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SUMMARY
King County announced a new location for the sobering center and progress over the past year on a multi-part county strategy to confront the opioid epidemic.
STORY
Today, King County announced a permanent site for the sobering center in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood, which will provide a safe place for people to recover from the acute effects of intoxication and connect with treatment services, housing assistance, and other support.
The new center, located at 1950 1st Ave S, will be operated by Pioneer Human Services and serve up to 40 people at a time.
King County plans to open the center by the end of this year. The current temporary facility, located in the Yesler Building, served more than 1,000 people in 2024.
Sobering centers have been an integral part of our communities for nearly 30 years — one of many resources in the recovery-oriented system of care that the King County Behavioral Health & Recovery Division supports and oversees.
“This new sobering center is critical to King County’s ongoing work to connect more people to treatment, lifesaving interventions, and a path to recovery,” said Executive Shannon Braddock. “Together, with community members, partners, and regional leaders, we are expanding access to substance use disorder treatment and creating a safe place for people to go for support when they need it.”
Progress on King County's work to prevent fatal overdoses and expand behavioral health care
Over the past year, King County has made progress across five priority areas, first announced in 2024, to expand behavioral health treatment, increase access to medications that treat opioid use disorder, and distribute overdose prevention resources. Highlights include:
- In 2024, King County’s new buprenorphine hotline, in partnership with UW Department of Emergency Medicine, issued 685 prescriptions for medications for opioid use disorder.
- King County expanded the number of mobile teams that help people experiencing a mental health, drug, or alcohol crisis, with 33 teams traveling across the county to de-escalate crises and connect people to services (27 for adults and 6 for youth).
- In partnership with Pioneer Human Services, King County opened a 16-bed residential treatment program for people with mental health and substance use disorders.
- Together with the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC), the University of Washington and the City of Seattle, King County aims to open a post-overdose recovery center this year that provides medical follow-up and behavioral health treatment following an opioid overdose. DESC will operate the center, located in downtown Seattle at the Morrison Hotel building.
- In 2024, King County, in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Health, distributed 119,960 naloxone kits and 123,858 fentanyl test strips, more than double the original goal. 2,600 naloxone kits were also dispensed from harm reduction vending machines after King County added three vending machines at Compass Day Center, YouthCare Orion Center, and the Maleng Regional Justice Center.
- King County awarded $12 million to help 37 behavioral health providers retain and recruit employees. An additional $4.8 million was also awarded to expand the SEIU Training Fund’s apprenticeship program.
- King County awarded grant funding to support populations that see disproportionately higher overdose rates, including Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, as well as people living unsheltered. This included $619,318 to support expanding access to Medications for Opioid Use Disorder in community-based settings, and $2,267,642 to support community-centered overdose prevention and response efforts.
More information about our priority areas and progress is available here.
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