More than 8,000 Seattleites are homeless. At a time when so many of us are feeling adverse economic effects, we owe it to each other to evaluate what we can do to make these times a little easier on our most vulnerable fellow citizens. It is important that Seattle develop a more effective model for addressing homelessness; such a development will require a change in the way the city relates to its homeless citizens. But we can only begin to effect this change when we acknowledge that we must meet people where they are and not expect every individual to fit into the same doorway.

The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness
The City of Seattle was among several of America’s major cities to implement a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. Now that we are several years into that plan it is time to take a good, honest look at our progress. The plan dedicated the majority of its funding to permanent housing while slowly diverting funding from emergency and transitional programs. Permanent housing is the paramount end goal, but current economic conditions require a reprioritization of assistance for the thousands of men and women who sleep every night on the street or spend their mornings walking around downtown. To do this we must:

• Increase transitional and emergency shelter funding.
• Expand funding for daytime hygiene drop-in centers and community centers.
• Relax restrictions on public library access that specifically target homeless families.
• Reevaluate city policies of dubious public safety efficacy that specifically target the homeless.
• Expand funding and reduce restrictions on the city’s REACH teams to make it easier to find and place the homeless encamped into shelters.
• Support the present Housing Levy and initiate future efforts to expand the stock of affordable housing.

Create A Multi-Service Center in Seattle
One way to expand the human services that the city provides without any additional cost is to create a more efficient way to provide those services. A number of cities, notably Phoenix and San Diego, have created Multi-Service Centers that house the majority of homeless services under one roof. This will take some time, but with well-deployed technology, it would be possible to accomplish a temporary “virtual” Multi-Service Center that connects the many nonprofits throughout the City. These organizations have traditionally had little to no communication and coordination.

• Create a temporary “virtual” system that connects all city funded nonprofit organizations in the city. This will provide for instant and up to date information on shelter beds available, services provided, and goods that have been donated for use.
• Begin search for a site slightly north or south of downtown that will be able to house a myriad of homeless services such as shelter referrals, healthcare, mental health treatment, and work search assistance.

Expand Temporary Emergency Solutions
While the ultimate goal may be permanent housing for homeless citizens, it is imperative that we acknowledge the human beings sleeping on the street every night while waiting for it to be built. By expanding temporary emergency solutions we can prevent incidents such as the 34 human beings who died outside in 2008 and the 29 that have already died in 2009. To expand temporary housing we not only need to restructure the city’s funding as mentioned above, but we also need to reach out to organizations in the city that have been providing emergency services below cost already.

• Publicly acknowledge that despite the previous administrations stance there are not presently enough shelter beds to house every single homeless person in Seattle.
• Expand the City’s Severe Weather Shelter to serve a regularly consistent time during the winter and not be weather dependent.
• Work to determine a location for a temporary emergency housing until the City has caught up on its housing and shelter space.

Expand Public Health and Nutrition services.
During the ongoing national debate about healthcare, the high cost of emergency room visits has emerged as a symbol of the urgent need for better preventative care. Many of these costly visits result as much from the expense of preventative care as they do from the lack of health insurance among the homeless and working poor. These vulnerable populations are exposed to harsh weather, poor hygiene, unclean conditions, and inadequate nutrition. Preventative care of the utmost importance for such citizens, and I will take the following steps toward the goal of making it more available.

• Work with King County to maintain Public Health services during this time of budget shortfalls.
• Expand voucher programs that allow working poor families to access Farmers’ Markets.
• Fund healthy nutrition program for city-funded shelters.