Layne Staley’s legacy hits the road: Mobile clinic bringing addiction treatment to Seattle tiny home villages

SEATTLE — A new effort to fight Seattle’s opioid crisis will soon be hitting the road. Therapeutic Health Services is launching the Layne Staley Mobile Medical Unit this month, a clinic on wheels named in honor of the late “Alice in Chains” frontman. 

The mobile unit will bring addiction treatment directly to the Low Income Housing Institute’s tiny home villages, aiming to reach people who might not otherwise access care.

“People will see this man with his microphone singing out into the world,” said Staley’s mother, Nancy McCallum. “And hoping for the best for others.” 

McCallum said her son remains with her every day. “There isn’t a day that, or a moment that he isn’t in my heart. And I know that other addicts’ parents feel that way too.”

Staley, a Seattle music icon from the 1980s and 1990s grunge scene, died in 2002 from an accidental overdose. McCallum said, “It’s just very emotional to see how Layne’s honesty is spread worldwide and the mobile unit is one of those things.”

Therapeutic Health Services, which supported Staley and thousands of other patients over the years, developed the mobile clinic with partial funding from the Layne Staley Memorial Fund. The unit will provide methadone and other addiction treatment services to up to 250 people a day, Monday through Saturday, and plans to serve at least three locations daily. 

“Hope starts here. Hope is available,” said THS CEO Patricia Edmond-Quinn.

The goal is to break down barriers by meeting people where they are. 

“They’re not having to get up, try to figure out where the closest place I can go,” Edmond-Quinn said. “Take a bus or walk, if they can, to get to the services that they need.” 

Service is scheduled to begin June 15 at the Interbay Tiny Home Village.

For McCallum, the mobile unit is a powerful extension of her son’s legacy. 

“I hope he knows the love and how his work is going to help others,” she said. “And I would say that to young people. Who you are and what you do matters.”