solutions journalism

Walla Walla County has found permanent housing for 74% of the people who exited its homeless services system. That's data from the last fiscal year, according to the Washington Department of Commerce. And it's nearly twice the rate of the state as a whole.

A couple of blocks off U.S. Route 12 in Walla Walla, Blue Mountain Heart to Heart has been treating people with substance use disorder for over a decade. But, for years, the nonprofit was unable to quickly offer a proven treatment for opioid use disorder: medication-assisted treatment.Staffers would have to arrange for patients to get an assessment with a trained substance use professional elsewhere to start the medication. Getting that assessment, and then, getting started on the medication, buprenorphine, used to take weeks.