EVERETT — The challenge is enormous; the approach, novel.

The Everett Police Department is trying to address what some people are calling an opioid epidemic one addict at a time.

On Wednesday, Everett police announced that the department has formally entered into a partnership with a nonprofit organization that connects addicts to treatment.

The police department began working with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative last fall. At the time, the department’s social worker was trying to find help for a homeless woman seeking treatment. She reached out to the nonprofit organization, which hooked her up with the Bella Monte Recovery Center in California. Once there, the homeless woman was able to complete intensive in-patient treatment.

With the help of the Recovery Initiative, Everett police have sent four other people to treatment centers. Everett reportedly was the first law enforcement agency in the state to place people into treatment through the Recovery Initiative.

“We sort of test drove it to make sure it works for us,” Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman said.

Now he’s convinced it is part of a solution to a drug problem that will take many strategies.

The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative includes national business leaders, health care organizations and more than 100 law enforcement agencies across the country.

It can’t solve everything.

Not every addict police encounter on the street wants help or is ready to try to kick their habits.

Nor are there enough beds at treatment centers here in this region, particularly since many people in the greatest need of help have no money or means to pay.

Potential candidates are carefully screened, Templeman said.

“There is a finite number of opportunities to place these individuals,” he said.

Three people from Everett have received treatment at the Bella Monte.

The California recovery center builds into its business a small percentage of clients it takes on scholarship, Randy Humphrey said. The business he co-founded works with the Recovery Initiative. Besides Everett, Bella Monte has accepted clients from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

It is one of many treatment centers across the country pitching in.

“The business is not completely altruistic, but there are a lot of altruistic people in the business,” he said.

Joining the Recovery Initiative did not cost the Everett Police Department money, but being part of it can be a labor-intensive commitment. Some incidental costs, such as transporting people out of state for treatment, have been picked up from donations made to the city’s Streets Initiative Flex Fund, which aims to help the chronically homeless overcome barriers.

Locally, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and Pioneer Human Services in Skagit County are providing short-term detox treatment before people are taken to long-term treatment centers.

The partnership with the Recovery Initiative is part of a larger effort to confront the local drug problem.

Last fall, Everett created a Community Outreach and Enforcement Team that adds social services and building relationships into the mix of the traditional law enforcement.

“It’s evident that from a law enforcement perspective, we are not going to arrest our way out of this,” Templeman said.

The chief said 10 years ago he never imagined that police would be carry nasal sprays that can help reverse heroin overdoses among drug users. Likewise, he hadn’t foreseen a day when officers would be helping addicts get into treatment beds.

“We have to be open-minded,” Templeman said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.