Jamestown S’Klallam CEO W. Ron Allen credits the Swinomish Wellness Center for providing a blueprint of what the proposed Sequim MAT (medication-assisted treatment) opioid addiction facility would offer.
The Swinomish MAT facility is located about 5 miles away from Anacortes, unlike the proposed Sequim MAT facility which will be located behind Costco in our busiest shopping district close to residences.
The Swinomish center serves about 250 people.
About 90 percent of the center’s opioid addict clients lack a valid driver’s license.
An ongoing challenge is serving the transient population.
The center provides tents, sleeping bags and hygiene kits to clients, but it cannot house them.
A planned extpansion on adjacent land would allow it to serve 500.
The Sequim MAT facility plans to treat 250 opioid addicts.
Many will come from outside of Sequim.
How many will be homeless, like the Swinomish MAT facility’s addicts?
How long before so many travel to Sequim that the facility here will be enlarged?
What will so many homeless addicts do to Sequim within walking distance of the MAT facility?
To me, the Swinomish blueprint sounds like a nightmare scenario in Sequim, not a model to emulate.
Wendy Goldberg,
Sequim