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City and state funds secure Alternate Response Team operations; county adds staff with BHASO support
Summary
Bellingham and Whatcom County update: city council approved $375,000 over 18 months for the Alternate Response Team (ART); the program remains funded from multiple sources including near-$600,000-per-year state legislative funding and BHASO support to add one staff member.
On July 15, the committee received an operations and funding update on the Alternate Response Team (ART). Dan Hamill reported that the city council approved a $375,000 allocation for ART covering the next 18 months.
Melora, ART program staff, described current operations and funding: the team has five staff and one supervisor, provides services Monday–Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and includes an embedded staff member at Whatcom 9-1-1. “We are 1 of 2 alternative response teams in the state,” Melora said, noting Seattle is the other program. She said the total current cost of ART is more than $1 million per year, and the program’s revenue mix includes city and county contributions, nearly $600,000 per year in two-year legislative funding, and Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization (BHASO) funds that will support one additional staff position.
Melora said the city and county contributions, paired with legislative support, mean the program will maintain current services and can post and recruit for a sixth staff person; the additional hire will be used to evaluate how to expand hours. Committee members had no substantive questions about the allocation.
Ending: ART leaders said the program’s multi-year and multi-source funding provides near-term stability and will allow modest staffing expansion pending hiring.
