Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Human Services Sales Tax Report topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Snohomish County council reviews first-quarter report on local sales-tax funds for behavioral health and affordable housing
Summary
County Human Services presented a first-quarter 2025 update on three local sales-tax funds, reporting early-stage capital obligations for multiple projects, reserved preservation dollars, and that operational performance metrics will appear once facilities begin occupancy—likely by late 2025.
Snohomish County Council members received a first-quarter 2025 update on local sales-tax funds for chemical dependency, mental health, affordable housing and behavioral health on May 27, as Human Services staff summarized obligations, contracts and evaluation plans for capital and services projects.
The update, presented by Mary Jane Bravilovich, director of Human Services, and Mike Liddecote, administrative services division manager, outlined that the chemical dependency/mental health sales-tax fund is being used primarily for services and staffing while paired affordable housing and behavioral health sales-tax funds are being used principally for capital and preservation projects. Bravilovich said the county has obligated more than $11 million for the Sea Mar Community Health Center, the Compass Health Broadway redevelopment and related projects, has obligated about $6.2 million for a Housing Authority of Snohomish County 200th Street project, and is in early stages on redevelopment of the Everett United Church of Christ properties to be developed by Housing Hope.
Bravilovich said preservation grants remain critical “because we can't build our way out of creating affordable housing if we're losing naturally occurring in existing affordable housing faster than we're developing new housing.” She told the council the county had obligated $5 million of the $8 million set aside under House Bill 1406 for preservation-focused capital projects and about $24 million of the $43 million set aside under House Bill 1590 for other capital and behavioral health projects, and cited preservation investments including $3.2 million for the Stillaguamish senior-housing property now owned by Entegra and $1.3 million for Catholic Housing Services' Monte Cristo development.
Staff also reported that the Salvation Army has a contract to operate the Everett New Start Center and the county is obligating funds for the YWCA of Edmonds to operate the Edmonds New Start Center; a separate request for proposals for a withdrawal management and stabilization (SWIMS) facility produced no applicants, leaving those funds available for a future round. Bravilovich said some operating and maintenance costs have been incurred to get county-run New Start Center facilities ready for operations, but many projects are still in permitting or pre-construction stages.
On evaluation, staff described planned performance measures—unit counts, unit types and locations, cost per household, number and location of behavioral health facilities, and inpatient beds—and said those metrics will be populated once projects begin occupancy. Bravilovich told the council that the most likely timeframe to begin seeing production numbers in the county's quarterly reports is the third-quarter report, though some preservation projects could show early activity in the second quarter.
Council members asked procedural and reporting questions during the update; staff emphasized the county will continue quarterly reporting and the evaluation form to track broader community indicators such as changes in the point-in-time count, housing inventory and behavioral-health indicators.
The presentation was informational; the council did not take formal legislative action on the report during the session.
