 King County has just launched their first ever King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan.
This Plan builds on much of the good work that the County and partners have
been doing to advance equity in our region while also pushing us to become more
thoughtful, strategic and effective. Many leaders nationally and locally have praised the plan as ground-breaking and as a
model for tackling inequities at the local and regional level.
King County is moving towards becoming a racially-just
organization, while also being increasingly inclusive, collaborative and
people-focused. Particularly important is the investment in employees and
working to create an equitable, inclusive and racially-just workplace culture
so that each employee feels valued, is treated with dignity and is supported to
grow and do their best work. Removing barriers to employment and retention is
imperative to having a racially-diverse organization at all levels and a
workforce that is culturally responsive to all communities.
Equity and Social Justice strategies at King County include
investing upstream and where needs are greatest, in employees and in community
partnerships. The
Pro-Equity Policy Agenda is expanding access to opportunity and our
determinants of equity in areas such as transportation, environment and
climate, health and human services, digital equity and more and advancing pro-equity
policies, systems and practices in areas like governance, workforce, plans and
budgets.
The plan is action-oriented and specific. It’s a six-year
plan with regularly measured progress adjustment to ensure meaningful movement
towards the goals. Learn more about the King County Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan.
The homeless state of emergency in Seattle and King County
demands urgent and bold action. Last week, the City of Seattle, King County,
United Way of King County, and All Home released consultant reports which
recommended changes to our homeless crisis response system. We are committed to
significant data driven changes to our current approach. We will house people
experiencing homelessness quickly, and help them stabilize and stay in housing.
While the reports suggest that unsheltered homelessness
could be addressed with no additional funding if all recommended changes are
made, they also make clear that new and expanded investments in best practices
are necessary, including shelter diversion, rapid rehousing, affordable
housing, and permanent supportive housing.
The magnitude of the crisis of 10,000 people in our
community experiencing homelessness daily means changes will take time and
resources. Our region is facing a housing affordability crisis, where rents in
Seattle have risen 49% and 48% in King County over the last 5 years. Our
ability to reduce homelessness, therefore, is heavily reliant on sustaining and
growing state and federal investments in homeless assistance as well as
affordable housing and supportive services, including:
- Homeless crisis
response services to get people off the street and rapidly into housing.
- Permanent
supportive housing to stabilize people with disabilities experiencing chronic
homelessness.
- Affordable
housing to help formerly homeless families and individuals achieve stability.
- Behavioral health
services to provide adequate care for those in crisis and long-term stability
for people with chronic disabilities.
We will soon communicate our
priorities for the 2017 state legislative session. Our agendas are likely to
include effective approaches already supported by the State:
- Significant
investment in the Housing Trust Fund.
- Renewal and
expansion of Document Recording Fees.
- Implementation of
the Medicaid Supportive Housing benefit.
- Local affordable
housing options.
- Robust investment
in the behavioral health system.
Seattle and King County
now have the most thorough and comprehensive understanding of our homeless
crisis response system. We are committed to supporting those experiencing
homelessness, and believe our new approach is an example of good local
government that responds to requests made by the legislature and other public
and philanthropic funders to make homelessness rare, brief and one-time. For
more information on the systems transformation, visit the All Home website.
The King County Homeless
Housing System Performance dashboards on the All Home website have been
updated to reflect the projected number of households our community needs to
house each quarter. This housing gap model tracks our progress toward
functional zero, meaning the number of newly homeless people coming into our
system is equal to the number of people being exited into permanent housing.
The quarterly housing placement target is based on the goal of ending
homelessness in King County by 2020, in accordance with the Federal Strategic
Plan.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Raikes
Foundation today announced a new partnership to help Washington’s 35,000
homeless students find the support and stability they need to thrive. The two
foundations have joined with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the
Campion Foundation to collectively commit $1.86 million to the effort, known as
Schoolhouse Washington. Non-profits Building Changes and Columbia Legal
Services will lead the partnership’s work to fund and advocate for innovative
approaches that support students experiencing homelessness, their families, and
their schools.
The number of K-12 students who experience homelessness in
Washington’s public schools has grown by 111 percent since the 2006-2007 school
year. The total number is now enough to fill 500 school buses. This includes a
disproportionate number of black/African-American and Alaskan Native/American
Indian students, who are three times more likely to experience homelessness
than their white peers. Historically, only half of students who experience
homelessness graduate high school on time—a rate lower than all groups other
than students in foster care.
“We have an undeniable window of opportunity to reverse the
trend on student homelessness in Washington. There’s a growing need for action
and our state has the cross-sector support it will take to be a trailblazer for
the nation on the issue,” said Tricia Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes
Foundation. “Schoolhouse Washington is philanthropy’s commitment to
capitalizing on this opportunity and we know it will take a collective effort.
We’ll be looking to schools, service providers and community partners for
promising ideas that move the needle for students facing homelessness.”
Schoolhouse Washington’s work to incubate promising
practices will be managed by Building Changes, which works across the state to
make youth and family homelessness rare and brief. Funding for this aspect of
Schoolhouse Washington will initially focus on schools and service providers in
King County. Building Changes will also partner with Columbia Legal Services to
advocate throughout the state for effective policies on student
homelessness—something the organization has done under the Schoolhouse
Washington brand in the past.
"When an average of one child in every
Washington classroom is homeless, it's clearly time to change course,” said
Helen Howell, executive director of Building Changes. “We know schools are
doing creative, resourceful work to find and help these students and their
families get back on their feet—but they're doing it in isolation. Schoolhouse
Washington will shine a light on what's working, and spread smart and effective
solutions to more cities and communities."
Schoolhouse Washington’s ongoing work will be shared broadly
through SchoolhouseWA.org and BuildingChanges.org.
Today Mayor Ed Murray announced a new partnership between the City of
Seattle, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and Seattle Public Schools (SPS)
to provide stable housing for SPS families with school-age children, ensuring
an uninterrupted school year and educational consistency. This partnership will
begin as a pilot project at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School this year, where
17 percent of the students are homeless or unstably housed.
The Home from School pilot will offer assistance to families to
find a stable home, get back on their feet and keep their children
at Bailey Gatzert all year. To accomplish this goal, SHA will
contract with a service provider to provide outreach, enrollment, and pre and
post-move support, including services such as housing research, assistance with
barriers to leasing and connecting families to neighborhood resources and
services.
More than 80
percent of students at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School qualify for Free
and Reduced Priced Lunch and a significant number of these students have
experienced complex trauma including housing instability and homelessness. The 2014-2015 student turnover rate for Bailey
Gatzert Elementary School was 31 percent.
Participation
in the program will be voluntary and priority will be given to families
experiencing homelessness. This pilot initiative will begin at Bailey Gatzert
Elementary School in the Yesler neighborhood, but if results are promising SHA
may in the future expand the initiative to different schools in different
neighborhoods.
New changes in federal law could lead to more housing opportunities for
foster youth leaving care. The recently enacted Housing Opportunity Through
Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA), includes:
- Increasing eligibility to youth who are within 90 days of leaving
foster care and who are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness.
- Increasing the length of assistance from 18 to 36 months. This change applies to youth currently
receiving FUP assistance as well as any new participants.
- Increasing the maximum age of eligibility from 21 to 24 years old.
- Requiring HUD to issue guidance to improve coordination between
PHAs and public child welfare agencies.
“We are incredibly excited about these changes, which will
allow us to more effectively serve young people at risk of homelessness,” said Brooke Knight, Executive Director of
Accelerator Y, who administers 15 FUP vouchers locally. FUP vouchers are also
accessible through YouthCare and Children’s Administration.
At the beginning of September YouthCare, in partnership with
Friends of Youth, Auburn Youth Resources, New Horizons, and the Accelerator YMCA,
launched an innovative new early intervention and homelessness prevention
program called Young Adult Diversion.
Staff at these five partner agencies work with young people – ages 18-24 who
are newly accessing services or already enrolled in programming – to identify
viable alternatives to entering the homeless housing system. Staff can then
provide financial support to implement the alternatives, and may also provide
referrals to other services such as employment training or case management.
To make a referral to a partner agency, please call the
Young Adult Diversion hotline at 206-388-4533 or email diversion@youthcare.org.
The All Home Stakeholder Meeting on Wednesday, September 21
will provide the first quarterly review of Coordinated Entry for All (CEA),
with data from the King County Performance Measurement and Evaluation (PME)
Unit, and guidance from the All Home Data and Evaluation Sub-Committee. The
evaluation framework includes metrics for rare, brief, and one-time with data
disaggregated by population group, race, and ethnicity, among other
characteristics. All Home will work in a collaborative partnership with King
County to explore and recommend changes to CEA and guide system improvement
work. Information about location and time of the meeting is available here.
Join a discussion, conversation and Q&A with members of
Real Change’s Homeless Speakers Bureau on September 16 at 1:00pm in the
Auburn Senior Activity Center (808 9th St. SE) Millennium
Room, as they talk about their personal experiences with homelessness.
The goal of this program is to help educate the public, facilitate conversation
and inspire social action.
The City of Seattle Human
Services Department (HSD) is seeking a seasoned Federal Grants Manager to join the Community Support
& Assistance Division. Reporting to the Division Director, this position
provides leadership and planning expertise within a Department committed
connecting Seattle's most vulnerable populations to a full range of
community-based human services. The Federal Grants Manager is responsible for
the management of Seattle's federal Community Development Block Grant program,
including managing Consolidated Plan development, implementation and reporting
processes. The position ensures compliance with all federal rules and
regulations applicable to the CDBG program. As lead for the Consolidated Plan,
the Manager is also responsible for ensuring adherence to the policy and
reporting requirements for the HOME program, Emergency Solutions Grant program,
and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program and is the point of
contact with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for questions
or inquiries about these programs. Included in the CDBG Administration Unit are
various projects that fund capital improvements for child care and other social
services providers using CDBG and other City-generated funds.
More information is available here.
The Sophia Way is hiring full-time staff for the single
adult women's Emergency Winter Shelter for the 2016-2017 season (October
through May.) Shifts are overnight and may include weekends. Schedule to be
determined with EWS manager. Compensation is $16/hour plus benefits including
medical, dental, IRA, and a team of dedicated co-workers. See the full position
description here.
To apply, please send a resume and cover letter to Tara
Noyes, Operations Manager at tara@sophiaway.org.
No phone calls, please.
Together Center offers below-market lease rates and multiple
shared resources to nonprofit health, housing and human service agencies in
Redmond. Larger spaces are rarely available, but there is currently a 2,687
square feet suite available January 1. (A 954 square foot suite may be added to
this if more space is desired). There are also newly created 705 square foot office
spaces available to lease now. More information is available here. |
