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Mayor’s commitment to innovative “Housing First”
program delivers hope, permanent housing
"We must work together to lift people out of homelessness. It’s not always the easy thing to do; but it’s the right thing to do."
-- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels |
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Seeking permanent solutions to lift people out of homelessness, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels became a strong and early advocate of a strategy called “Housing First.”
Many people's lives have been turned around through this strategy. Since 2005, the city has spent more than $18 million dollars on this innovative approach to take chronically homeless individuals off the streets and to give them a permanent place to stay without preconditions. Once these individuals are in safe, decent housing, their lives stabilize and they benefit from in-house medical and mental health services and other support programs.
“We must find new ways to help those who are the hardest to reach,” Nickels said. “Studies show that Housing First works. Instead of letting people fall through the cracks, these homes stabilize and rebuild lives.”
“Housing First” units represent a major commitment by Seattle to address the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, which envisions a permanent solution for the homeless, not just temporary shelter.
In just the past three years, Seattle has put about 300 “Housing First” units in operation with 569 units anticipated by 2011. The city invested in the first housing first project, 1811 Eastlake in 2001, and has substantially increased its support for Housing First. Since 2005, the city has invested approximately $8.6 million for capital, and $9.6 million for operating and supportive services for “Housing First.”
 Every general fund taxpayer dollar invested also leverages three to four times that amount in non-city funds. Separate studies of Seattle’s first two Housing First projects at 1811 Eastlake and Plymouth and Stewart clearly show that individuals in “Housing First” are using dramatically fewer services in emergency rooms, sobering centers and jails. Preliminary research shows an estimated savings of $3.2 million because of fewer visits by these formerly chronically homeless individuals to Harborview Medical Center and the Dutch Schisler Sobering Center, as well as less use of other crisis-treatment services. In addition, residents at 1811 Eastlake, a program for formerly homeless men and women living with chronic alcohol addiction, reported a substantial reduction in days spent drinking to intoxication.
A compassionate city
 Seattle residents have been generous and compassionate in their support of the homeless. In 2008, the city of Seattle allocated more than $38 million for homeless services:
• Emergency Shelter: $6,661,590
• Day Centers and Hygiene Facilities: $3,004,753
• Transitional Housing: $6,537,906
• Permanent Housing: $1,698,514
• Meal Programs: $683,527
• Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance: $4,690,920
• Homeless health care, child care, family counseling, youth services, community support, employment: $5,427,794
• Capital investments to build supportive housing: $9,300,000
For 2009, Mayor Nickels proposed spending a record $52.5 million of general fund on health and human services to help the least fortunate, including $2.9 million for food assistance, such as purchasing food in bulk and delivering food to seniors and others who find it difficult to leave their home.
 For the first time, the Mayor’s budget also includes funding the Family & Adult Service Center (FASC), a Seattle “day center” for homeless men and women. This adult day center serves approximately 350 different individuals per day, providing safe and warm daytime respite from the streets and a place where homeless people can shower, use the toilet, eat, do their laundry, make phone calls, receive mail, and share companionship with others. The Mayor’s budget also funded a new late-night emergency program for homeless families.
Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness
The City of Seattle is a leader and one of three major funders of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County and the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, along with King County and United Way of King County.
The Ten-Year Plan emerged as an idea in 2004, when a broad-based coalition of more than 30 leaders representing United Way of King County, businesses, faith-based communities, housing and human services organizations, homeless people and governments, came together to confront this serious issue.
The plan, completed in the spring of 2005, seeks to end homelessness, not just help people live in homelessness. The goals of the plan promote long-term and sustainable solutions to homelessness including alignment of funding, programs and services among the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
Asking others to join our efforts
Of all the shelter beds available for single adults in King County, 94 percent of them are in the city of Seattle. While the city provides the bulk of the region’s homeless shelter, many of the occupants are not from Seattle.
There are currently 1,724 shelter beds for single adults in King County, of which 1,621 are within Seattle’s city limits, according to data from the Human Services Department and the Committee to End Homelessness King County Inventory of Homeless Units and Beds. Seattle taxpayers fund 70 percent of all shelter beds in the city.
While the city provides the vast majority of shelter beds in the region, a recent Safe Harbors report in King County finds about 46 percent of those being served by shelter and transitional housing programs are not from Seattle.
City taxpayers should not shoulder the entire cost and impacts of the region’s homeless population. Seattle is asking the state of Washington and other cities in King County to come to the city’s assistance and step up to the problem in their own communities.
Caring for those who are "out of sight"
Most homeless encampments, in greenbelts or under highways and bridges, are hidden from public view. The troubling reality is that the homeless people in these encampments all too often silently fall victim to crime. In the past three years, Seattle Police have investigated three murders in encampments and responded to reports of sexual assaults, drug crimes and domestic violence. While these victims may be out of sight and many crimes unreported, the city must put a priority on the safety of all residents, including those who are homeless.
Since April, the city has cleaned up about 40 sites involving unauthorized camping and encampments, disposing of more than 50 tons of garbage, including human waste and hundreds of syringes. In 2008, the city enacted a new administrative rule to improve the way it deals with encampments. For the first time, the rule required providing encampment occupants with three days’ advanced notice of a clean up and offering outreach to connect the campers with services and shelter. The city has also provided temporary storage if encampment occupants leave behind any valuable personal items.
As the city cleans encampments, every occupant has been offered a warm, dry place to stay. No one from an encampment who has asked for shelter has been turned away. In 2008, about 80 people have accepted the city’s offer of shelter. To ensure the availability of shelter space for people moving from encampments, Mayor Nickels proposed a new shelter on Roy Street. It opened in the summer of 2008 and is now the second shelter with beds dedicated to helping the homeless transition from encampments. Some residents have transitioned from shelters to more stable housing or to treatment programs.
While some encampment occupants have been reluctant to accept offers of shelter, allowing people to live in unauthorized encampments is neither a safe nor humane approach. From cleaning up encampments to providing services and building permanent solutions through "Housing First," there are many people who have benefitted from the city’s extensive work to fulfill the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. They are today living in a safer, better place.
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