As 2025 comes to a close, the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) reflects on a year marked by challenges and meaningful progress. Amid federal funding uncertainty, rising housing instability, and growing behavioral health needs, on top of an audit that underscores the need for more policies, procedures and infrastructure, DCHS focused on what matters most: helping people live connected, supported, and stably housed.
Across King County, DCHS’s work shared a common purpose: building communities where everyone can thrive. That meant expanding access to stable housing, strengthening crisis response, investing in the human services workforce, and partnering with communities through contracted providers to deliver services rooted in dignity, equity, and belonging.
Keeping Doors Open When Stability Was at Risk
As changes from the federal government to Continuum of Care funding put millions of dollars toward permanent supportive housing at risk, DCHS worked with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to challenge the toxic agreements from the administration, alongside housing providers to keep programs running. DCHS is helping organizations maintain services and housing for over 2,100 households facing homelessness or behavioral health crises—from South King County to Seattle and the Eastside. These efforts ensured that residents could still access housing, recovery supports, and crisis care when they needed it most.
Investing in the People Who Care for Our Communities
Behind every successful program is a workforce making it possible. In 2025, DCHS made targeted investments through the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy, to stabilize and strengthen the human services workforce—helping to raise wages, improve benefits, and support retention across nonprofits and community-based organizations that make child care, housing, behavioral health, support for veterans, and more possible.
Best Starts for Kids launched a pilot to study the benefit of government investments in the child care workforce. The pilot is increasing wages for about 1,400 child care workers in King County through 2027 and studying the impacts of the wage boost on worker well-being and retention.
Additionally, DCHS secured long-term funding for the Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) program that supports children ages zero to three and their families with milestones like walking, talking, eating, playing, and learning. Through ESIT, families gain skills and knowledge to support their child’s needs.
The MIDD Behavioral Health Sales Tax, which helps us invest in community-based behavioral health providers, was also passed for the third time, allowing us to increase access to care for low-income communities. Reporting from this year shows how MIDD’s investments make care more accessible, giving more people access to medications like buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.
Lastly, the Crisis Care Centers Initiative invested $16 million in the behavioral health workforce this year, including expanding paid apprenticeships and funding 37 community-based providers to offer incentives, wellness activities and professional development for their staff.
Meeting People Where They Are—In Crisis and Beyond
DCHS continued expanding King County’s behavioral health crisis response system, so people have someone to call, someone to respond, and somewhere to go. New adult and youth mobile crisis teams launched in Auburn and Kent, responding to calls through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline with average response times under 45 minutes. These culturally responsive teams provide trauma-informed care in homes, schools, shelters, and public spaces—offering alternatives to emergency rooms and law enforcement.
DCHS also expanded the program placing 988 counselors inside 911 call centers. In South King County, 99% of behavioral health-related calls diverted from 911 were resolved within the crisis system, easing pressure on first responders while delivering more appropriate care.
DCHS also helped create spaces for people to find community and get connected to resources. Through the Veterans, Seniors, and Human Service Levy, we partnered with Minority Veterans of America to open a first-of-its-kind Minority Vets Community Center, a space designed to meet the needs of underrepresented veterans, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, religious, and non-religious minority veterans. At the center, veterans can find community and connect to resources like case management, financial support, workforce training and education, in addition to activities that improve mental health and wellness.
Building a Compassionate Crisis Response That Works
In 2025, King County’s Crisis Care Centers are delivering on a long-standing promise: that people experiencing behavioral health crises can find help quickly, compassionately, and close to home. Across the county, individuals and families now have access to welcoming, walk-in centers where they can receive urgent mental health and substance use support, stabilize safely, and connect to ongoing care—without relying on emergency rooms or law enforcement.
DCHS led this transformation from vision to reality, guiding the voter-approved levy, building a coordinated countywide network, and partnering with providers to ensure care is available when it’s needed most. Together, these efforts are changing how crisis response works in King County—meeting people with dignity, reducing harm, and helping more residents begin their path to recovery.
Today, our first Crisis Care Center in Kirkland is now open, and we recently sited and purchased a building for the second Crisis Care Center that will be in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood.
Housing That Supports Recovery and Stability
Stable housing remains one of the most powerful tools for improving health and reducing system involvement. Through the Health Through Housing initiative (HTH), DCHS continued to expand permanent supportive housing across the county—pairing safe, dignified homes with on-site services like behavioral health care, case management, and life skills support. Through HTH, 95% of permanent supportive housing residents maintain housing stability. On average, residents also experience fewer and shorter hospital stays and are less likely to visit the ER when compared to before their move into HTH buildings.
In South King County alone, HTH will have 369 supportive housing units by early 2026, ensuring more individuals and families have a place to call home. Throughout all locations, HTH sites are helping residents exit chronic homelessness and stay housed, with data showing fewer emergency room visits and shorter hospital stays after move-in.
DCHS’s Housing Finance Program also helped bring over 600 new affordable and supportive homes online in 2025, including Connection Angle Lake in SeaTac—Washington’s first affordable housing community designed for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
DCHS also released new data resources to better understand our region’s affordable housing needs. Updates were made to the Regional Affordable Housing Dashboard and the Countywide Housing Needs Assessment.
Community-Led Outreach and Engagement
Throughout the year, DCHS teams connected directly with residents—hosting several resource access fairs, listening sessions, and legislative forums in multiple languages to share information and gather input. Thousands of community members were able to access resources and help shape future investments in behavioral health, housing, and services for seniors, veterans, youth, and people with disabilities. This community-driven approach ensures programs reflect lived experience and local needs—not just policy goals.
Advancing Equitable Development Countywide
In 2025, DCHS launched the King County Equitable Development Initiative (EDI) to ensure communities most impacted by displacement and historic underinvestment can shape and benefit from growth. Led with community partners, EDI centers the leadership of communities of color, low-income residents, immigrants, and refugees, supporting projects that preserve affordability, strengthen cultural spaces, expand economic opportunity, and keep residents rooted in their neighborhoods.
By formalizing EDI, King County embedded equity into land use, housing, economic development, and community investment—protecting community identity and ensuring growth benefits existing residents.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As DCHS prepares for the year ahead, priorities include deeper integration between housing and crisis services, expanded outreach and prevention, and continued investments in a strong, supported workforce.
Despite ongoing pressures, 2025 reaffirmed a simple truth: when people have access to housing, care, and community, everyone benefits. By strengthening systems that support recovery and stability, DCHS is helping build healthier communities—where every resident has the opportunity to heal, belong, and thrive.
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