EDITORIAL: Mental health plan questions should've been answered long ago

Jan. 25—Yakima County's 0.1% sales tax to provide mental health services seemed like a pretty straightforward idea back in 2019.

Commissioners at the time — Mike Leita, Ron Anderson and the late Norm Childress — had broad support for the plan, which involved converting the Pacific Avenue jail near State Fair Park into what they were tentatively calling the Yakima County Care Campus.

The 10-acre campus was to be a one-stop service center for people experiencing homelessness or mental health issues — a permanent shelter, treatment for mental health and substance abuse. The works.

Mental health professionals were in favor. Law enforcement, court and corrections people were in favor.

The countywide tax didn't require a public vote, so commissioners passed it unanimously that October and the county began collecting funds the following April.

Backslaps and handshakes all around, right?

Well ... not so fast. Bureaucracy is a stubborn beast.

Now, after accumulating money from the tax for nearly three years — about $13 million at latest count — nobody's sure how to spend any of it.

The Pacific Avenue campus idea turns out to be unfeasible — too expensive to retrofit the building into a care campus, and current zoning rules would apparently forbid it anyway. The site is also within the Yakima Greenway overlay, and Greenway officials don't want it anywhere near recreational areas.

So talk has turned to directing the money toward designated crisis responders to assist law enforcement officers. Perhaps mental health experts could accompany officers answering calls involving people experiencing mental health crises. Or maybe some of the money could go toward mental health court.

In short, what seemed like a good idea has turned out to be a lot more complicated than anyone thought.

Hindsight, they say, is 20/20. Sadly, it's also kind of moot at this point.

The truth is that as well-intentioned as the plan was back in 2019, it doesn't seem like anyone thought it through very well before imposing the tax on the public. The questions and obstacles that local officials are struggling with today should've been settled long ago.

On the other hand, though, a multimillion-dollar fund — however and whenever it's tapped — should offer some tangible solutions to a problem that's plagued the community for years. For that, we should be grateful to the previous board of commissioners.

Meantime, Yakima County Human Services Director Esther Magasis, who has commissioned a study to determine the county's greatest mental health needs, hopes to offer the current commissioners some specific recommendations by March.

As after-the-fact as that is, we hope it'll guide the board to an effective strategy that'll start showing results soon.

Yakima Herald-Republic editorials reflect the collective opinion of the newspaper's local editorial board.

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