In the latest episode, with David away at an undisclosed (but no doubt bougie) location, Erica and Sandeep are (re-)joined by friend of the pod Daniel Malone, Executive Director of Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC), Seattle's largest shelter, housing and behavioral health homelessness services provider.
In the episode, Daniel provides us with a first anniversary update on DESC's Opioid Recovery & Care Access (ORCA) Center, which Daniel tells us has been a major success, with 10,000(!) encounters with people experiencing addiction in Year One (either at its fixed site at the Morrison Hotel on 3rd and Yesler, or through its ORCA POD community outreach efforts). And the vast majority of those people are either currently or recently homeless, with many initiating Medically Assisted Treatment for opioid addiction via buprenorphine or methadone.
Then the conversation turns to an update on DESC's STAR Center, a successor to the Navigation Center that used to be located in Little Saigon. In its new location, the STAR Center is now a 95 bed facility that fills a crucial gap in the city's homelessness response system, typically providing medium-term shelter for people experiencing serious behavioral health instability. Once those issues come under better control residents move on to housing or lower acuity shelters -- typically after about 90 days.
Finally, we turn to Daniel for an update on the ongoing saga of the Trump administration's efforts to sharply reduce funding for Housing First programs in Seattle and around the country. The lawsuits are ongoing, Daniel says, and so far have been able to stave off big local funding cuts to homelessness services. But the cuts are likely coming, and the City and County continue to work with providers to identify local funding to backfill the expected loss of federal funds.
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