Got questions about a Supreme Living facility near Lacey? Here’s what to know
Those opposed to local sex offender housing have raised concerns about a facility near Lacey, prompting state officials to respond.
Protesters gathered outside a Supreme Living housing facility in the 6600 block of Martin Way East on Feb. 10. Many of them expressed frustration about plans to house sex offenders at a different Supreme Living facility near Tenino, and they drew parallels to the Martin Way facility.
Supreme Living, a Thurston County-based residential services company, owns the property near Tenino as well as the facility on Martin Way. Though both may house sex offenders, state officials from the Department of Social and Health Service told The Olympian that the two facilities are distinct and do not share the same requirements.
The facility at 2813 140th Ave. SW near Tenino is officially called a Less Restrictive Alternative community home. Supreme Living intends to house about five DSHS clients there, including sex offenders released from McNeil Island Special Commitment Center.
The company planned to welcome its first resident at the home by Feb. 1. However, those plans were delayed after Thurston County raised permitting concerns.
Meanwhile, the facility on Martin Way is called an Enhanced Services Facility, which is licensed by DSHS. Supreme Living opened this facility in 2021 with 15 single rooms, according to its website.
Who resides at an ESF?
An ESF houses people with “complicated personal care and behavioral challenges” but who do not need to be placed in an institutional setting, according to the DSHS website.
Amy Abbott, director of residential care services at DSHS, said that ESF residents typically need help with daily activities, medication management and behavioral health treatment. However, they may have committed past offenses that make it difficult for them to be placed elsewhere.
“It might not be that’s a current issue, but the history kind of follows them and makes people more reluctant to be willing to take them in,” Abbott said.
A “history” can include past behaviors such as assaults and sex offenses, Abbott said. However, she stressed that any offenders have been released by the Department of Corrections and do not carry stringent court-ordered restrictions.
“If they didn’t have these other needs like assistance with daily living skills, they would be living in their own home or apartment in the community,” Abbott said.
The Supreme Living website describes the Martin Way facility as “staffed on a 24/7 basis with nurses, certified nurse’s assistants, and mental health professionals who provide the residents a range of daily living services, access to mental health, medical and employment related services to assist residents in successfully re-integrating into the community.”
“The residents of our facilities generally transfer from behavioral health hospitals,” the website reads. “Some of them are veterans. None of the residents of either facility came from the SCC unit at McNeil Island.”
How is an ESF different from an LRA community home?
ESFs do not house people from the Special Commitment Center, Abbott said. ESF residents also have more freedoms, including the ability to come and go from the facility as they wish.
Unlike an LRA community home, an ESF cannot lock residents in or provide constant supervision.
“Some of the restrictions that you see sometimes with clients who come out of the Special Commitment Center, we aren’t able to do in this type of setting because that would be a violation of residents’ rights,” Abbott said.
Civilly committed sex offenders may be housed at an LRA community home by court order once they complete their sentence.
Residents at an LRA home must follow conditions set by the court, including sex offender behavioral treatment and GPS tracking. They are constantly monitored by DSHS social workers and Department of Corrections staff.
Anyone who escapes from an LRA will be charged with a new crime and quickly returned to total confinement on McNeil Island, Keith Devos, Chief Executive Officer of the Special Commitment Center, previously said.
How does someone get placed at an ESF?
A lot of ESF residents come from Eastern State Hospital or Western State Hospital as well as other treatment facilities across the state, Abbott said.
Treatment teams review potential ESFs and discuss the options with their clients. From there, staff from Home and Community Services, a DSHS division, assess whether the client is eligible for an ESF.
As an example, Abbott said an ESF resident may be someone who already lived in the community but experienced a mental health crisis.
“They may have ended up at Eastern State or Western State Hospital or another mental health treatment facility,” Abbott said. “Then they were able to get stabilized and now they are just looking for a place to live.”
A resident partially pays for their stay at an ESF based on their income and Medicaid pays for the rest, Abbott said.
Currently, there are nine ESFs across the state and only one in Thurston County, according to DSHS. The first ESF opened in Spokane in 2016, Abbott said.
Did someone leave the ESF on Martin Way recently?
Some protesters outside the Supreme Living ESF believed an individual recently absconded from the facility. They based this claim on changes they observed on a local sex offender registry, The Olympian previously reported.
However, The Olympian could not independently verify these changes. The Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Abbott said ESF residents may be ordered by a court to take medications or participate in some treatment, but they otherwise are free to leave an ESF.
DSHS may investigate a complaint about an ESF resident, but Abbott said she was not at liberty to discuss specific individuals or complaints.
More information on ESFs can be found on the DSHS website.
