EVERETT — Sunrise Services, a 40-year-old operator of adult group homes, plans to open a new kind of assisted-living facility in the same Everett neighborhood where the city hopes to put an apartment building for homeless people.
The company plans to build a 16-bed “Enhanced Services Facility.” That’s a new category of group home for those stable enough to be released from state psychiatric hospitals but who still need round-the-clock care. Health conditions may include cognitive or developmental disabilities, as well as addiction.
The proposed location is 6502 Evergreen Way, between a Popeyes restaurant and an AutoZone store. It is a few blocks south of the city’s proposed low-barrier housing project, which has drawn opposition from the neighborhood.
The new home would serve a different population than the once-homeless scheduled to move in up the street, however.
The people in an Enhanced Services Facility would have an assessment and treatment plan, determined by on-site nursing and mental health staff, said Bea Rector, a division director with the state Department of Social and Health Services.
Sunrise would need a plan to address each resident’s needs, especially if an assessment shows a possible danger to others.
The residents would be free to come and go, but if an assessment determines someone needs supervision outside the facility, the staff would have to provide that.
“I think one of the biggest security and safety features for the community is that the facility itself is supervised,” said Sue Closser, the chief executive of Sunrise Services. “The other thing, too, is to have the technical expertise in their mental health and medical conditions on site.”
State law requires an Enhanced Services Facility to keep nursing staff on site 24 hours a day. A mental health professional is required to be there eight hours a day.
That’s different from being released into an independent living situation. A couple of past examples in Everett led to violent outcomes.
In 2010, Steven Well was committed indefinitely after he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity for killing his landlady, Judith Garcia. It was his fourth such plea after spending decades in and out of the state hospital for schizophrenia. Doctors had determined Well likely had not been taking a therapeutic level of his medication as required under the terms of his release. There also was a gap of at least a year in the required monitoring reports on file from Compass Health, his mental health care provider.
Then in 2013, the state and Compass Health had to pay a $300,000 settlement over a 2006 incident when Anthony Viscussi attacked his neighbor with a metal pipe. Viscussi was under supervised release through the state’s Dangerous Mentally Ill Offender program at the time. He had also started using methamphetamine and also said he’d stopped taking his medication.
Sunrise Services would have some input on who would be housed. Treatment plans include public safety, Clooser said.
“If we believed, based on the information that we are given, that someone poses too great a risk, as a business owner, I don’t want to be liable for that,” she said.
The residents of an Enhanced Services Facility are more likely to be older and require nursing care or help with basic life skills, such as eating or bathing. Some might have shown violent behavior, but that’s not why they were in the hospital.
“We’re placing people out of the civil wards, not the forensic wards,” Rector said, referring to the hospital’s Center for Forensic Services, where people found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed.
“This is a not a typical state hospital population,” she said. “These are older adults, typically in their 50s, 60s, 70s, who have that level of disability.”
The expectation is that someone placed there would stay as long as they were able, Rector said.
At any time there might be up to 80 people in Western State Hospital who would qualify for placement in an Enhanced Services Facility, out of more than 800 beds in the hospital.
The first such sites to open in the state are a 12-bed building in Vancouver and and eight-bed facility in Spokane. In addition to the proposed Everett project, a second 16-bed location is planned for Spokane.
Sunrise Services has been working with this population since the early 1990s, Closser said. It operates three six-bed group homes in Snohomish County. In the past, it’s operated sites as large as 15 beds.
Closser said Sunrise is planning a public meeting in either May or June at the company’s offices at 811 Madison Street, which is a few blocks from the building site.
The developer, Todd Madison, of Seattle, has been working with Sunrise and the state on the design. Upstairs will be 16 bedrooms, shared dining areas, kitchen and baths, and staff offices.
The ground floor will have retail shops facing Evergreen Way and a small parking garage.
None of the residents will have cars. They’re likely to use the bus, paratransit or Sunrise transportation, Closser said.
Access to the living space will be through a fenced courtyard on the south side of the building or a street-level entrance off Fleming Street.
Allan Giffen, Everett’s planning director, said the building application is under review. The city is obligated to follow its development codes for private property.
“It’s not something that the city is sponsoring or promoting,” Giffen said.
Madison said he hopes to have the building completed in early 2018. The inspection and licensing could take several months.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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