(Image: JustCARE)
By Hannah Saunders
As the effort to address the homelessness crisis across Seattle and around Puget Sound shifts to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, funding for the the Public Defender Association-led JustCARE shelter program will continue.
“JustCARE entails both a field-based engagement and intake strategy, and then it wouldn’t mean anything to do the work that we do if we didn’t have places for people to go that meet the needs of many of the folks who have historically been rebuffed by the sheltering system,” said Lisa Daugaard, director of JustCARE.
The authority included funding from federal and local sources to extend the JustCARE program but officials are still working out how — and if — there is a way to come up with the $10 million a year the program needs to continue.
JustCARE focuses on those who have been exposed to police enforcement and prosecution relating to behavioral health issues or poverty, which Daugaard believes would be better addressed through care, case management, and support.
Daugaard explained how since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has seen sudden displacement of Seattle residents onto the city’s streets. She described how at the start of 2020, jails ceased booking people and police officers were instructed—for their personal health and safety—to not make contact unless during a high priority situation.
Meanwhile, restrictions closed numerous homeless shelters operating in Seattle, as well as public spaces such as community centers and libraries.
“Overnight, we saw this displacement of a large population of people into the street,” said Daugaard. “At the same time, over the coming months, the anxiety and desperation of life and everything was so precarious and there was almost no legal employment available, and as we’ve seen nationwide, a lot of people started relying more and more on drugs and alcohol to numb their anxiety.”
According to Daugaard, many in the population must make a living in the informal economy, by selling drugs, sex, and stolen property.
“We saw that in the spring and summer of 2020 and recognized that if we did not do something in response to that situation that was based in shelter and housing and care and case management and trauma recovery, then it was an intolerable situation,” said Daugaard.
“Almost everybody who came into the JustCARE hotel shelters—100% of our folks have substance abuse disorders and a lot of people have diagnosed or undiagnosed mental health disorders.”
The program seeks to assist individuals who have experienced long periods of homelessness; individuals with unsupported mental health and trauma; individuals with unsupported substance abuse disorder; and individuals with legal system involvement.
Primary neighborhoods the program focuses on are Chinatown and the International District, Pioneer Square, and the Downtown Corridor. According to JustCARE, 68% of participants identify as BIPOC.
Among its successes, the program lists one of Seattle’s most challenging encampments. JustCARE says of the 426 people it contacted for shelter and services at City Hall Park, only six declined help. City programs typically run around a 50% decline rate.
But due to the intense outreach, public safety resources, and housing costs involved, the program is expensive.
While the regional authority partially funded JustCARE’s existing programs, the Public Defenders Association must figure out how to fund another 150 JustCARE clients currently living in five hotels. Current funding for the program runs out at the end of June.
“I think councilmembers were hoping to have a clear understanding of what would be lost if we don’t have a continuation,” said Daugaard. “It’s really up to the mayor to decide whether to continue this because the mayor is managing a really complex budget.”
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So I’m super confused by the first paragraph, which states that funding will continue…it sounds like actually no, the funding is in question?
The confusingly named PDA isn’t actually made up of public defenders. Also, Lisa Daugaard’s PDA and all the Daugaard-associated entities have long, long, long been given many millions of dollars by both city and county with very little in the way of efficacy states. Lisa just keeps pivoting to new pies to have her finger in. When Durkan wanted to withhold yet more money for LEAD a few years ago, stating that she wanted PDA to finally produce stats on their work, the council crucified Durkan. Lisa is probably the most powerful non-elected person in city and county politics, with her hand in everything from the consent decree to SPD oversight to SPD’s contract to homeless housing to prosecution diversion to social work (REACH) to homeless outread to transitional housing. Seattle politics has a few very powerful insiders and Lisa is one of them. Personally I would prefer someone with that much power in our city actually live her and raise her family here (which she doesn’t). Otherwise it feels like Seattle is the grand experiement by someone with no skin in the game.
Thank you for the clarification – I had wondered about the name and if it was accurate, so to speak.
Also, Thank You JSN, I had no idea!!
Lisa should take a break from trashing Seattle with her failed ideological programs that grow drug use, crime and disorder and focus on the city where she lives.
And btw I feel like I need huge map with strings aka Carrie in Homeland to figure out where all the money is going to in regards to the homeless, addiction/ mental Heath crisis happening here in Seattle.