Nonprofit blocked by Everett’s ban on downtown medical, social services

EVERETT — When board members for the Center for Human Services found a vacant space on Colby Avenue for their new behavioral health clinic, it was everything they hoped for.

Or so they thought.

Plans to expand the Shoreline-based nonprofit to downtown Everett came to a halt last month when the board learned the city had banned social services on multiple downtown streets in 2018.

“I thought it was a joke because it was so absurd,” said Beratta Gomillion, executive director for the nonprofit.

The ban became law five years ago when the City Council approved the Metro Everett Plan, the latest in a series of planning documents to address population and job growth. A major sticking point for the plan had been how to regulate medical and social services downtown.

“If we are trying to get residential and mixed-use development in the downtown … clinics are not the sort of thing that we ought to have on ground floors,” then-council President Paul Roberts said in a 2018 meeting.

The Downtown Everett Association said at the time the ban was necessary to address public safety challenges related to the high concentration of clinics and social services in the area.

Shawn Karmil, board secretary for the Center for Human Services, said last week this was a misconception. He also said the city isn’t being realistic about the problem.

“People who are struggling and need services aren’t in the downtown core because social services are there,” Karmil said. “The social services are there because people need these services.”

In the final document, the council zoned multiple streets for retail and banned future services from ground-level use, including food banks, tattoo parlors, churches and medical and social services. Substance use treatment provider Ideal Option pushed back on the ban in 2018, but eventually settled on a new location at 4301 Hoyt Ave.

Last month, Karmil and other board members petitioned the city to review the ban or make an exception for a clinic at 2716 Colby Ave.

“We’re not asking for money, or anything but the opportunity to serve residents who are in desperate need,” Gomillion said.

In an emailed statement this month, Mayor Cassie Franklin’s office said there were no plans for “changes related to social services on ground floors within Metro Everett.”

The Center for Human Services has six clinics, including one in Everett’s Silver Lake neighborhood. The new clinic would provide outpatient counseling services for mental health and substance use disorders, as well as counseling services for families and schools like Everett High School.

Since last fall, Robert Gilleland has received drug use counseling from the Silver Lake clinic. He said counselors have helped him get clean, find housing and process trauma.

“They have taught me that there is a better part of life,” he said.

Gilleland doesn’t understand the justification to limit social services downtown.

“You got people in every alleyway shooting up,” he said. “If you have a house fire, you’re not going to send the fire department three houses down.”

On July 21, Franklin’s office emailed Gomillion and said increasing the density of social services was “not in the long-term vision for that area,” according to emails obtained by The Herald.

Gomillion argued the city is sending conflicting messages. In March, the mayor issued a directive to increase behavioral health services in Everett.

“The harder we make it for people to get treatment, the fewer people will receive care,” Gomillion said.

City Council member Paula Rhyne said she agrees the city needs more social services, but she is unsure about supporting a new Center for Human Services clinic downtown.

“I don’t necessarily see any problems with people having more access to treatment,” she said.

At a council meeting last month, she suggested filling downtown vacancies with family-friendly businesses would make “unwanted behavior not exist in that space anymore.”

Rhyne plans to discuss downtown zoning restrictions at a council committee meeting next month.

The Center for Human Services board hasn’t found any suitable locations for a new clinic.

Sydney Jackson: 425-339-3430; sydney.jackson@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @_sydneyajackson.