Annual Report 2024
DESC helps people with the complex needs of homelessness, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness achieve their highest potential for health and well-being through comprehensive services, treatment, and housing.
Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
In 2024, we moved 466 people into permanent supportive housing, with 94.6% of them retaining their homes — evidence of the stability DESC provides. We also opened Bloomside, our first permanent supportive housing location outside of Seattle, located in Burien. We also advanced work on three new permanent supportive housing projects across Seattle.
We prepared for the opening of both the Opioid Recovery & Care Access (ORCA) Center, a judgment-free space for individuals to stabilize after an overdose; and the Stability Through Access & Resources (STAR) Center, an innovative, non-congregate shelter designed for our most vulnerable neighbors to get connected to the services they need most.
The figures in this report are for fiscal year January-December 2024, released in
August 2025 following annual auditing.
2024 In Review:
- 6,988 individuals in one of our licensed clinical programs, entry survival services, or supportive housing programs.
- 1,996 tenants in supportive housing.
- 657 individuals who received opioid use disorder treatment.
- 95% of tenants retained permanent supportive housing.
Permanent Supportive Housing
In 2024, DESC operated 1,566 permanent supportive housing apartments in 17 project-based programs ranging from 40 units to 190 units, all of which feature 24/7 onsite support staff and integrated clinical services.
DESC also manages 49 master-leased, market-rate scattered-site units, where tenants receive intensive case management and other supports as needed. Another 250+ clients in private market scattered-site units are supported with case management and rent subsidies controlled by DESC.
Outpatient Health Services
DESC supported 2,590 clients in 2024 through a variety of outpatient behavioral health programs, including:
– SAGE (Support, Advocacy, Growth, and Employment)
– HOST (Homelessness Outreach Stabilization and Transition)
– PACT (Program of Assertive Community Treatment)
– SUD (Substance Use Disorder treatment)
– COAT (Community Outreach and Advocacy Team)
– Opioid use disorder treatment
Behavioral Health Crisis Response
DESC responds to individuals in behavioral health crisis who may otherwise not receive help or be
taken to jail, an emergency room, or a psychiatric hospital.
Services include DESC’s Crisis Solutions Center (CSC) and mobile crisis response teams. A total of 1,592 clients were enrolled in CSC in 2024, spending nights in care instead of on the street. In total, 3,220 community members received support from our mobile crisis response teams.
Shelter and Emergency Housing
DESC emergency housing is a low-barrier program that provides rooms to single adults experiencing chronic homelessness. We offer basic amenities and safe, private, dignified spaces in which people can temporarily live while they search for permanent housing.
In 2024, DESC operated 2 emergency housing sites and 3 shelters, providing services for 939 individuals.
Community Support
Financials
Find 2024 financial information in the full 2024 Annual Report.