Seattle will soon have a place for people to go after surviving an overdose

Where can people go to recover after surviving a drug-related overdose? For people in Seattle, the answer is usually limited to the emergency room or staying put, often on the street.

But a new option is on the way.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced millions in funding Thursday to create a post-overdose recovery center that will provide a space for people to stabilize following a non-fatal overdose.

The Downtown Emergency Services Center will run the new space at the Morrison Hotel on Third Avenue, following renovations expected to begin late this year or early next year. Once opened, this facility would be the first of its kind in Seattle, filling a current gap in the system for people with limited alternatives.

As the fentanyl crisis continues, overdoses are claiming hundreds of lives in Seattle every year.

In the first four months of this year alone, emergency services treated nearly 2,500 opioid overdoses across King County. There were more than 200 deaths caused by opioid-related overdoses in that same period.

The new recovery center is designed to provide a place for people to go in the immediate aftermath of an overdose.

After being revived with something like the overdose reversal drug Naloxone, people often experience painful withdrawal symptoms and may want to use again. The recovery center will offer medication alternatives that can alleviate these symptoms, as well as a safe space to recuperate and access to other services like mental health treatment and case managers.

“You have a person who feels really bad, and doesn’t want to feel bad. And right now the easiest thing to do is to go and use more fentanyl,” said Caleb Banta-Green, an acting professor at the University of Washington's Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute at a press conference Thursday.

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“We’re trying to create an alternative that’s better than that,” he said.

Banta-Green said the hope is that word will spread about this space and that people will want to come for post-overdose monitoring, but also to access harm reduction supplies like Naloxone, or information if they’re not ready to begin treatment right away.

The center will provide access to providers who can prescribe highly effective treatments for opioid use disorder, including medications like methadone and buprenorphine.

“They may not take advantage of everything you have to offer on the first day, but what we find is that eventually they will,” Banta-Green said.

The Downtown Emergency Services Center will receive $5.65 million to open the center. An additional $1.35 million will go to Evergreen Treatment Services to run a mobile clinic, bringing medications to people where they are.

“This new investment in a post-overdose recovery center and mobile clinics will stabilize people following a non-fatal overdose, alleviating their painful withdrawal symptoms that often cause them to use these highly addictive drugs again and instead connecting them to evidence-based treatment and recovery services,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement.

The funds come from a federal grant and are part of a $27 million investment pledged by Harrell’s administration to combat the fentanyl crisis.

RELATED: Fentanyl spike leads to record overdose deaths in King County

The city has already put in place a team of first responders dedicated to responding to overdose calls. Currently, they are dispatched to roughly 10 to 15 overdose calls per day, according to Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. Those responders will now be able to take patients to this recovery center after initial medical treatment in the field.

Once renovated, the space will have 10 recliners and will take clients who come through emergency services as well as those walking in. The estimate is that the site will serve 20 to 25 clients per day. It remains to be seen if there will be enough capacity to keep up with demand given the number of overdoses occurring.

Questions also remain about what happens after someone has had time to recover.

People will be able to stay for just under a day, up to 23 consecutive hours, to receive care, access to medication treatments for substance use disorder, and connection to physical and behavioral health services.

“A significant portion of people who are going to be cared for here we anticipate are going to be currently experiencing homelessness,” said Daniel Malone, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Services Center. “To generate true stability people are going to need a place to stay that is stable for them and where they can further benefit from the treatment that may be beginning here in this location.”

Malone said there are some ideas about how to connect people to housing, but right now they’re just ideas.

As Seattle pilots this new approach to helping people who experience an overdose, researchers with the University of Washington and King County will monitor it and evaluate how it’s working for drug users as well as what the outcomes are.