Youth Services Center is in bad shape, but so are King County finances for replacement

The drinking fountains can run a muddy brown. There's no hot water on the bottom floor. There are holes in the ceiling and mold in the walls. Rainwater comes through the walls.

And don't even talk about the smells.

Welcome to the county's Youth Services Center, where complaints like these keep coming, and coming, and coming. In this facility — which is actually three buildings at 12th Avenue and Alder Street — the fates of thousands of children and families are decided each year. The center is used for family-court matters such as child-abuse and -neglect cases, juvenile-delinquency hearings and more. (The juvenile detention center, which holds youths accused of crimes, is in a newer, separate building on the same site.)

"There is an urgent need to replace this facility," said Superior Court Judge Bruce W. Hilyer. Given the ages of the two buildings in disrepair — one dates to 1952 but was renovated in 1972, the same year the other was constructed — problems are not unexpected. Repairs are beside the point. Fixing the heating, electrical and plumbing systems alone would cost $20 million.

Indeed, every group that has a hand in the place agrees that the facility needs to be replaced. Yet the issue has become political.

Judges, led by Hilyer and Superior Court Judge Patricia Clark (who headed the family court for years), took the unusual step of leading a tour Friday morning to bring public attention to its state of disrepair.

Hilyer favors a bond measure to pay for a new facility that would house all family-court matters under one roof. That would include courtrooms for divorces, custody cases, juvenile delinquency, child abuse and other family matters involving youth, plus room for related services. Currently, divorces are heard in the downtown Superior Court or in the Regional Justice Center, and services are located elsewhere.

"Some families have to run all over the county" to get their matters resolved, Clark said.

The estimated cost for the facility the judges want is $300 to $500 million, according to the King County Facilities Management Division.

Some County Council members, several of whom were also on the tour, would like to see a bond measure, as well.

But at a time when the county is facing possible cutbacks in key services, like the sheriff's and prosecutor's offices, even the issue of brown drinking water might get short shrift.

Earlier this month, county officials announced that they were facing an estimated $70 million shortfall in the next budget cycle.

County Executive Ron Sims can't see asking voters for so much money for something that's not, strictly speaking, necessary, said Kurt Triplett, his chief of staff.

"You've got to remember the context," Triplett said. "This is not the time for us to be investing $400 million in a brand-new building."

Triplett said Sims agrees that a new facility is needed and plans on including a proposal for it in the budget scheduled to be presented in the fall.

Financing may be creative, including public/private partnerships. He said a rough guess is that it would cost $100 million.

"You've got to ground them in reality," he said.

"And reality takes options off the table."

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com