The Trueblood Diversion Workgroup has awarded Whatcom County $3.6 million in grant funding to build supportive housing for residents with behavioral health needs.
The funding will add 37 new supportive housing units, with 11 of those specifically for people who received delays in receiving competency evaluations or restoration services after a criminal charge.
Jenny Billings, the executive director of the Lake Whatcom Center, said the supportive housing being built will be a three-story multi-family low-income housing unit with independent studio apartments, with one unit for an on-site manager.
“Tenants living in the building who need services, the clinicians or the clinical staff who are associated with them and the services they need will typically either come to the complex or the apartments with outreach at their homes, or the tenants will go to either our outpatient clinic or wherever they’re getting services,” Billings said. “It really is independent housing. It’s not a facility or a boarding home or anything like that.”
The city of Bellingham will add investments to the project. It is also being funded by the Washington State Department of Commerce and a direct sum from the state legislature. Washington State Senator Sharon Shewmake, a democrat who represents the 42nd legislative district, helped secure funding for the project.
“There’s a big need for this kind of work in Whatcom County,” Shewmake said. “We have people in the jail that have been waiting for competency restoration, which a lot of times they get worse. So you have to be competent to be able to stand trial. And there’s been these backlogs, and so people just sometimes get worse in jail. It’s not a particularly healthy space.”
The housing will be provided at Lake Whatcom Center’s new Lincoln Street development. Billings said the current fourplexes, which are 50 years old, will be torn down to make way for the new building.
“If someone is stable in housing, they’re less likely to go to the ER or to do something that’s going to put them in jail,” Billings said.
Whatcom County said this makes progress on one of the components of the Justice Plan, which identified a shortage of affordable housing for the general population and justice-involved individuals with mental health needs.
“By expanding access to permanent supportive housing, Whatcom County is taking a step toward building a more effective, compassionate and sustainable justice and behavioral health system,” said Whatcom County Executive Satpal Singh Sidhu in a press release.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness, which is twice the rate of the overall population. In addition, NAMI said one in five people with a history of mental illness do not receive mental health treatment while incarcerated in state and federal prisons.
“I’ve had family members that have dealt with it, that have been in similar situations, and it’s just really hard to see someone that you love go through this,” Shewmake said. “I think that if you look at the cost of keeping someone in jail, it’s more expensive to keep someone in jail than it is to send them to Western.”
Billings said that currently, Lake Whatcom Center owns eight apartment complexes with supportive housing, which totals around 200 beds and 120 apartments in supportive housing.
“What we’re always trying to work on too, is the stigma behind people with a federal history or a mental health diagnosis,” Billings said. “It’s getting better, but it’s still something that we constantly are aware of and trying to challenge the public in that these are just regular folks and they’re regular people.”
Adah Bassok
Adah Bassok (she/her) is a city news reporter for The Front this fall quarter. She was previously a campus life reporter for The Front, and she is a news and editorial journalism major at Western. Outside of the newsroom, you can find her reading and exploring the outdoors. You can reach her at adahbassok.thefront@gmail.com.