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Yakima County's mental health tax may help fund crisis responders, mental health court

Yakima Herald-Republic - 1/18/2023

Jan. 18—Yakima County's mental health tax fund has a $13 million balance, but just how that money will be spent has yet to be decided.

A previous board of Yakima County Commissioners approved the 0.1% sales tax in 2019 in an effort to help those experiencing homelessness. Revenue from the tax can be used for projects providing mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Officials with the courts, police, sheriff's office and corrections department as well as service providers embraced the tax.

Everyone said services needed to be beefed up. Corrections and the courts said substance abuse and mental health issues were driving up offender recidivism rates. Many such offenders were homeless.

The tax was first assessed in April 2020, and at that time was estimated to generate $3.5 million a year. So far, the tax has generated $12,930,032, and it's expected to bring in another $5,610,000 in 2023, said county Finance Director Craig Warner.

Possible spending

Yakima County Human Services Director Esther Magasis said she hopes to provide commissioners with spending recommendations by March. Commissioners have final say on how the funds are spent.

Magasis commissioned a study into three major areas — criminal justice, homelessness and youth intervention — to assess the greatest needs in behavioral health services countywide.

The study was conducted to help shape how the mental health tax would be spent.

The county's Law and Justice Committee as well as other stakeholders such as service providers will make recommendations as well, Commissioner Amanda McKinney said.

"The board determined that it was necessary and appropriate to include stakeholder input and complete in-depth systems mapping surveys," she said. "The L&J committee and community stakeholders will help inform our decisions."

The county may use the funds to pay for designated crisis responders — mental health experts who ride along with police and deputies to respond to calls involving people experiencing a mental health crisis, Magasis said.

Mental health court also may receive funding from the tax, she said.

"Courts, jails, that's kind of the areas you see a lot of mental health and substance abuse needs," Magasis said.

Initial intent

When previous commissioners approved the mental health tax, they intended it to be used to fund wraparound services at a care campus proposed at the idled county jail on Pacific Avenue.

Former Commissioner Mike Leita spearheaded the idea of converting the jail and its 10-acre site near State Fair Park into a care campus that would offer medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment as well as a homeless shelter. Eventually transitional and long-term housing would be added.

The jail, which had never been put to full use, is equipped with a commercial kitchen that could serve more than 1,100 meals a day, and medical facilities such as examination and X-ray rooms.

The care campus idea emerged after the county attempted to locate a permanent low-barrier shelter in east Yakima, near the homeless encampment Camp Hope.

But the site of the proposed shelter was within the Yakima Greenway overlay and Greenway officials objected.

At that time, Camp Hope had to be shut down for two weeks every six months to meet the city's definition of a temporary facility, a requirement that doesn't exist now.

Leita said he was tired of seeing homeless people shuffled from place to place and began eying the Pacific Avenue jail as a permanent location.

But that plan was nixed after new commissioners took office and zoning issues arose. Commissioners had said services there would duplicate existing services.

Leita said the project would not have duplicated services because existing service providers would have staffed the care campus.

"The mental health tax was meant to reimburse those providers for being on site to allow a homeless person to walk 50 feet to get services," Leita said Friday.

Magasis said it would have been too expensive to retrofit the jail into a care campus and that service providers didn't feel a single hub for services was the answer.

"I think it was going to be a much more complicated project than what Leita envisioned," she said.

Now Sheriff Bob Udell is eying the jail as a new place to house the sheriff's office as the lease on its current building is nearing its end.

Although mental health tax spending may focus more on law and justice services, homeless services will not be left out, Magasis said.

"I think that the way it's set up is that homeless projects will still be considered," she said.

Reach Phil Ferolito at pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

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