Following over a year of neighborhood opposition—including the filing of lawsuits, the renting of clothing, and the frothing of many mouths—the Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) will finally open its mental health facility in the Jackson Place neighborhood this Friday.

The 30-bed Crisis Solutions Center, located at 1600 S Lane Street, will be a place where cops and other first responders can take mentally ill and drug-dependent individuals for evaluation and treatment, in lieu of booking them in jail or dumping them off at an overcrowded emergency room.

The Center also includes a mobile crisis team that's been trained to respond to psychiatric emergencies, diffuse crisis, assess individuals for mental health or drug related issues, and refer them to the appropriate services.

A news conference is scheduled for tomorrow, August 2 at 10:30 a.m. where DESC Director (and Jackson Place resident) Bill Hobson, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, and King County Sheriff Steve Strachan (among others) will sing its praises into a partially-cloudless blue sky.