Fund to help finance a new affordable housing project for people with chronic behavioral health issues.
The project, sited on the 3300 block of Lombard Avenue, will add 82 new Permanent Supportive Housing units and house key services to help address critical housing shortage and homelessness issues in the area – particularly among those with chronic mental illness.
“The Housing Trust Fund really came through at the right time to meet a critical community need,” said Tom Sebastian, president and chief executive officer for Compass Health. “This will be a much-needed boost for Snohomish County. It’s no secret that affordable housing and homelessness are big challenges in our region and we’re excited to help more people get off the street and into the housing and services they need to regain lives of meaning, recovery and purpose.”
The new development is aligned with the City of Everett’s Housing First and Safe Streets initiatives, to help people transition out of homelessness by providing them with housing while they receive the other services and supports they need.
This latest round of funding brings the project one step closer to fruition. Compass Health also received local funding support from Snohomish County in the Fall of 2017 and will apply for additional public funding this summer. Once full project funding is secured, Compass Health anticipates breaking ground in 2019 with project completion slated for mid-2020.
“More than 20,000 extremely low-income Snohomish County households spend more than 50 percent of their income just on housing and face almost daily spending choices between food, medicine and rent, that the rest of us would have nightmares about,” said Mark Smith, executive director of the Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County. “This project will help some of our most vulnerable neighbors and make a positive impact on the general downtown Everett community.”
The 62,000-square-foot supportive housing complex will be staffed 24/7 by Compass Health residential counselors, with clinical services and other housing supports also provided on-site. Most residents will be formerly homeless individuals referred through Snohomish County’s Coordinated Entry System.
In addition to this new housing project, Compass Health already provides affordable housing support to more than 500 people each year with mental illnesses throughout Snohomish County and the north Puget Sound region.
Compass Health also is considering a future second-phase redevelopment of its adjacent Broadway Avenue location to create a facility that supports innovative models for integrated medical and behavioral health care.
Following completion of the housing project, the second phase would require both public and private funding through a dedicated capital campaign.
Compass Health provides people of all ages with comprehensive behavioral healthcare services throughout Northwest Washington. From mental health treatment to crisis prevention and intervention, supportive housing, children’s services and much more, the organization delivered care to more than 22,000 people in 2017.
Learn more about Compass Health, its services in the community, housing programs and ways to support its mission on its website: www.compasshealth.org.
About Compass Health
Compass Health is Northwest Washington’s behavioral healthcare leader. The organization integrates behavioral health and medical care services to support clients and communities when and where they are needed. Building on a century of experience, Compass Health is forging new, nationally recognized models of care that bring together highly skilled mental health professionals, primary care providers, peer counselors and others to treat the whole person. From comprehensive mental health treatment to crisis intervention, children’s services and community education, Compass Health serves people of all ages throughout Island, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties.
