EVERETT — After more than a year of searching, the city of Lynnwood has found a provider for its new Crisis Care Center.
Sea Mar Community Health Centers will operate the facility, the North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization announced in a July press release.
“Sea Mar brings deep expertise, cultural responsiveness, and a commitment to whole-person care that aligns perfectly with our goals for the Lynnwood Crisis Care Facility,” said JanRose Ottaway Martin, executive director of North Sound Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization, in the release. “We are confident this partnership will create a place of healing, stability, and dignity for those experiencing behavioral health crises.”
The Crisis Care Center is set to open in January 2026 with its 23-hour crisis relief program, according to the release. Later in 2026, the center will open for longer crisis stabilization stays. The facility has been vacant since the city finished construction last spring.
State Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Shoreline, has worked with Sea Mar since before she was a lawmaker, she said in an interview Monday. The organization is known for working well with immigrant and multilingual communities, she said. As a federally qualified health center, Sea Mar is more financially stable than many other community behavioral health agencies, Davis said.
“They’re a rock steady provider because of their longevity in the community, because they have so many sites and because they have so many diversified service lines,” she said.
Down the street from the Crisis Care Center, Sea Mar operates a facility that houses behavioral health, medical and dental clinics.
“There’s a lot of opportunity there for making sure that those referral pathways and referral loops are closed and people don’t get dropped, and services get continued,” Davis said.
The idea for the Crisis Care Center began in 2021. After 47-year-old Tirhas Tesfatsion died by suicide while in custody at Lynnwood Municipal Jail, community members urged the city to reconsider its plans to build a new, bigger jail. The city decided to dedicate part of the jail’s blueprint to a new recovery center that would serve as an alternative to an emergency room or jail for someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
“The Crisis Care Center will be a vital resource for our community,” Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell said in the release. “We are proud to be partnering with Sea Mar Community Health Centers and North Sound BHASO on this important endeavor to strengthen the continuum of care for our community members experiencing crisis.”
Crisis care centers throughout Washington have experienced state-level funding challenges, which caused an Arizona-based provider to withdraw from the Lynnwood Crisis Care Center late last year.
In 2021, the state Legislature allocated $15 million for the center in the state budget. The city later received a $3 million grant from Snohomish County and $1.9 million from the state Department of Commerce.
The Legislature passed a bill this year with the goal of streamlining negotiations with Medicaid organizations. Still, providers have to negotiate separate contracts with about 14 other non-Medicaid organizations.
In the 2026 legislative session, Davis hopes to address some of the lingering funding gaps for crisis care facilities, she said. Legislation could include raising the 988 telecom fee and charging insurance carriers proportionally based on the number of patients using the carrier in a facility.
Representatives from the Lynnwood project will present an update to the Lynnwood City Council on Wednesday.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the state Legislature allocated $15 million for the Lynnwood Crisis Care Center this year. The Legislature allocated $15 million in 2021.
Jenna Peterson: 425-339-3486; jenna.peterson@heraldnet.com; X: @jennarpetersonn.
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