City of Seattle in partnership with King County is opening additional severe weather shelter spaces in City Hall tonight starting at 8 pm. This shelter will be open 24 hours through Monday morning – Please share our updated severe weather shelter flyer for the latest!
**Cross-posted from the Homelessness Response Blog In preparation for forecasted below freezing temperatures and snow over the coming days, the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD), in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR), is opening Bitter Lake and Garfield Community Centers as 24-hour coed severe weather shelters on Thursday, February… [ Keep reading ]
As 2020 comes to a close, I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and as well as one can be in what has surely been one of the more challenging years we have faced as a department. Back in January, we already knew that “change” would be a theme this year. One of the city’s top priorities for the year was to help stand-up and launch the new King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). For HSD, this included transitioning our Homeless Strategy and Investment division staff and contracts to a co-location space with their County peers, followed by CEO on-boarding and development of a staffing plan. While that work has been underway all year, little did we know at the start of 2020 that a global pandemic like nothing seen in at least a century was already underway. Not only did that slow the progress of this work, it lead to most employees shifting to work from home, being reassigned, and changing work plans. Plus significant impacts to our economy and unimaginable changes to how each of us conduct our daily lives. With homelessness response transitioning to the KCRHA, our department planned to spend much of the year redefining how it exists within the human services space. HSD planned to work with staff, service providers, and clients to co-create a roadmap for the future. This work launched in February – during Black History Month – with an understanding that race and social justice should underpin everything that we were going to talk about. The public health crisis forced us to pause that work almost immediately. Little did we know the paradigm shift coming in the summer as the support for Black Lives Matter took on new meaning for our general society and millions more people “awoke” to the understanding that it’s time to rethink how we spend our tax dollars and how our governments respond to the needs of the community. HSD staff and our community partners have been a part of the front-line response to COVID-19, pivoting programs and rising to the many challenges to help those most in need. I am deeply proud of the work we have accomplished together during this crisis. Our mission “to connect people with resources and solutions during times of need so we can all live, learn, work, and take part in strong, healthy communities” took on a much greater sense of urgency in 2020, even as we managed our ongoing work.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the City of Seattle has worked quickly to launch COVID-19 relief programs including rent relief, expanding shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness, grocery vouchers for working families, direct cash assistance for immigrants and refugees, and financial assistance to small businesses. Residents and businesses can find a list of existing COVID-19 relief resources and policies on this website.
The Homeless Strategy & Investment (HSI) Division of the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce the availability of two Request for Qualification (RFQ) processes: 1) 2020 Shelter Surge 2) 2020 Street to Housing Rapid Rehousing
The City of Seattle and King County are opening a temporary shelter to provide respite from unhealthy air conditions. King County is providing the building (1045 6th Ave in SoDo) and HSD will support services via a partnership with Salvation Army. The shelter will serve people experiencing homelessness and living unsheltered. Salvation Army and King County will staff the shelter. The doors will open today at 3:00pm on Friday, September 11, and the shelter will is scheduled to remain open until 8:00 am on Monday, September 14th. The days and time of operation may change based on environmental conditions.
Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) today announced up to $11.6 million in funding for shelter, day-centers, and permanent supportive housing to help pay for costs incurred during the initial phases of the COVID-19 response and to maintain higher-level services throughout the pandemic. To date, these efforts have resulted in new enhanced shelter capacity, the opening of temporary spaces to de-intensify large congregate shelters, the ongoing operation of day-centers, and support to emergency shelters and permanent supportive housing to meet public health requirements. These program modifications have minimized shelter space loss during the pandemic and have helped homeless service programs to operate safely and without the large-scale spread of COVID-19 like many outbreaks seen in other cities. Throughout the City of Seattle homelessness response network, the City’s efforts have resulted in a positivity rate that is consistent with the rate of positive tests across the general population.
The Human Services Department (HSD) has recently released data reports on the City’s Homelessness Response Blog showing the performance of programs that receive City funding and the work of the Navigation Team’s outreach in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Q2 (April – June).
The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department has been on the ground outside and inside the CHOP since June 23 to support the City’s ongoing efforts to keep the area safe. HSD outreach staff and contracted outreach workers were on site providing outreach and social service resources to those living unsheltered or demonstrating. HSD is continuing this outreach following the closure of the CHOP and Cal Anderson Park earlier today. The area in and around Cal Anderson has historically been an area where unsheltered individuals stay overnight. These unsheltered communities have remained in the area throughout the protest. This outreach effort began following conversations between City leaders, CHOP, Black Lives Matter, and other community leaders and organizers, to ensure community members and demonstrators have access to services. June 23 through today, HSD has made 172 engagements (duplicated) with unhoused individuals, 36 referrals to shelter, and 30 connections to service providers. These figures are preliminary and provide a best snapshot of available data. Outreach staff have also made travel arrangements, provided diversion funds such as hotel vouchers and handed out basic needs, including bottled water and snacks.
COVID-19 has left 1.6 million people in Washington state struggling to put food on the table. The need is especially high in parts of Seattle and South King County. For many communities facing food insecurity, their situation has been made even more challenging with meal and food bank programs impacted… [ Keep reading ]
