The King County Regional Homelessness Authority says Seattle’s overnight shelters were able to stay below maximum capacity during late December’s bout of ice and snow including Seattle’s “coldest day in 23 years.”
The report delivered at Wednesday’s Seattle City Council meeting of the body’s Public Assets and Homelessness Committee said the city’s six overnight shelters with 374 beds operated between 65% and 77% full during the freezing holiday week from December 23rd to January 3rd. Its regional numbers with a total of 27 sites and 290 beds outside Seattle reported totals around 80% capacity during the same period.
Meanwhile, organizers say the encampments along Washington State Department of Transportation property at the Melrose and Olive onramp to I-5 have been targeted for clearance. CHS has asked WSDOT and the city’s Human Services Department for more information.
UPDATE: A HSD spokesperson said any activity at Melrose and Olive does not involve city resources. We’re checking for more information from WSDOT.
UPDATE x2: A WSDOT representative said the clearance taking place through the day Thursday is being undertaken by a contractor tasked with making the onramp safe by clearing the right of way. The state procedure requires notifying the city and Seattle Police but does not involve notification of people in encampments or outreach related to shelter and services. The representative said the onramp clearance was scheduled to be completed Thursday.
Wednesday’s Regional Homelessness Authority report (PDF) is part of new processes as management of the city’s homelessness crisis is increasingly transitioned to the newly formed authority. The new regional entity also means new measurements. Earlier this month, CHS reported on new methods to better count the area’s population of people who have experienced homelessness. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority says it is leaving behind an old, ineffective one-night method for a new approach that takes the full year into account and better includes those living with mental illness and addiction. Officials now estimate more than 40,000 people were homeless in King County at some point in 2020.
According to authority’s report, the biggest challenges for getting people into shelter during the winter storm was transportation, providing adequate staffing, meal preparation, and continued efforts to make shelter environments as safe as possible under COVID-19 precautions.
The authority says it is developing emergency management protocols and identifying emergency funds for future severe weather events.
The new regional authority says it now has 32 employees and is adding more with 66% of its $162.4 million funding coming from Seattle.
In addition to working with the authority, the Harrell administration has put forward a homelessness agenda centered around housing and also elements like “a capital campaign” supported by charitable giving from the private sector, not new taxes. Harrell also has said parks and streets should be cleared of encampments with increased outreach effort from workers to provide shelter and services.
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Well, it’s nice to know that the shelters were operating at less than 80% while a person camping at Seven Hills Park had to have his toes amputated due to exposure. Great work, City of Seattle, providing resource to those in need. (sarcasm)
Sure that one didn’t refuse services? That’s a common thread amongst the campers.
So, when does the accountability actually happen? $162 million and zero success in sight at improving the problem?? But hey, at least CEO Marc Dones is getting paid well to tweet about his feelings and his work-out routines.
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority is just now starting its work, and this is a transition time for Seattle to transfer its efforts on this issue to the Authority. I think the KCRHA deserves a little time to show what they can do, so your criticism is premature.
Premature, lol, you must be new to the city. Ed Murray declared homelessness a state of emergency in the city in 2015, over 6 years ago, and we’ve been dumping hundreds of millions of dollars in to failed policies, NGOs, and government agencies every year since then, and it’s only gotten worse. KCRHA is just the latest iteration of the same failing policies being pushed by the same old people. You can give them as much time as you want but they won’t actually accomplish anything. The only thing that’s proving to actually be able to drive real change is to vote differently. Bruce Harrell’s willingness to sweep encampments is the only thing that has changed in the cities approach to homelessness in the last 6+ years.
I’ve lived here my whole life. I agree that Seattle government has utterly failed to address the homelessness problem. But the KCRHA is a very new approach (it’s not necessarily “same old, same old”) and I am hopeful that it will make a difference…along with a tougher approach by Bruce Harrell.
Hasn’t Dones been there for a year already?