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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: City of Seattle awards funding for 2006 homeless shelter services
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
12/12/2005 3:30:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alex Fryer (206) 684-8358
David Takami (206) 684-0253
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City of Seattle awards funding for
2006 homeless shelter services
Funding for 2006 shelters increased,
services enhanced
SEATTLE — The City of Seattle Human Services Department has awarded
$6.2 million in competitive shelter and transitional services funding to 14
nonprofit organizations for 2006.
“Mayor Greg Nickels has committed to no loss in city-funded shelter
beds in 2006,” said Patricia McInturff, the human services department’s
director. “Once we negotiate the contracts with the 14 providers, we
will determine what the gap is and issue an RFQ for those services early in
2006.”
Mayor Nickels and the Seattle City Council have already earmarked an additional
$350,000 for a supplemental 2006 shelter bed RFQ (request for qualifications),
bringing the total 2006 amount for shelter funding to $40,000 more than in
2005.
“We are really excited about the programs we will fund in 2006 because
they are specifically designed to carry out the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness — to
begin changing a shelter system to a housing system,” McInturff said. “All
agencies running shelters in 2006 will offer services or referrals to services
that will move homeless persons out of shelters and into transitional or long-term
housing. These services will help them to stabilize their lives, get healthy,
find work, and remain housed permanently.”
The city extended existing 2005 contracts through the first quarter of 2006,
so that there is no change in providers or shelter beds through the winter
season. That leaves $4.67 million in funds for the new nine-month contracts,
which will be in effect April 1 through the end of the year.
While shelter bed funding for April 1-December 31, 2006 was reduced by $310,000
in the initial RFP awarded last week, the mayor and the city council approved
the additional $350,000 in 2006 to maintain shelter capacity and avoid disruption
to the delivery of services as the long transition to a housing system from
a shelter system is begun.
The city has taken other major steps toward implementing the Ten-Year Plan
to End Homelessness, including:
- Dedicating Housing Levy and federal funds to create housing for low-income
and homeless persons. The most recent funding round (spring 2005) will create
171 units that will house homeless persons.
- Funding Connections, a service center to be operated by the Downtown Emergency
Service Center at The Morrison. To open in 2006, Connections will:
- offer a day center, meals, and showers and laundry facilities,
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provide case management services, alcohol and drug treatment assessment and
referral, access to a computer lab, and placement of clients in long-term housing,
and
- refer clients to available shelter beds, vocational training, job placement
services and health care services.
The construction investment is $2.1 million and annual operating costs will
be $1 million.
- Managing the Safe Harbors Homeless Management Information System. Safe Harbors
is a software application that allows agencies providing shelter, housing and
other services to homeless people to collect client and household demographic
information. While individual information is kept confidential, the data are
aggregated to help local governments and service providers understand needs
and trends and improve efforts to move people from homelessness to long-term
housing.
- Investing more than half a million dollars to renovate a floor at City Hall
to create a severe weather shelter where homeless persons can sleep safely
on cold, stormy nights. The shelter space, opened Thanksgiving 2005, is operated
by the Salvation Army.
For more detailed information about the shelter and transitional housing RFP
awards and requirements, visit
www.seattle.gov/humanservices/news/Releases/2006ShelterRFPAwardFactSheetFinal12-09-05.pdf
For more information about the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, visit www.cehkc.org.
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Office of the Mayor
Human Services Department
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