A non-profit company formed to provide “community ambassadors” to provide “non-violent de-escalation” along Seattle’s troubled 3rd Ave says it needs $640,000 to continue its work through the end of the year and another $2.6 million for 2025.
We Deliver Care is asking the Seattle City Council to consider the funding as it says its work with “people experiencing homelessness, poverty, or criminal activity” is working on the challenged downtown street.
The ambassadors “reverse opioid overdoses, reduce loitering, help get unhoused people indoors, and provide non-emergency responses to public safety concerns,” a city council brief on the program reads.
The decision on funding for the program comes as the city has struck a new deal with its police union that includes major increases in pay and provisions allowing more police work to be transitioned to civilian programs and organizations like We Deliver Care.
A Capitol Hill business group, meanwhile, is also pushing for expanding the city’s community ambassador programs to include areas of Pike/Pine and Cal Anderson most impacted by drugs and street disorder.
We Deliver Care is scheduled to present (PDF) on its efforts Wednesday at the council’s Housing and Human Services Committee.
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So in more than a year they’ve successfully moved 36 people off of the streets (less than 2% of those they had contact with) and they want $2.6 million to continue this glorious track record?
If you are going to flippantly critique efforts to solve a complex and ongoing problem in EVERY AMERICAN CITY at least have decency to use accurate numbers. 116 people moved into permanent housing, in addition to the other impacts: deescalating, detox and connecting people with resources. This org is doing good work and providing metrics to prove progress. STFU and get out of their way.
Nice try, but your attempt at spin is simply non factual. Their own reporting says 36 to permanent housing. 15 from shelter to housing and the rest – who knows. They were referred to shelter and could have stayed an hour for all that is documented.
What do you expect. Underfunded solutions get underfunded results. Conservative city council and mayor insist on tossing buckets of cash at spd while refusing to give any real funding to services that would actually help. 2.6m is chump change for a problem of this scale and they all know it.
They used more than $4,000 per person that they made “referrals” for – and mind you, that is just to connect those people with a service, it doesn’t actually provide said service at all… that seems wildly inefficient to me. I think the city can likely find a better use for 2.6 million than giving to yet another private corporation.
Agree. Their success record is pretty limited. Do they really deserve to be re-funded?
Get every homeless person who refuses shelter into involuntary commitment. The laws are in place just enforce them.
Enough is enough (after being vandalized ONCE MORE by an “unhoused” person last night)