Department of Community and Human Services

Read our Community IMPACT Highlights Report (March 2013)

Welcome to the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS). Our department is dedicated to helping our region's neediest residents achieve and maintain healthier and more independent lives and to strengthening our communities.

DCHS plays a leadership role in coordinating regional housing and human services systems. Mainly through contracts with community-based agencies, the department helps King County's low-income and special needs residents achieve stability, improved health, greater independence, and a higher quality of life. DCHS provides some direct services as well.

While the department provides a wide range of services, it focuses efforts in five key areas: prevention and early intervention services, ending homelessness, criminal justice services as alternatives to incarceration, job training and employment services, and quality public defense services.

Programs and services are coordinated through the Director's Office and four divisions: Community Services; Developmental Disabilities; Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services; and the Office of Public Defense. We also provide coordination for the Committee to End Homelessness and the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in King County, the Veterans and Human Services Levy, and the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency (MIDD) Action Plan.

Jackie MacLean, Director