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Homelessness
is a race and social justice issue and Housing First is a
racially just solution. In Seattle/King County we have been nationally
recognized for our pioneering efforts in Housing First practice, but we still
have much work to do to bring it to scale. Housing First applies not only to a
single agency or a single intervention in our homeless system, but should be
used as a system approach to equitably making homelessness rare, brief and
one-time.
The U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness is working to make Housing First the primary value that informs every
community’s response to homelessness. In a blog post, Four Clarifications about Housing First, Richard Cho explains that Housing First
is not a “program” but a system orientation and response to homelessness which
starts with housing as a foundation to health, recovery and well-being. The U.S.
Interagency Council on Homelessness also provides a Housing First
Checklist, developed as a
tool communities can use to adopt Housing First across their programs and
overall community response to homelessness.
Housing First focuses on assisting people in
accessing and sustaining permanent housing as quickly as possible. Assisting
everyone on a quick pathway to housing is an issue of race as people of color
are disproportionately represented in the homelessness system and in systems
that lead to or perpetuate homelessness. Locally, we are increasing our
capacity and expanding rapid re-housing across all population groups. Between
2014 and 2015, we rapidly re-housed 1,252 households and 95% of them were still
housed one year later.
Housing First is
person-centered and honors people’s autonomy and choice. Honoring choice
and autonomy in a path back to housing allows each individual’s culture and
unique experiences to serve as platforms to stability. Orienting Coordinated
Entry for All towards person-centered practices offers more options and
flexibility for people experiencing homelessness and allows us as system to
right-size to the needs of our community.
Housing First is trauma-informed and
recovery oriented. Trauma-informed care acknowledges people’s experiences
of trauma, including systemic oppression and the harm caused by racism. Housing
itself creates a platform for recovery, and once housed, individuals and
families can address other needs that promote enduring stabilization. Trauma-Informed
Care, Harm Reduction, Motivational Interviewing, and Cultural Humility are
corner-stones for housing-focused services and our local Capacity
Building Plan highlights training opportunities that embrace these
principles.
Housing First is about being low barrier. Screening
practices that prohibit access to people with criminal backgrounds have disparate
impacts on people of color who are disproportionately represented in the
criminal justice system. Providers are significantly reducing barriers to their
housing programs that not only improves access to the critical services people
experiencing homelessness need, but further fair and equitable housing access for
all.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has launched Rapid Re-Housing Works,
a campaign to help communities focus on the fundamentals of rapid re-housing
and think about new ways to adopt and implement the intervention. Each week
they will release dozens of exciting new tools, resources and thought pieces.
Follow along on their blog,
Twitter and Facebook pages.
The All Home
Coordinating Board recently approved State
Legislative Priorities for the 2017 legislative session. The priorities
were developed by the All Home Policy Sub-committee in close collaboration with
other advocacy and community partners. The priorities address the continued need
for affordable housing, racial equity and sustainable funding to support our
efforts to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Community
Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office released the Salt
Lake City Police Department Homeless Outreach Service Team (HOST) Program
Overview and the Evaluation
of the HOST Program. The HOST program was originally developed
to bring Salt Lake City, Utah police officers and community outreach workers
together to identify homeless individuals who panhandle or engage in other
types of public nuisance activities in the city and connect them to community
resources. The main objectives were to encourage police to make referrals to
services rather than issue citations and to decrease the prevalence of
panhandling by encouraging the public to give money to service providers rather
than directly to panhandlers.
Local governments are responsible for ensuring public safety
and public health, and maintaining public amenities for all residents,
including those housed and homeless. Policies, practices, and ordinances that
disproportionately impact people experiencing homelessness are costly and
create barriers to housing stability. For people surviving without shelter,
these policies, practices, and ordinances may also exacerbate mental and
physical health problems, create or increase criminal records, and result in
the loss of key personal documents that make it even harder for people to exit
homelessness. Approaches that foster collaboration between service providers
and first responders, such as law enforcement, can do more to reduce
homelessness.
The All Home Strategic Plan calls for coordination between
law enforcement officers or other first responders and service providers
similar to the model employed in Salt Lake City. To that end, in March of this
year, All Home, in partnership with the City of Seattle, King County, and the
Sound Cities Association convened law enforcement, first responders and human
services staff from many of the municipalities in King County to foster
collaboration and planning for solutions to the crisis of homelessness.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) is holding a series of webinars for Continuum of Care (CoC)
Collaborative Applicants and providers, Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG)
recipients and sub-recipients, and Housing Opportunities for Persons with Aids
(HOPWA) grantees to educate participants about the requirements of the Equal
Access Rule and Gender Identity Rule and how to ensure that projects operate in
compliance with these rules. This webinar will also provide “LGBT Language 101”
training to aid participants in increasing their knowledge and skills in using
appropriate, inclusive language with all clients they serve. Participants will
be introduced to HUD’s TA materials to aid their compliance efforts, including
a self-assessment tool, staff and volunteer training scenarios,
and a policies and procedures guidebook
(all available on the HUD Exchange LGBT Resource page).
Webinar
Dates:
Monday,
November 14, 2016: 1:00–2:30 PM EST
Wednesday,
November 16, 2016: 2:00–3:30 PM EST
Thursday,
November 17, 2016: 1:00–2:30 PM EST
King County is hosting an Employment Provider Network
Convening on Monday, November 7th from 9:30am-12pm at Work Source in
Renton. This convening is centered around the needs of employment program
providers who serve disconnected young adults, and will include time for
providers to offer feedback and share best practices for training supervisors
on how to best support young adults with high barriers, as well as resource
sharing about youth-friendly employers and industries. Please contact Caitlin
Cordell with any questions, or to RSVP, at caitlin.cordell@kingcounty.gov.
On Tuesday, November 1 from 1:00-5:00 PM at
the 2100 Building (2100 24th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144), join a workshop that
will provide an overview of the legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, promising practices in providing language accessible
services, and best practices when working with interpreters or translating
documents. Facilitator/Trainer Cannon Han is the Senior Project Manager at the
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence. He is responsible for
managing the Interpretation Technical Assistance & Resource Center, which
provides technical assistance and training on complying with Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Space is limited, please
register.
The Mockingbird Society is currently hiring a Public Policy Coordinator to help plan,
strategize, and advocate for important systems-level reforms. The position will
serve as a policy liaison to youth and young adults who serve as advocates, as
well support program teams and external stakeholders (service providers,
coalitions, etc.) who rely on Mockingbird’s expertise to influence policy
changes. The position will also research policy, summarize content, and help
develop innovative ideas for reform. For more information and to apply, visit Mockingbird’s
website.
Plymouth Housing
Group, a non-profit located in Downtown Seattle which provides permanent,
supportive housing to people who have been homeless, is hiring for the
following positions:
Accounting
Manager: The Accounting Manager is responsible
for the accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) processes for the
organization. This position supervises the AP and AR Accountants.
Maintenance
Technician II: The Maintenance Technician II assists with residential unit
turnovers and performs maintenance repairs on building systems at all Plymouth
Housing Group buildings. |
