LYNNWOOD — It’s been nearly five years since Lynnwood city officials approved a last-minute pivot to allot space in the design of the city’s new jail for a crisis care facility.
After a series of challenges, from funding to securing a provider, Lynnwood community members cut the ribbon on the Lynnwood Crisis Care Center on Monday.
The facility will serve as an alternative to an emergency room or jail for someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
“This center stands as a testament to what we accomplish when community public safety partners work together with healthcare towards a common goal,” said Claudia D’Allegri, chief behavioral health officer for Sea Mar Community Health Centers, the facility’s provider. “Today, we are creating a promise, a promise of a place of dignity, healing and hope.”
The story of the Crisis Care Center dates back to July 2021 when 47-year-old Tirhas Tesfatsion died by suicide while in custody at Lynnwood Municipal Jail. Tesfatsion had been left alone for three hours, according to an independent investigation, while the police department’s policy had required safety checks on inmates once every hour. The city later settled with Tesfatsion’s family for $1.75 million.
“We broke a promise,” Lynnwood Police Chief Cole Langdon said to the crowd at Monday’s event. “We have procedures in place, we have processes in place to ensure the safety of these inmates in our care, and we dropped the ball, and for that I am sorry to Tirhas’ family.”
Lynnwood Mayor George Hurst remembered a heated City Council meeting shortly after Tesfatsion’s death. Community members urged the city to reconsider its plans to build a new, bigger jail. Hurst was council president at the time.
“That is ingrained in my memory forever,” Hurst said. “But out of that, out of the ashes of loss and righteous anger, we have this community center.”
State Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline, recalled the last-minute meetings she had with city officials at the time, advocating for the city to delay a vote on the jail to provide time to change the plan to include a recovery center. The council ultimately delayed the vote.
“Thank you for believing that people are more than their worst moments, and that when we provide people access to timely, quality behavioral healthcare, they do in fact recover,” Davis said.
Davis served as co-chair of a task force, along with former Police Chief Jim Nelson, to devise a plan.
The task force proposed reducing the size of the jail by 30% and adding a 23-hour crisis receiving facility and a crisis stabilization unit, now known as the Crisis Care Center.
The 23-hour crisis facility has 16 recliners and will begin accepting patients within the next six weeks, said Terron Sutton, a behavioral health technician with Sea Mar. The crisis stabilization unit has another 16 beds for longer-term stays and is set to open later this year.
Anyone will be able to receive services regardless of whether or not they have insurance, Sutton said.
“My hope out of this facility is that we have something that can catch these people early, and that can provide them a meaningful connection,” Langdon said. “For people who are further in their journey, this will allow them to be part of our community, to come in here and get checked in and get stabilized, so you can get back out to live and be a part of our community.”
Construction of the building has been complete since the spring of 2024, but the city struggled to find a provider, leaving the facility ready but vacant for two years. In fall 2024, the planned provider withdrew from the project, citing financial challenges regarding the state’s billing structure.
After another round of bidding, the city chose Sea Mar as the center’s provider in July 2025. Sea Mar operates several facilities throughout the state, including a location down the street from the Crisis Care Center that houses behavioral health, medical and dental clinics.
“When someone walks through these doors in crisis, their journey doesn’t end when the immediate crisis is resolved,” said JanRose Ottaway Martin, executive director of North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization. “Whether they need more intensive treatment, outpatient support, medical care, housing resources or ongoing recovery services, Sea Mar is uniquely positioned to help connect them to that next step.”
The construction of the Crisis Care Center was entirely funded by state and county grants. The county allocated $3 million to the project, the state department of commerce provided $2 million and the state Legislature allocated $12 million in 2022, Davis said.
The county later allocated an additional $3 million for operating costs. On Monday, Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers thanked those who helped bring the project to life.
“In a time in our community, in our country, frankly, where so many people are saying no and turning cold hearts to people, the city of Lynnwood … and our county stepped forward and said, ‘Yes, we are going to provide help for folks in crisis, and we’re going to do it in a humane, caring, clinically proven way,’” Somers said.
Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.