SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced $27 million in investments and a new proposal for a public drug use ordinance on Monday as part of his plan to combat the opioid crisis in the city.
The funding comes from settlements between opioid manufacturers and the city of Seattle.
The city will invest $7 million this year toward capital investments in facilities to provide services like post-overdose care, opioid medication delivery, health hub services, long-term care management and drop-in support.
The additional $20 million will be dedicated toward a long-term, multi-year strategy and plan to increase treatment and overdose response services, including the Seattle Fire Department's new post-overdose response team, access to mobile opioid medication delivery and harm reduction services, according to a release from the city.
The mayor also announced a new proposed ordinance aiming at codifying the state public drug use law in the city of Seattle. The city council's last effort to pass an ordinance criminalizing public drug use narrowly failed in a 5-4 vote in early June, with several council members expressing concern over a lack of set plans for diversion and treatment options for people arrested under the ordinance.
Councilmember Andrew Lewis took a lot of criticism back in June for being the vote that held up a city ordinance that essentially mirrored the state legislation.
“No, we’ve got a significantly better proposal today," Lewis said. "One that includes $27 million in treatment, one that has the support of the police department."
The new bill was developed with help from the Fentanyl Systems Work Group, which the mayor formed in June. The 24-member task force includes subject matter experts, community leaders, law enforcement, service providers and impacted communities.
In addition to codifying the state public drug use law, the bill would designate diversion and treatment as the preferred approach to addressing substance abuse issues and define a new threat of harm standard. According to the release, the new standard differentiates between drug use that threatens others versus drug use that impacts the individual alone while "recoginizing the real and perceived danger of consumption of illegal drugs in public places and aiming to support safe and welcoming neighborhoods by reducing public drug use."
“Our enforcement strategy is focusing in on those bringing these drugs into our community and at the same time our ordinance calibrates the balance between arresting those using and helping those using by getting them the treatment,” Harrell said Monday.
The mayor plans to issue an executive order next week providing guidance to the Seattle Police Department on how the law should be applied, further detailing the new threat of harm standards and outlining tools to collect and analyze data to measure the proposed ordinance's success. The Fentanyl Systems Work Group will continue to meet with a focus on the court system, diversion, addressing gaps in diversion programs and strengthening partner coordination.