Alternatives to living in a Tent

Links

CCS – Affordable Housing

CCS – Homeless Services

Coalition for the Homeless

Eastside Housing Association

Sound Families

Union Gospel Mission

United Way - Safety Net

Vine Maple Place

Community Supported Programs

We endorse REAL Community Supported HOUSED Solutions.

Unfortunately due to a lack of commitment by County Leaders to provide enough REAL solutions the past 10 years - King County is still short 2600 beds for the homeless.

Therefore we need to endorse both Permanent Solutions and Transitional Housing Solutions. We are vehemently against any program, including Tent Cities, that does not provide complete wrap around support services. Putting high need human beings in tents in the cold and rain without human services, in locations too remote to have the services required, is RECKLESS and INHUMANE and should not be supported!

Permanent Solutions: We endorse the Nationally acclaimed Supported Housing Program that the City of Seattle has finally started using. Housing that provides the full range of human services and has been proven to be the most succesful program for ending the cycle of Chronic Homelessness.

"Supportive housing" is housing where an array of services -- such as mental health and employment counseling, and drug and alcohol treatment, are made available as part of a complete solution. We are now working at Local, County, and State levels to ensure this program is pursued as the top priority for all funding and efforts.

To learn more please see the program links on the side bar and this exceptional Seattle P.I Article on Supported Housing

Transitional Housing Solutions: Please see the wide variety of transitional housing programs listed on the side bar. All provide a warm housed bed, some provide the full range of social services. Tent City is the only program in this area that puts human beings out in the cold, will not allow residents to seek inside shelter until it is 32 degrees or lower, and provides no human services.

HUD program criteria

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act programs administered by HUD that award funds competitively require the development of a "Continuum of Care" system in the community where assistance is being sought. A continuum of care system is designed to address the critical problem of homelessness through a coordinated community-based process of identifying needs and building a system to address those needs. The approach is predicated on the understanding that homelessness is not caused merely by a lack of shelter, but involves a variety of underlying, unmet needs - physical, economic, and social. Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Programs include:

Supportive Housing Program
Provides housing, including housing units and group quarters, that has a supportive environment and includes a planned service component.

Shelter Plus Care Program
Provides grants for rental assistance for omeless persons with disabilities through four component programs: Tenant, Sponsor, Project, and Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Rental Assistance.

Single Room Occupancy Program
Provides rental assistance on behalf of homeless individuals in connection with moderate rehabilitation of SRO dwellings.

Assistance in the Supportive Housing Program is provided to help homeless persons meet three overall goals:

achieve residential stability,

increase their skill levels and/or incomes, and

obtain greater self-determination (i.e., more influence over decisions that affect their lives).

Specific performance measures for each of these three goals must be established based on the needs and characteristics of the homeless population to be served. Grant recipients are required to monitor their clients' progress in meeting their performance measures on an ongoing basis. In addition to recordkeeping and evaluation that grantees may conduct for their own purposes, HUD requires recordkeeping and annual progress reports. The annual progress report includes questions that ask grantees to report on their progress in meeting performance measures. Grantees are expected to make changes in their program or adjust performance measures in response to ongoing evaluation of their progress.

Announcements

Statewide fund set for homeless families
In 2001, Bill and Melinda Gates promised to fund transitional housing for 1,500 homeless families in the Puget Sound region, providing them counseling and job training as well as shelter. The program's success rate impressed state legislators enough that they will unveil plans for an expanded statewide version today.
Combining public and private dollars, the new Washington Foundation for Families creates a 10-year pot of money to help non-profit agencies coach homeless parents on raising children, recovering from domestic violence, finding work and steering clear of substance abuse.
"We know that if families are given the right tools and support, their chances of breaking the cycle of homelessness dramatically improve," said Greg Shaw, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Sound Families initiative. read more...