Homelessness Response Blog

Winter Response: 8pm Jan.12 – 7am Jan.20

SEATTLE – The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) will open a Severe Weather Shelter at Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall this Sunday, January 12. The shelter will be open between 8pm and 7am the following day. The shelter will operate through the morning of Monday, January 20. The Salvation Army will staff this shelter and accommodate roughly 100 adults and their pets. The Seattle Center Armory will continue to be open during regular hours (7am to 9pm Sunday through Thursday and 7am to 10pm Friday and Saturday) to serve as a warming center.

Bus routes to Seattle Center include: #1, #2, #3, #4, #8, #13, #32, and Rapid Ride D Line; service is also provided by The Seattle Center Monorail running from Westlake Center, accessible by stairs and elevator from Downtown and the Westlake light rail station.

Additional Shelter

King County Administration Building will offer 50 additional emergency shelter beds Sunday, January 12 through Wednesday night, January 15. The shelter is located at the King County Administration Building located at 500 4^th Avenue in downtown Seattle. The shelter serves people who identify as men, age 18 and older, from 7:00pm to 6:00am.

Mary’s Place also has activated winter protocols and can accommodate those with children experiencing homelessness. Mary’s Place has expanded their intake hours and are partnering with Lyft and Uber to provide transportation to families. Please call Mary’s Place at 206-245-1026 for more information.

All existing City-funded shelters have been asked by HSD to expand capacity to accommodate all people in need of safe shelter during this severe weather event.

Outreach and Resources

The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department has communicated with all City-funded service and outreach providers to open any additional spaces for increased capacity during severe weather and to connect with those living outdoors to encourage them to seek shelter. The Navigation Team will focus efforts on outreach and storage services during this time and will be available to transport vulnerable individuals living unsheltered to shelter.

The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department has connected with 211/Crisis Clinic to inform them of additional shelter capacities such that they may provide this information over the phone and through social media. The City’s Parks Department and HSD will be monitoring the weather and shelter capacities to determine if additional resources or long-term shelter accommodations for the public will be needed and will provide this information as necessary.

For additional information, please visit HSD’s website, Twitter, and Facebook.

More information can also be found at HSD’s Human Interest Blog.

In September 2019, the City announced the permit for Camp Second Chance/Myers Way village would be temporarily extended through March 2020 and all options were being considered for the long-term status of the village. Options considered included closing the village or exploring partnerships to continue sheltering people at the site.  

Background  

Camp Second Chance/Myers Way Chance provides 48 tiny houses for people living unsheltered and during the first six months of 2019, 44% of households exiting the village moved into permanent housing.  

Earlier this year the City’s program operator, the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), added a shower trailer on site to improve access to hygiene resources, and implemented a strong and transparent democratic self-governance structure, with people living in the village partnering with LIHI to manage day-to-day operations. 

These outcomes make Camp Second Chance/Myers Way one of the highest performing villages in Seattle and one of strongest performing shelters in the homelessness response system.  

Permitting Background 

The most common option for permitting villages is through the City’s sanctioned encampment ordinance (23.42.056). A second is through temporary use permits — what Camp Second Chance/Myers Way has been operating under – that is scheduled to sunset in March.  

Under City of Seattle land-use code (23.48.054), a third option allows for a religious organization to sponsor a village with a range of contractual and oversight requirements in place. Currently, two villages, Othello and True Hope, are funded by the City and sponsored by local churches using this permitting option.  

New Developments  

The Human Services Department (HSD) is pleased to announce that on Monday, November 18, 2019 Fauntleroy Church notified the City and the village operator, LIHI, that they would like to enter into a formal agreement to sponsor the village. This agreement helps the City and the community continue to provide a critical and successful service to people living unsheltered while preserving the Myers Way property for future use. 

The agreement between the City and Fauntleroy Church will be for one year and prohibits religious services, activities, and symbols on site. It requires Fauntleroy Church to contribute to the well-being and support of the clients, with LIHI remaining in place as the manager and operator of village.  

The City will continue monitoring performance and contract compliance on-site, ensuring religious activities or symbolism are not present on the property. LIHI’s City contract for operating the village will remain in place. The Community Advisory Committee (CAC) will continue to meet monthly to review village operations and identify opportunities for neighbors, faith communities, and businesses to support the people in the program.  

Next Steps 

A second agreement will be executed between LIHI and the Fauntleroy Church to further define roles, responsibilities and partnership expectations. Fauntleroy Church will also be required to file a site plan with the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) establishing its presence on the property. This is for informational purposes and is not subject to City review or permitting requirements.  

The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) will not renew the contract for the Northlake Village in 2020 due to compliance and performance concerns. The City contracts with the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) to operate the village on Seattle City Light property. LIHI has not been able to operate the village as specified in their contract throughout 2019 due to ongoing interference in camp operations and client services from its former subcontractor, Nickelsville, which has prevented LIHI staff from effectively engaging residents of the village.

The safety and long-term well-being of residents remains the City’s priority. As with other program closures, the City is working closely with LIHI to find new shelter or housing resources for all interested program participants at Northlake Village. There will be no net loss of shelter capacity with Northlake’s closure, with new shelter space at existing villages and other shelter resources offsetting the loss of Northlakes’s 19 beds.

The village will no longer operate after December 31, 2019, and the property will be returned to Seattle City Light.

Background
The goal of Northlake Village, like all City funded village programs, is to provide safe, 24/7 shelter that offers supportive services and case management to help formerly unsheltered people find permanent housing.

Northlake Village opened on City Light property in the spring of 2018, providing shelter through 19 tiny houses. Previously operated as a sanctioned tent encampment in Ballard, LIHI continued onsite management for the Northlake program through a subcontracted arrangement with the Nickelsville.

In the spring of 2019, LIHI notified HSD that its partnership with Nickelsville was dissolved due to the inability to execute a mutually agreed upon Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). At that time, LIHI requested Nickelsville to relinquish control and allow LIHI to resume site management at the Northlake property. To date, people who identify as Nickelsville staff and supporters refuse to recognize LIHI as the contracted operator of the program and have actively blocked LIHI’s ability to meet its contractual obligations of moving people on to permanent housing.

Compliance Concerns

HSD and LIHI staff have observed concerning behavior throughout the 2019 contract year at Northlake Village. Residents associated with the former subcontractor, Nickelsville, have harassed LIHI and City staff, tightly controlled site access although no longer recognized as the subcontractor, and have actively interfered in LIHI’s ability to meet the contracted objectives of the program.

The following specific concerns were observed and documented by LIHI and HSD staff:

1. Restricted access to site, including padlocking the village gate and refusing entry to LIHI and HSD staff;
2. LIHI case managers prevented from engaging participants in programs designed to access housing;
3. Practice of arbitrarily barring individuals from the village for minor infractions that include not participating in political activities;
4. Noncompliance in reporting vacancies to HSD; and
5. Blocking LIHI staff from completing standard program procedures including intake documentation and an inconsistent enrollment in the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS).

Low Program Performance

In 2018 and 2019, Mayor Jenny Durkan and City Council made key investments to help villages become more effective in moving people into permanent housing.  HSD increased critical on-site resources and contracted with LIHI to operate the entirety of the village program. Through these investments and key partnerships, the village program has seen a 37% exit rate of moving individuals in a village household to permanent housing in the first six months of 2019, which is 17% higher when compared to the same time in 2018. While most villages saw strong improvement, Northlake Village lags behind with only a 11% exit to permanent housing in the first half of 2019. Additionally, other programs formerly managed by Nickelsville—Georgetown and Othello Villages—saw rates to permanent housing increase by double digits once LIHI assumed case management oversight. These clear results underscore the need for villages to offer full-time case management and housing connections, such as those that LIHI provides.

*Note: True Hope, Whittier, Lake Union, Licton Springs are not included because they were either new programs in 2018 or were ramped down—we don’t have the same windows of time to compare.  

Next Steps

In August of 2019, HSD staff monitoring the village operations found the program was not in compliance with the 2019 contract.  HSD created a performance improvement plan for LIHI. The plan detailed specific steps to be taken for the program to be in contractual compliance. The plan called for the improvements to be completed by October 7, 2019.

On October 7, 2019 LIHI communicated to HSD they were unable to meet the requirements necessary for the program to come into compliance. On October 29, HSD informed LIHI that it will not extend the contract into 2020 and the village will close at the end of this year. HSD has requested LIHI produce a phase out plan that ensures a safe exit for all program participants well before the end of the 2019 contract period (December 31, 2019).

The Port of Seattle Commission voted today to renew the lease agreement with the City of Seattle for continued use of the Tsubota site for the Interbay Tiny House Village. The extension is for one year and will expire in November of 2020.  The City of Seattle has leased the site since November of 2017.

“The Port of Seattle is pleased to partner with the City of Seattle and the community in addressing the homelessness crisis in our region,” said Port of Seattle Commission President Stephanie Bowman.  “We hope extending this lease for another year will help more people get shelter and the help they need so they can transition successfully into permanent housing.”

“The Human Services Department is grateful to the Port of Seattle for their support of Interbay Safe Harbor Village.  Since 2017 the partnership has made lasting, positive impacts on the lives of over 324 people served, or 277 households, as well as on the surrounding community,” said Seattle Human Services Department Director Jason Johnson.  “HSD is honored to continue this partnership and provide life-saving services and shelter to assist people in finding paths to permanent housing.”

Interbay Village Background

The Village is managed by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) in partnership with the residents of the village through a democratic self-governance structure. In addition, two case managers are on site daily to support the residents in obtaining housing, employment, healthcare, education and other services as they transition to permanent housing.

The program was first established on Seattle City Light property in November of 2015 as a self managed sanctioned tent encampment with portable toilets and part-time case management. At the end of the two-year stay, the City and community began searching for a viable option to keep this critical program open, Through the Port’s initiative and partnership, the Tsubota property was made available and allowed the next iteration of the program—Interbay Safe Harbor Village—to open in 2017.

When the program relocated to the Port property most of the tents were replaced with insulated wooden sleeping structures, commonly referred to as tiny houses. In addition to the 45 tiny houses, the village now has running water and showers on-site. A strong and transparent democratic self governance structure has emerged, A program manager and two case managers are on site daily to support the residents. The Community Advisory Council meets monthly to review operations and help connect village residents with the surrounding community.

These positive aspects have worked together to create measurable results: since opening, the village has served more than 400 households, helping at least 106 households exit homelessness. During the first quarter of 2019, 53 percent of households exiting Interbay Safe Harbor Village entered permanent housing, making it one of the highest performing tiny house village projects in the city. This success would not be possible without the Port of Seattle.

Below is a brief summary about new capabilities the Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) are now able to apply when analyzing Navigation Team outreach data. 

When the Navigation Team launched nearly three years ago, previous administrations did not invest in robust and consistent data support to better understand the team’s impact in the field. To address this, Mayor Durkan and City Council made critical investments to expand the team and to provide data support. Today, no other City-funded or -led outreach program has reporting mechanisms, data analysis, or data capture abilities as substantial as the Navigation Team.  

Mayor Durkan asked the Innovation and Performance team to create the Performance Seattle Dashboard to take a cross-departmental look at the City’s work in a number of priorities, one of which is homelessness. This dashboard provides a high-level overview of the outcomes of subcabinet work, and we have been responding to media inquiries about it. The Navigation Team is one critical part of the City’s larger homelessness response efforts to help unsheltered persons move to safer places. The larger homelessness response system is also producing strong indicators that efforts to ensure homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring are working. HSD’s performance metrics show that 20% more households were served, a 6% increase of households moved from homelessness to housing, and over 2,000 unique households remained stably housed in permanent supportive housing in the second quarter of 2019, when compared to the previous year. 

HSD has also improved our ability to analyze the Navigation Team’s ability to connect people to shelter. The Navigation Team has its own database called the NavApp. This system complements the larger Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS), which all other providers use.   

The Navigation Team, along with all City-contracted outreach agencies, is responsible for making the referrals to shelter. They track this in the NavApp. However, enrollment in the shelter is then the responsibility of the shelter agency, and they enter their data in HMIS.  

HSD can now match some NavApp data with HMIS data sets. The information provided below reflects individuals who appeared in both the NavApp and HMIS at a specific shelter within 48 hours of the referral to shelter. An individual will not be reflected in this data set if they: 

• Provided different personally identifying information (such as a name) in either the NavApp or HMIS; 
• Enrolled at a shelter beyond those first 48 hours; 
• Opted to not share their personal information with other parties (which accounts for 24% of all HMIS data);  
• Enrolled at a shelter other than the one they were referred to; or 
• Accepted a referral within the two-week period of the February snowstorm.  

The data shows that In Q1 of 2019, 53 individuals were successfully matched back between NavApp and HMIS data. In Q2, 75 individuals were successfully matched between the systems (the data matched between the two systems is ultimately baseline data and more referrals are likely enrolling in shelter, but we are unable to verify additional enrollments at this time).  

When compared with all other City-funded outreach providers, this data shows the Navigation Team accounted for 50 percent of all shelter enrollments in quarter 1 and 45 percent in quarter 2 of 2019 when all outreach provider data is included. Here is a breakdown of the Navigation Team’s performance compared to our partner outreach programs:  

Quarter 1

• Nav Team Q1 Referrals: 203 
• Nav Team Q1 HMIS/Matchback Enrollments: 53 
• All Outreach Programs Q1 Referrals: 99 
• All Outreach Programs Q1 HMIS Enrollments: 54 

Quarter 2

• Nav Team Q2 Referrals: 224 
• Nav Team Q2 HMIS/Matchback Enrollments: 75 
• All Outreach Programs Q2 Referrals: 137 
• All Outreach Programs Q2 HMIS Enrollments: 93 

These data sets show the Navigation Team and outreach providers are seeing success in connecting vulnerable people to shelter.  It is also important to note that this analysis is specifically for referrals to shelters, which is the result of relationship building, time, conversations, and matching an individual (or sometimes groups of individuals) to a unique shelter resources.

The Navigation Team remains the City’s leading response to the unsheltered crisis. Prior to the launch of the team, the City did not have a centralized, coordinated response to address hazardous living conditions and to connect vulnerable people to shelter, let alone methods to measure these efforts. The progress from where the City stood in 2015 to where the City’s efforts stand would not be possible without the continued support and investments in both the team and in shelter resources by the Mayor and City Council.