NEWS GLEAMS | Crisis Response Team Expands to South Seattle; Judge Rules I-2066 Violates Washington State Constitution

The City of Seattle will be expanding its CARE (Community Crisis Responders) teams to South and Southwest Seattle, with the intention of speeding up response times to serve those in need during a mental health crisis. The crisis response teams dispatch two-person teams — consisting of mental health professionals, mental health care providers, and certified peer counselors — to shorten response times to less than two hours, no matter where in the city the response takes them. There are currently 24 crisis response teams.

CARE teams were previously dispatched after residents called the 988 hotline in response to potential mental health emergencies. The teams are now part of Seattle's 911 department. 

CARE's workload in part is designed to help alleviate the workload of police officers. Yet according to reporting by PubliCola, some Seattle City Councilmembers have complained that such funds should go toward funding the police directly. During a Public Safety Committee meeting, Councilmember Cathy Moore — whose district only recently began being served by the program — raised concerns that her constituents had been calling 911 for CARE help though teams were previously not dispatched to their area.

Joined by Councilmembers Bob Kettle and Maritza Rivera, Moore stated that the system was "very broken," and that "just creating one more … agency, and [spending] another $100 million, is not going to fix it if we don't come together holistically and talk about how it's broken, be honest about where it's not working, and the fact that we have different ideological positions about what should be happening."

For her part, CARE Team Director Amy Barden told PubliCola that she felt that the Seattle City Councilmembers who were skeptical of CARE's efficacy did not "grasp that different levels of support work for different people." Barden also believes that the program would benefit from having 96 teams as opposed to 24, though the number is presently limited by a memorandum of understanding between CARE and the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG).

CARE can only redirect its clients to existing solutions, which can include detox, long-term treatment, case management, or housing, but such options are not always available to meet the needs of Seattle residents.

The CARE teams are funded by the City of Seattle's public safety budget. The program was created by Mayor Bruce Harrell in 2023.

On Friday, March 21, Judge Sandra Widlan ruled that I-2066, approved by voters last November, violates the Washington State Constitution. I-2066 would have prevented Washington State from future attempts to "prohibit, penalize, or discourage the use of gas for any form of heating, or for uses related to any appliance or equipment, in any building."

The bill passed with a narrow margin of 52% in favor, but Widlan ruled that the initiative was too broad and, as such, "requires a thorough examination of statutes [to determine its impacts]. … In summary I-2066 violates the single subject requirement, the subject and title requirement, and the section-amended-shall-be-set-forth-at-full-length requirement. For these reasons, I-2066 is unconstitutional."

The Seattle Renters' Commission and Seattle Women's Commission are hosting a listening session. They hope to gain insights from renters about the challenges they are facing and the resources that they will need, in order to help advocate to the Seattle City Council for potential policy changes.

The listening session takes place April 2 at Seattle City Hall as well as online, via Zoom. Register at the City of Seattle's website.

Editors' Note: This article was updated on March 31, 2025, to correct an error in the headline for the news brief about listening sessions for Seattle renters.

This article was updated on March 26, 2025, to correct errors in the explanation of the CARE Crisis Response teams.

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