Federal Way City Councilmembers told state legislators that funding for behavioral, mental health and addiction resources was a priority this year at the legislative breakfast in November 2024.

If all had gone to plan in the last few years, a behavioral health crisis center would already be open today in Federal Way.

The Recovery Innovations (RI) International South King County Crisis Receiving Center project would have opened at 822 S. 333rd St. in Federal Way as part of 25 behavioral health projects that received funds in the past several years from the Washington State Department of Commerce Behavioral Health Facilities program.

The Mirror reported in April 2022 that a $2.5 million grant was awarded to fund the future Federal Way crisis center. The statewide program was intended to create more than 300 beds and expand outpatient care capacity in nine counties throughout the state, according to the Department of Commerce at the time.

These crisis centers are based on the Crisis Now model created by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD). It focuses on ensuring that everyone has access to “safe, effective crisis care that diverts people in distress from the emergency department and jail by developing a continuum of crisis care services that match people’s clinical needs.”

RI International was meant to be one of these behavioral health service providers and operate several crisis centers.

Recovery Innovations (RI) describes themselves as a “national nonprofit organization specializing in mental health crisis services,” that “operates numerous programs across multiple states, working in partnership with state and local agencies to provide high-quality, person-centered care.”

Since early 2024, RI has withdrawn from several sites in Washington in various stages of operation, citing an unsustainable financial model in the state.

David Covington, CEO and president of Recovery Innovations, told the Mirror that since fiscal year 2019, the organization has shouldered “approximately $18 million in operating losses in Washington — an unsustainable situation despite repeated efforts to negotiate more viable financial structures with county sponsors and state officials.”

Pierce County crisis centers operated by RI closed in March 2024 in Fife and Parkland.

In Lynnwood, a crisis center was fully completed, but now cannot open after Recovery Innovations dropped out, as the Seattle Times reported on Feb. 5, 2025.

In Federal Way, the future crisis center location made it through facility improvements including a “complete infrastructure renovation,” according to RI, but the work ended there.

Covington told the Mirror that “for years, RI successfully operated behavioral health crisis services in Washington state in strong partnership with Optum Health and local and state agencies.”

The challenge began with “the shift to integrated care, combined with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” that brought “unprecedented challenges.”

RI was awarded grant funding in two different rounds to support the launch of services in Federal Way. According to Department of Commerce documents, the initial grant amount of $1,960,000 was awarded in the 2019-2021 funding cycle. At the time of that award, their estimated opening date was June 1, 2022.

Their second grant totaled $2,500,000 and was funded in the 2021-23 funding cycle, and included an updated expected opening date of March 15, 2023.

Despite these funds, Covington said that “we also invested an additional $5 million of RI’s own funds into facility improvements — funds that will be lost. Despite our best efforts to identify another provider to take over the building, we are still required to repay the grant, further increasing our financial losses.”

The funds for the $2.5 million award were “returned to the state and no additional awards have been granted for the organization’s Federal Way project proposal,” Dave Pringle, legislative director for the Washington State Department of Commerce, told the Mirror.

A City of Federal Way spokesperson told the Mirror the project “was not a city initiative or request” and that their only knowledge of the project was that “Recovery Innovations applied for two building permits but did not complete the process on either of them.”

“One permit was pulled by RI, who never called the City for an inspection,” then “the second permit was submitted and then allowed to expire. The City allows a permit to be open for six months before it expires,” the city shared in a statement.

Based on the permitting and the fact that the city hasn’t heard from RI, the city shared that “the Council and the Mayor never had an opportunity to meaningfully partner with RI on this initiative.”

The deeper issue

In a discussion of the Lynnwood Recovery Innovations withdrawal, State Rep. Lauren Davis shared her perspective on the statewide issue that is affecting the rollout of this type of facility at a Lynnwood City Council meeting on Dec. 2, 2024. Although she is in Snohomish County, she described the twin problems being seen in both her county and King County as well.

Davis is deeply familiar with the issues of crisis response and led efforts to pass Ricky’s Law in 2016, named after her best friend, which paved the way for increased crisis treatment for those with a life-threatening addiction.

According to Davis, the core issues that are driving away operators like Recovery Innovations is an issue with how ongoing operations budgets are being funded. Another core issue is that funding wasn’t provided for their clients that are not on Medicaid, which she says would be about half of the clients they serve.

These issues in turn were most likely missed in the planning of the system because of a lack of collaboration with current behavioral health service providers, “whose job it is to manage crisis care in the region,” Davis said.

Overall, “there’s been some bumbling of the implementation. It’s a new facility type. We passed a bill in 2023 to enact and create this new facility type for adults, and then we followed up in 2024 to create a pediatric version. But like a lot of new things, we’re sort of the guinea pig, so we’re feeling the bumps,” Davis said.

Davis also provided background on where this crisis center model came from and why the state is putting so much money into its implementation.

Several years ago, a delegation of about 50 people from Washington state including “elected officials and county government folks” visited Maricopa County in Arizona where they use this model across the entire county very successfully, Davis said.

“The reason that that model is so compelling to the state is that currently, every single behavioral health facility in the state requires medical clearance prior to an individual going to that facility,” Davis said, whereas “what we know from Arizona is that with this facility type, they don’t require medical clearance at all.”

This means that individuals can self-refer, law enforcement can drop people off, and no matter what, there is a 100% acceptance rate to a facility that is prepared to de-escalate and assist people in psychiatric and substance related crises.

Davis said that the crisis centers take the burden off of police and hospital staff who are typically not well equipped to handle individuals in extreme psychiatric distress.

“The Arizona data suggests that only 6% of individuals actually need to go to the emergency department, so they will take them if necessary. But again, they have full medical staff. So the reason that that is compelling to the hospitals in particular is it keeps people out of the emergency department. Emergency departments are a very poor place for a person in psychiatric distress,” Davis said.

To fix these core issues, Davis said state legislators are working on the gaps in ongoing operations funding and planning as well as the lack of coverage for those who do not have Medicaid.

Those in crisis in Federal Way can call the national suicide and crisis line by dialing 988, reach out to Crisis Connections at 1-866-427-4747 or call 911. Crisis Connections is a 24-hour hotline serving King, Pierce, Clark, Skamania, Klickitat, Grant, Okanogan, Chelan and Douglas counties, serving all ages.