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Looking Back at 2021 as We Look Forward to 2022

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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 continued to hold a greater sense of urgency in 2021. Over this past year, the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) continued to be one of the largest contributors to Seattle’s safety net, and our staff and community of human service providers continued to be a part of the front-line response to COVID-19. HSD also worked to advance our Mission by adapting programs and rising to challenges to ensure all of our communities have access to the opportunity to thrive. And we couldn’t do it without the partnership and efforts of friends and community members.

As we take on new bodies of work in 2022, we move forward committed to helping people grow up and grow old with opportunity and dignity and will work to support and empower diverse communities across Seattle. We are proud to share some of the highlights from 2021, and we are grateful for the help and hard work many of you provided us to realize these achievements.

COVID-19:

Round sticker design with text I got my COVID-19 Vaccine #BestShotSeattle
  1. Aging & Disability Services (ADS) helped 14,000 clients secure COVID-19 vaccine appointments and 1,350+ in-home vaccine screenings. Staff also assisted in standing up 120 vaccine clinics in SHA building and other community-based locations.
  2. Wellspring reported distributing 70 checks totaling an additional $81,200 in cash assistance from the Hospitality Worker Emergency Relief Fund. The cumulative dispersed amount for the Fund is 1,520 checks totaling $2,023,00 in cash assistance. The total amount dedicated to the Fund is $2,170,000.
  3. Seattle Relief Fund provided over $16 million in direct cash assistance for vulnerable low-income residents impacted by COVID-19.

Preparing Youth for Success:

Tilth Alliance staff and two SYEP interns standing out in a field
  1. Seattle Summer Food Service Program distributed 82,903 meals including lunches, breakfasts, and snacks at 39 sites throughout Seattle, including parks and Seattle Public Schools.
  2. Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) supported 328 paid youth opportunities through its Earn and Learn program and employment internships, which ranged from environmental work to media production and much more.

Supporting Affordability and Livability:

Ad graphic with text including "We're here to help." seattle.gov/UDP
  1. HSD provided funding for 214,549 food bank visits (duplicated) and 1,457,972 meals through meal programs (at PSH, ES, and Community meals).
  2. 7,183 new Utility Discount Program (UDP) customers were enrolled.

Promoting Public Health:

  1. ADS staff helped lead the large-scale transition of the state’s “Get Care” Database which involved training and supporting 132 individuals and 32 agencies.
  2. The nationally recognized Mobile Integrated Health Program partnership continued to increase the service area for Health One and added a second Seattle Fire unit to respond to referrals, and announced the launch of a third unit in 2022.

Addressing Homelessness:

City employees assisting with Exhibition Hall shelter operations
  1. As the Homeless Strategy & Investment (HSI) division moved towards its year-end sunset the team held steady on its commitment to increase access to safer spaces and to keep COVID protections in place across shelters. In 2021, a net 380 new shelter beds were created by year-end, with 350 new 24/7 non-congregate shelter spaces in the last quarter. Currently the City funds approximately 2,800 total shelter spaces, a 700-shelter unit increase over levels at the end of 2020. Additionally, 92% of City-funded shelter spaces are now 24/7 enhanced with wraparound onsite services – this compares to 75% pre-pandemic (Q4 2019).
  2. The team has also been working to close out over 160 contracts that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) will take on starting this month.
  3. And over the course of a nine-day severe weather shelter activation that ended January 3 in response to prolonged cold temperatures and snowy conditions, HSI staff, in partnership with service providers, the KCRHA, volunteers, and City departments, provided a total of 2,116 overnight stays across six emergency shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

Promoting Healthy Aging:

  1. 2,351 people were reached via 22 Age Friendly Seattle virtual events in 2021 as the program continued to support learning and social connection through online programing including Civic Coffee Hours, Close to Home programs, an African American Elders’ Candidates Forum, Memory Sunday Brain Health & Dementia Awareness, and more.

Supporting Safe Communities:

Seattle Great Wheel lit up in purple at night
  1. Work continued in 2021 to stand up our new Safe and Thriving Communities (STC) Division. We hired STC’s first Division Director and acquired two SPD services: Crime Victim Advocates and Victim Support Team. And the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (MODVSA) continued its work after moving into the division.
  2. STC staff conducted several funding processes to invest in community, including:
    • $500,000 in Regional Peacekeepers Collective
    • $600,000 to mitigate increasing gender-based violence during the pandemic

As we look ahead, please join us in celebrating these tremendous contributions and looking forward to what we will achieve together in 2022!

Age Friendly Seattle Adapts to the Virtual Environment

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Virtual Events logo

Age Friendly Seattle has constantly innovated their events to accommodate guests. Prior to the pandemic, they hosted monthly Civic Coffee Hours at downtown locations, including the Seattle Library’s Central Branch. The events educated people of all ages on current happenings and programs serving different needs and emphasized inclusivity. In early 2020, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to orient themselves virtually—something they, and many users, had never done before.

Lenny Orlov, an Age Friendly Seattle Program Coordinator and the host for Age Friendly Seattle’s live and online events, said the events are drastically different than 15 years ago, when they started.

“We often had food—coffee, donuts, or something healthy—to provide in person,” said Orlov. “We devoted half of our time to the presentation and the other half to questions, answers, and feedback. Also, people were able to arrive early and stay later.”

The Coffee Hours started as both “civic participation and social engagement type opportunities,” he continued. “Civic participation continues virtually but … the social aspect was a lot stronger when we met in person.”

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop Age Friendly Seattle from executing monthly meetings to relay helpful information to the public. For Nancy Slote, Older Adults Program Manager at The Seattle Public Library and a recurring guest at the events, providing useful information during these unprecedented times is a key to reaching out to the public.

Screenshot of Nancy Slote, The Seattle Public Library, speaking about the resources available for event viewers at the library

“I think that one of the advantages of the partnership is that the Library and Age Friendly have unique reaches to the public,” Slote said. “The more information we can get out to people, the better.”

Following observation and adaptation, Age Friendly Seattle implemented a second virtual event series in April 2021, called Close to Home: Stories of Health, Tech & Resilience. Close to Home highlights community information. Orlov said the event was intended “for a bigger audience where community leaders and their organizations are showcased alongside of the City’s—we wanted to encourage people to stay home but stay connected and we wanted to keep the community together.”

Throughout their journey, the Age Friendly Seattle team has struggled with accessibility—both hearing access and language access. With limited resources, they couldn’t caption in-person meetings in any language or translate from English to the languages spoken by audience members. Utilizing the tools they had available, Microsoft Teams turned out to be an excellent online resource for auto captions.

“Once we started to reach out to different communities, the events grew,” Orlov mentioned. Age Friendly Seattle received helpful feedback. Now, auto captions are offered in six languages spoken by many of their viewers—English, Russian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese—and they hope to add more in the future.

Screenshot of Age Friendly Seattle Program Coordinator and virtual events host Lenny Orlov talking about featured guests at an upcoming virtual coffee hour.

Over the past year, the Age Friendly Seattle team found their rhythm and is moving forward with determination. One of Orlov’s key skills—learned as a result of the process—is multitasking.

“Delegating is important because a lot happens at once,” he said. “Early on, I had to do everything, including our Q&A portion.”

Orlov also improved his oral skills. Initially, it was difficult to speak without referring to notes, he said. It took a lot of practice not to sound like he was reading a script.

Slote elaborated on this, saying a key skill that she honed while presenting was imagination. “Pretending that you’re talking to somebody in person helps,” she said. “I try to imagine that somebody’s in front of me. That really helps me to be more relaxed and not too formal.”

The Age Friendly Seattle team overcame technical difficulties along their way but have strived to make their events more inclusive and better each time. They plan to move toward “a hybrid state,” where participants can join in person at multiple locations, such as senior living communities or community centers around the city, once the pandemic ends.

Civic Coffee Hours take place on the third Thursday of each month from 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Close to Home events take place on the first Thursday of each month (except December) from 10:30 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Pacific Time. At event time, visit bit.ly/AgeFriendlyLive and click the blue Join Event Now button. For information on other ways to connect, including by telephone, click the green Get Instructions button.

If you miss the live shows, you can visit Age Friendly Seattle’s YouTube playlists for video recordings of prior events.

*Blog post author Jody Wong was an intern with the Seattle Youth Employment Program this summer. She spent six weeks with HSD’s Communications team learning about blogging, editing reports, and helping to support Age Friendly Seattle virtual events. You might have seen her moderating a question!

Area Agency on Aging for Seattle-King County Wins Top National Award

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Aging and Disability Services (ADS), a division of the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) that serves as the Area Agency on Aging for Seattle and King County, received two awards from the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) at a virtual awards program on July 20—one of them the top Innovation Award winner for 2021.

Cover of awards book for n4a Aging Innovations & Achievement Awards

ADS’ Community Living Connections Collaborative Funding Process initially received one of 15 n4a Aging Innovations Awards. The Aging Innovations Award is n4a’s highest award category. During the conference general session that followed, HSD/ADS was announced as the top Innovation Award winner for 2021 and the recipient of a $2,500 prize.

Age Friendly Live—live and online events coordinated by the Age Friendly Seattle team at ADS—received one of 21 n4a Aging Achievement Awards announced at the conference.

The 2021 n4a Aging Innovations and Achievement Awards recognize AAAs and Title VI Native American Aging Programs that develop and implement cutting-edge approaches to support older adults, people with disabilities and their family caregivers. Among the selection criteria was the ease with which other agencies could replicate the program in their communities. N4a published program descriptions in its 2021 Awards Book.

Per the n4a media release, “With service gaps, no additional money to bring new providers on board and a need for an even stronger focus on meeting the Seattle Human Services Department, Aging and Disability Services’ (ADS) racial equity goals, ADS devised the Collaborative Funding Process. The Collaborative Funding Process is a new approach that enables community-based agencies to determine how they will collectively deliver services. Unlike a traditional funding process where the AAA or, in this agency’s case, a panel, makes funding recommendations, collaborative funding means agencies work together to decide funding allocations and service expectations. Over seven months, participating agencies met with a racial equity consultant as they identified funding and service delivery levels for each network provider agency.”

“The 2018–2019 Collaborative Funding Process resulted in over $3.7 million in 19 provider contracts that began in January 2020, including contracts with five new providers,” said Mary Mitchell, interim Aging and Disability Services division director. “Collaboration enabled the network to support new agencies serving LGBTQ and south Asian elders and African American caregivers without adding more money. The network also gained greater capacity to serve south county residents, where needs are greatest; offered improved access to transportation services; and improved network communication overall.”

Age Friendly Live comprises two ongoing online event series—Civic Coffee Hours and Close to Home—and other events designed to reduce social isolation and increase opportunities for civic participation among older people. According to the Age Friendly Seattle 2020 Annual Report, more than 6,400 people participated in Age Friendly Live events or viewed them later on the ADS YouTube channel last year.

“Over the past two years, through intentional outreach to immigrants and refugees, simultaneous interpretation during in-person events, and online event streaming with auto-captioning in a choice of world languages, we saw exponential growth in the number of participants,” said Mitchell. “In 2019, staff intentionally sought out immigrant and refugee older adults, starting with outreach to Russian- and Amharic-speaking communities, and arranged for simultaneous translation during in-person events (with interpreters speaking into a transmitter and guests wearing headphones ADS). Later that year, ADS received requests for interpretation in Khmer and Vietnamese as well. When audiences began to exceed room capacity, staff reached out to The Seattle Public Library, which joined us as a co-sponsor, made larger meeting spaces available, and increased outreach to older Seattle residents.”

“Then, COVID-19 stay-at-home orders presented an additional challenge,” Mitchell said. “How could we offer online events that supported our multicultural audience? Staff studied options for live streaming in multiple languages as well as captioning for people who are hard of hearing. They selected Microsoft Teams Live—a webinar platform that provides captioning in multiple languages and retains language choice in video recordings.”

“We also recognized the risk of social isolation during the pandemic, so staff created Close to Home: Stories of Health, Tech & Resilience, a second series intended to reach older people who were confined at home,” said Mitchell. “Every program included local COVID information and public library resources as well as Community Living Connections services that we fund. Once we return to in-person events, we expect to offer a choice between in-person attendance and online viewing.”

To ease online program access for individuals who are uneasy about joining online events, Age Friendly Seattle promotes a single web link. Each program is promoted through e-mail and social media, emphasizing language access. A phone option is available for people without Internet and Seattle Channel TV now broadcasts recordings in the weeks that follow.

Earlier this year, Age Friendly Seattle received an American Society on Aging Award for Excellence in Multicultural Aging in recognition of their intentional outreach to immigrant elders.

For information about upcoming Age Friendly Live events and links to past programs, visit seattle.gov/agefriendly/events.

Need aging or disability resources? To access local services, call Community Living Connections at (toll-free) 844-348-5464. Calls are confidential and free of charge.

Age Friendly Seattle 2020 Annual Report

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Click on image to view the report

The Seattle Human Services Department is pleased to present Age Friendly Seattle’s 2020 Annual Report, highlighting accomplishments from the past year.

In addition, please read Age Friendly Seattle program manager Brent Butler’s article in the March issue of AgeWise, the monthly e-zine published by the Seattle-King County Advisory Council on Aging & Disability Services, “Age Friendly Seattle Increases Access and Inclusion Despite COVID.”

I appreciate the contributions from so many staff across City departments, including those who participated in Age Friendly Seattle’s online Civic Coffee Hours and their newest series, Close to Home:

  • Department of Neighborhoods
  • Finance and Administrative Services/Customer Service Bureau
  • Office of Emergency Management
  • Office of Immigrant & Refugee Affairs
  • Office of Labor Standards
  • Seattle Parks and Recreation
  • Public Health — Seattle & King County
  • Seattle Department of Human Resources
  • Seattle Information Technology
  • Seattle Public Library
  • Seattle Public Utilities

All told, through live attendees and video-recordings, these programs reached 6,440 views last year, including immigrants and refugees who were able to use in-language auto-captioning. Visit the Aging King County YouTube channel to watch captioned videos of these programs and more!

Special thanks to Age Friendly Seattle for excellent work, and our Aging and Disability Services division for assembling the report.

Helen Howell, Interim Department Director

What a Year! Thank you.

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*UDP Enrollment numbers were updated after publication.

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 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 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.

Human Services Department (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.

COVID-19:

Image of the Food Resources Map
  1. In March, HSD’s Data, Performance, and Evaluation (DPE) team built an interactive map of food bank and meal programs operating in Seattle and King County. It is available to the public and provides up-to-date details for these resources. To date, the site has over 34,000 views and is updated on a regular schedule.
  2. HSD successfully redeployed approximately 130 employees throughout the department to fulfill mission priority work related to food distribution, set-up of emergency shelters in City-owned buildings, and shelter staffing support including overnight shifts. Staff also provisioned over $600,000 in PPE, sanitation supplies, and to-go food distribution supplies for emergency feeding providers.
  3. HSD helped our community partners respond to the pandemic by supporting multiple capital projects: including construction of three new childcare facilities to support families with low-incomes, relocation of the ROOTS youth shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supporting relocation and expansion of the Ballard Food Bank facility.
  4. Our staff oversaw the implementation of two rounds of CDBG and ESG CARES Act emergency funding, working across six departments and the Mayor’s office to maximize impact, and managed 10 new COVID response funding sources totaling almost $50M of increased budget to aid in the City’s pandemic response.
  5. Over $8M in state and federal funds was awarded to providers for COVID response to BIPOC communities, free and reduced lunch students, people experiencing homelessness, and more, working with partners like the National Guard and the United Way of King County.

Preparing Youth for Success:

  1. A new public awareness campaign was launched in partnership with The Vida Agency – “Be Ready. Be Hydrated. / Prepárate. Hidrátate.” – which promoted healthy choices to counter sugary beverage marketing tactics aimed at youth of color. It was funded by the Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax. 
  2. Seattle Youth Employment Program (SYEP) developed a Summer Virtual Job Readiness Program pilot for over 200 youth in collaboration with Seattle Parks and Recreation and Seattle Police Department. The workshops included teambuilding, time management, problem solving, growth mindset, resumé and cover letter writing, interviewing, and certifications in First Aid/CPR and Food Handling. Participants earned a stipend of up to $599.

Supporting Affordability and Livability:

  1. 11,137 households were enrolled in the Utility Discount Program (UDP) through the COVID-19 online self-certification form through 1/03/21. The total number of households benefiting from UDP now exceeds over 40,000.

Promoting Public Health:

  1. The nationally-recognized Mobile Integrated Health Program partnership increased the service area for Health One and now allows any Seattle Fire unit to make a referral. 

Addressing Homelessness:

Nav Team members prepare hygiene kits
  1. HSD provided additional funds to our homeless service providers through an emergency funding process to support unanticipated costs due to COVID-19. We funded shelter programs, day/hygiene centers, and Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) sites. These funds allowed for program modification and physical layout of program spaces to be COVID-compliant. 
  2. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early March through September, HSD’s Navigation Team engaged over 2,300 individuals experiencing homelessness, made over 670 site visits for outreach, conducted over 1,650 encampment litter/debris pickups, and made over 610 shelter referrals. 
  3. The Navigation Team had over 5,400 conversations about COVID-19 with people experiencing homelessness, provided over 2,600 hygiene kits, distributed over 2,300 COVID-19 and Hepatitis A related public health fliers, and handed out over 1,100 boxed meals. 
  4. Over five days of outreach in September during the wildfire smoke emergency, Navigation Team System Navigators conducted 217 needs assessments, distributed 219 emergency shelter flyers, provided 178 basic needs items, made 32 referrals into the emergency smoke shelter and 30 referrals into other City-funded shelter programs. 

KCRHA:

  1. Three governance committees for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) have been formed: Governing Committee (GC); Implementation Board (IB), and; Continuum of Care (CoC) Board. This included hiring Lived Experience (LE) Coalition staff, Johnathan Hemphill, to support the LE representatives at all levels of the governance structure. Joint meetings/trainings were also conducted focusing on racial justice.
  2. The new regional homelessness authority also established operational functions to support KCRHA employees and business operations (e.g. retirement, accounting and payroll services, insurance, and health benefits) and initiated recruitment for a CEO, including a final job description announcement and recruitment packet.

Promoting Healthy Aging:

Virtual Events logo
  1. Early on in 2020, HSD was tasked with creating an action plan to manage the impacts of the pandemic on the vulnerable communities we work with. Aging and Disability Services division staff increased nutrition services by expanding delivery and mobile options to meet growth due to COVID and provided new guidelines and other support for our community provider network. Staff also pivoted in-home supports, offering online and telephonic services that helped keep over 12,000 community long-term care clients safe.
  2. Staff also supported social and civic engagement by moving Age Friendly Seattle programs online, creating a weekly virtual event series, coordinating a variety of other special events, and establishing an Aging King County YouTube channel featuring event recordings with closed captioning.

Supporting Safe Communities:

Young woman dressed in purple with a purple witch's hat on her head
  1. As part of our Domestic Violence Awareness Month social media campaign, and to take advantage of a rare fifth #PurpleThursday in October, our staff and friends decided to join with some other DV awareness programs around the country in also promoting a Purple Pumpkin decorating challenge. Here are some of the results.
  2. As Mayor Jenny A. Durkan said recently, this year also brought “a civil rights reckoning that demanded our city address systemic injustices in policing, housing, health care, and education.” Because of changes to how our City addresses Public Safety, the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (MODVSA) recently welcomed 13 colleagues from the Seattle Police Department to be part of the Crime Survivor Services Unit.

    The Crime Survivor Services Unit’s focus is victim advocacy, providing immediate support to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, child abuse, violent crimes, and homicides. In addition, MODVSA also welcomed five new MSW Interns who are working with the MODVSA Manager on investment, program, and policy research.
  3. This new unit within the MODVSA, as well as the Office itself, will be part of something new in 2021, as HSD staff work through feedback gathered at the community forum series we recently held to help stand up its new Safe and Thriving Communities Division. This new division will respond to community requests for the City of Seattle to shift funding away from traditional police response and reinvest in community building efforts using nearly $22 million in annual investments.

As we look to 2021, we know that much of the public health response will continue for some time. We also know the challenging work we planned for this year will need to resume in the months to come.

Please join me in celebrating these tremendous contributions toward our department results. Thank you for continuing to rise to the challenge of making a positive difference in people’s lives!

Your Partner,

Jason Johnson,
Acting Director

Age Friendly Seattle Virtual Events

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Graphic image showing Age Friendly Seattle logo on a laptop sitting ona desktop with a cup of steaming hot beverage next to it

Age Friendly Seattle virtual events—Civic Coffee Hours and a new series, Close to Home: Stories of Health, Tech and Resilience—offer older adults in the greater Seattle area a weekly opportunity to stay connected. You’ll learn how local government, nonprofit organizations, and community members cope with the “new normal” of COVID-19 and a wealth of other topics. Join us to get this valuable information, ask questions, and get answers!

All events start at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time and are accessible by visiting our Virtual Events hub that has everything you’ll need to participate online (use the blue “Join Event Now” button) or by phone (use the green “Get Instructions” button). If you join on your computer, you’ll have a choice of closed captioning in Arabic, Chinese, English, Korean, Russian, Spanish or Vietnamese.

Close to Home program logo

Close to Home: Stories of Health, Tech and Resilience is a new series of programs that stream live on the first, second, and fourth Thursday of every month, featuring information and resources for older people, caregivers, and their families. Presenters include government, nonprofit, and community representatives.

Age Friendly Seattle’s popular Civic Coffee Hours now stream live on the third Thursday of each month (except December), continuing to provide a platform for community elders to interact with government decision makers. A broad range of issues have been discussed over the years (see previous events at the bottom of the Virtual Events page). 

If you cannot attend the live virtual events on Thursday mornings, you can find previously streamed episodes in the Virtual Events playlist on our YouTube channel—with captions in all seven languages. When you visit, please Subscribe (and click the bell to be notified) of new episodes as soon as they are uploaded.

Detailed instructions are also provided on Age Friendly Seattle’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. We look forward to connecting with you soon!

COVID-19 & Seattle Human Services’ Mission: To connect people with resources and solutions during times of need

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Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 public health crisis, the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department continues to live out its 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. The work the department does has changed dramatically, with many employees stepping up to meet new challenges, volunteering, and working long hours. Here is a recap of what the team has been up to.  

SHELTER 

Homeless Strategies and Investments staff worked around the clock to set up and staff de-intensifying shelters at community centers, Seattle Center, and with youth providers to help create hundreds of safer spaces for people to stay during the crisis. HSI has also opened more shelter capacity through a new tiny house village, expanding an existing village, and opening an enhanced shelter. These new resources account for at least 95 new spaces for people living unsheltered during COVID-19 and beyond.    

The Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault has also been working with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) to understand the root cause behind the increase of reported domestic violence and sexual assault cases and make sure survivors have a safe place to go.   

FEEDING 

Food access is a major barrier for the communities we serve during COVID-19. HSD’s Aging and Disability Services division received nearly $5M of emergency federal funding to feed older adults by shifting congregate meal delivery, expanding home-delivered meal programs, and providing flexible funding to fill other feeding gaps.   

The Youth and Family Empowerment division has been coordinating key staff around the department on feeding plans for the City. This week, the Food Task Force submitted a federal application to receive FEMA funding to help provide thousands of food boxes for food banks.  

Image of the Food Resources Map

To help the public locate food resources available during this public health emergency, an interactive map has been developed by HSD staff. The map shows the locations of Food Banks, Meals, and Student To-Go Meals, and can be filtered by status with options to reflect those open, those with limited operations, and those whose status is unknown. 

DIRECT SERVICES  

The direct services the department provides during COVID-19 are even more essential during this crisis.  

Between March and April, Youth and Family Empowerment staff, with Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities, created a web-based self-certification, or “fast-track,” form for the Utility Discount Program (UDP). Income-eligible residential customers can now access heavily discounted utilities by simply signing a short web form that attests to their household income, without having to provide income documentation for each of their household members. This expansion helped increase the UDP’s enrollment by 27%, with staff moving quickly to process nearly 7,000 new applications. This increase shows how important this critical support is for households during these uncertain economic times. 

The Seattle Youth Employment Program team also had to move quickly to transition over 100 youth to online learning. 

Aging and Disability Services case managers in Seattle and Renton, along with partner agencies, completed wellness calls with almost all 12,000 clients. This was a monumental task that helped us clarify which clients were at greatest risk and needed us to triage in-home care for them. Case managers are also helping transition people out of hospital care faster to help limit a surge in hospitalizations.   

The Navigation Team is one of the few remaining outreach teams working in the field. The team has been focused on outreach seven days a week, distributing 1,600 hygiene kits and 1,400 public health flyers, making over 660 site visits, and making close to 3,000 contacts in the field. The team worked closely with people living unsheltered in Ballard during not only COVID-19, but also a hepatis A outbreak, helping to connect people to vaccines and hygiene services.  

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT  

A special thank you to all HSD employees who were re-deployed to support shelter shifts in the City’s de-intensifying shelters at Miller and Garfield community centers, with many covering multiple shifts per week including weekday, weekend, and overnight shifts. 

Jill Watson manages to connect the myriad efforts at HSD with those happening at the Office of Emergency Management, the County, the State and in the provider network. Great job for helping to get much-needed National Guard support for the city!  

And last but not least, a big thank you to Terri Croft, who made hundreds of face masks for HSD employees to use out in the field. Thank you for helping keep us and the people we serve safer.   

Next Thursday, 5/16: Coffee with the Department of Neighborhoods!

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Join us for coffee and conversation with Andrés Mantilla, Director, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Thursday, May 16 10:00–11:00 a.m. The Central Building 810 3rd Avenue 1st Floor Conference Room (between Columbia & Marion in downtown Seattle)
Click above to view the flier

Join us for coffee and conversation with Andrés Mantilla on Thursday, May 16, 10:00–11:00 a.m. at The Central Building, 810 3rd Avenue, 1st Floor Conference Room (between Columbia & Marion in downtown Seattle).

Seattle Department of Neighborhoods provides resources and opportunities for community members to build strong communities and improve their quality of life. Director Andrés Mantilla will address how the Department interacts with older adults and elevates their concerns to City decision making.

New for 2019! Subscribe to “Aging King County” on YouTube to view short video stories (“vlogs”) about each coffee hour: bit.ly/ADSonYouTube. Share them with anyone you think might be interested! For questions about accessibility or to request an accommodation, contact Lenny Orlov (206-386-1521 or agefriendly@seattle.gov) at least three days prior to the event.

Age Friendly Seattle Coffee Hours are held on the third Thursday of every month at the Central Building and on other dates in Seattle neighborhoods.

The events bring community elders closer to City officials to explore topics of interest. Presentations often include cutting edge information about healthy aging, legal and planning issues, and more.

Participants learn about City programs and services, and officials hear from their constituents. Coffee and refreshments are served. Visit the Age Friendly Seattle website to learn more — www.seattle.gov/agefriendly