Thurston County plans to spend over $640,000 in sales tax funds through 2025 to help people with mental health or substance use disorders.
The Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday to award community grants to three organizations. The awards are funded by the county's Treatment Sales Tax, a one-tenth of 1% sales tax that it has collected since 2009.
The sales tax has served as a key funding stream for meeting mental health and substance use needs in Thurston County, according to a news release from the county. By meeting these needs, the county says it also reduces costs related to the criminal justice system, emergency room use, health care and public assistance.
The vote, which occurred amid a power outage, took place at the commission's first regular board meeting of 2024. The commission took up the matter after the county received and reviewed 24 proposals for the funding. Three proposals with a combined cost of $642,995 were ultimately approved.
A mobile health clinic program operated by Providence Southwest Washington Foundation will receive $254,421 through 2025. The funds will support a van that provides outreach and coordinated care to unhoused people at a variety of locations in the county.
The van is equipped to offer care for mental health disorders, substance use disorders and resulting physical health problems.
Interfaith Works will receive $236,438 to fund the nonprofit's Navigation Team as they work to provide peer advocacy and care coordination to people at its Unity Commons shelter off Martin Way.
The team connects individuals to permanent housing, primary care and behavioral health services.
County documents indicate the Navigation Team will focus on people referred through the state's Rights-of-Way Initiative, an effort to remove people from encampments along state freeways and offer them housing.
Lastly, the county granted Family Support Center of South Sound $152,136 to help families enrolled in one of the county's treatment courts.
The nonprofit will use the money to provide intensive case management and housing search support to the families, according to the county's news release.
Chelyn Sowers, TST program manager, said the advisory committee previously recommended funding behavioral health services at Community Action Council's Monarch Children's Justice and Advocacy Center, as well as Catholic Community Services.
The advisory committee also recommended funding Providence's mobile health clinic and Family Support Center of South Sound, but it did not recommend funding for Interfaith Works' Navigation Team.
The county released a requested for proposals in October 2023. At the time, the advisory committee recommended making $800,000 available for community grants in 2024 and 2025, according to county spokesperson Renae Miller.
However, Miller said projected revenue for TST decreased after the request was released. This resulted in available grant funding decreasing from $800,000 to about $300,000 in 2024 and 2025.
The board later adjusted the combined total to $640,000 to support the costs of the selected program services and operations, Miller said.
At a Nov. 29 meeting, the board directed staff to develop contracts with the top three recommendations, which removed Catholic Community Services from consideration.
During that meeting, Commissioner Emily Clouse pushed the board to fund Interfaith Works' Navigation Team, saying she strongly felt it would do life-saving work. Commissioners Tye Menser and Wayne Fournier later sided with Clouse at a Dec. 12 meeting.
Commissioner Gary Edwards voted against approving the TST community grants on Tuesday, saying he wished the commission could follow the recommendation they were initially given.
"I'm very much in favor of supporting all these organizations, but there was a limited amount of money available," Edwards said. "My concern is that I wanted to follow the Treatment Sales Tax (Advisory) committee's recommendation."
Commissioner Carolina Mejia also said she supported the advisory committee's recommendation but she was outvoted on the matter along with Edwards. She said she still voted to approve it Tuesday because she felt the funding should go out.
"I will respect the majority of the board's decision for the organization that they chose, but it wasn't my first choice I guess I'll say," Mejia said before the vote.
When reached for comment, Mejia said the TST advisory board "did a hard job" going through 25 application within the new funding limitations. She also expanded on why she supported Community Action Council's Monarch Children's Justice and Advocacy Center.
"With the rise in child abuse cases in Thurston County and the backlog Monarch has due to these awful circumstances, I was not in favor of removing funding from them," Mejia said. "All of the recipients and the projects outlined are worthy of funding. Interfaith Works is a wonderful organization, and they do amazing work for our community, and I am fully supportive of them."
During the Tuesday meeting, Clouse said she respected the advisory committee's recommendations and looked forward to "streamlining this process" to make it "more effective" going forward.
Clouse did not respond to a request for further comment before publication.
