The Seattle City Council has a unique opportunity to make sure vulnerable homeless families and young adults are not living unsheltered this winter. As one of the wealthiest cities in the nation, we can do this! Mayor Ed Murray proclaimed a state of emergency on homelessness last year and recently forwarded his proposed budget to City Council for approval. While his budget includes some increases, the City Council can take more aggressive action to ensure that homeless families with children and young adults are safe and off the streets.
An estimated 3,000 homeless men, women and children were found living on the streets in January’s One Night Count. An additional 120 people, including 50 children and young adults, will become homeless in 2017 if the City Council does not add $219,706 for eight existing homeless housing programs that were cut off from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding.
The Seattle Human Services Coalition is asking the City Council to preserve these successful and longstanding programs. Three of them operated by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and the YWCA provide transitional housing for one to two years for high-need immigrant and refugee families, families of color and survivors of domestic violence. Two programs operated by Compass Housing Alliance and Dove House serve homeless young adults and teens who are survivors of trafficking and sexual assault. The other three programs are sponsored by Asian Counseling and Referral Service, Community Psychiatric Clinic and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Here is one story of a family who lived in LIHI’s Columbia Court:
A family of three are refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia. They came to Seattle from a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Both adult members of the household are disabled. The mother deals with depressive pseudodementia. While it has been a struggle, she tries to remain positive. Their 11-year-old son thrives in school and basketball. While in transitional housing, they pay 30 percent of their income for rent. They were able to receive resources including ESL classes, after-school tutoring, mental health services and healthcare. After signing a one-year lease at Columbia Court, they were able to find permanent affordable housing.
Unfortunately, HUD has been prioritizing the funding of rapid rehousing over transitional housing. Rapid rehousing provides 3 to 6 months of rent subsidies for homeless families to live in market-rate housing, but then the subsidies are withdrawn. Two consultants hired by the mayor also claim it is cheaper than transitional housing. But the local data shows transitional housing is 73 percent successful in getting families to permanent housing whereas rapid rehousing is only 52 percent successful. Under rapid rehousing, a large percentage return to homelessness, become unstably housed, get evicted or become cost-burdened. Rapid rehousing is not cheaper. It costs the city’s general fund about $11,500 per household per year, as the city has to pay market-rate rents to private landlords. These eight programs would cost on average $2,781 per household in 2017 (for a partial year) and $6,304 in 2018 (for a full year).
Rapid rehousing has a disparate negative impact on people of color, as families will be forced to leave Seattle to find lower cost private-market rental housing. This violates the city’s own policies on racial justice and social equity. A letter to the City Council and signed by six executive directors states: “We represent organizations that serve a large population of immigrants, refugees and people of color in Seattle. We wish to express strong opposition to the elimination of transitional housing program in favor of rapid rehousing. ... Rapid Rehousing does not work for the majority of highly vulnerable and chronically homeless populations, especially in a high-cost market like Seattle.”
Please call or email the Seattle City Council this week to include funding in the city budget for existing transitional housing programs by calling 206.684.8888 or emailing
[email protected].
Sharon Lee is the executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute.