Cities
A quarterly community meeting hosted by Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) on January 13, 2026, offered neighbors an update on operations at the Bloomside supportive housing building, while surfacing ongoing concerns about safety, transparency, and treatment services.
The meeting was attended by roughly a dozen people, about half of whom were DESC employees. Neighbors raised questions about drug use, visible building damage, resident screening, and the scope of services provided on site.
Early in the meeting, a neighbor asked whether illegal drugs are allowed inside the building. DESC representatives responded that drug use by residents does occur. A resident expressed concern about the number of broken windows at Bloomside. DESC representative Noah Faye attributed most of the damage to residents experiencing hallucinations related to serious mental illness. He emphasized that the facility operates in compliance with current law and said DESC no longer distributes drug paraphernalia to residents.
Questions were also raised about whether registered sex offenders live at Bloomside. Faye said such individuals are not part of DESC’s target population, but they are not categorically excluded. He added that Burien residents receive priority for approximately one-third of the building’s housing units.
DESC described its relationship with local police as collaborative, while noting legal limits on enforcement. Because residents hold individual leases, police may not enter apartments without a warrant, staff said.
When asked about treatment participation, DESC reported that roughly one-third of Bloomside residents are enrolled in medication services. However, staff were unable to provide figures on how many residents participate in outpatient treatment for alcohol or other drug use.
The meeting highlighted the balance supportive housing providers face between resident rights, neighborhood concerns, and transparency about outcomes—issues that continue to draw scrutiny as Burien and other cities evaluate the impacts of permanent supportive housing in residential neighborhoods.
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