Homelessness Response Blog

In response to a situation that posed a significant public safety and health risk, the City of Seattle’s Navigation Team removed an unmanaged encampment in the area behind the Navigation Center on a public stairwell. Prior to today’s action, the Navigation Team engaged with those living in the encampment area 12 times, resulting in 80 engagements and 12 referrals to shelter, since March 1. The Navigation Team has distributed 148 hygiene kits in the area.   

There were nine individuals on site this morning before the removal started. System Navigators offered shelter to each individual on site, which included shelter within the 95 shelter spaces that opened up this week at three shelters across Seattle. Preliminary numbers show three individuals accepted shelter at these shelters from this encampment today. System Navigators arranged for transportation of both people and possessions to these locations.  

Up until today’s encampment removal, the Navigation Team and partner City agencies engaged this site multiple times a week. In addition to essential outreach services, the Team provided Public Health – Seattle & King County COVID-19 and hepatitis A flyers, shelter referrals, and mitigation efforts included trash bag distribution and collection, debris removal, and sharps collection. 

This action took place for the following public safety reasons: 

• The encampment was on the staircase immediately to the south of the Navigation Center and created growing public safety concerns as documented by the Seattle Police Department (SPD), including violent crimes. Please contact SPD for details.   
   
• Due to the steep and narrow terrain of the area, SPD is unable to effectively patrol the staircase, which is a contributing factor to the documented criminal activity in the area. 

• As the area became more densely populated, the blocked staircase and fire hydrant prevented outreach, waste removal crews, SPD and SFD from safely accessing the encampment, furthering public safety and public health concerns. 

Additionally, the high density of tents and structures in the confined area had the potential for the spread of COVID-19 and hepatitis A. Per public health guidance, de-intensifying congregate spaces to help mitigate spread of the COVID-19 illness and other communicable diseases has been a priority for HSD. With new enhanced shelter beds available over the past week – reported as the most highly sought shelter spaces by people experiencing homelessness  -the City as more enhanced shelter resources to offer people living unsheltered at this time.   

Navigation Team members  have continued outreach throughout Seattle and distributed 1,663 hygiene kits, Public Health—Seattle & King County COVID-19 and hepatitis A flyers, and hygiene services maps through April 12, 2020.  

Except for extreme circumstances, during the COVID-19 crisis, the Navigation Team’s focus is on outreach, referrals to shelter, distribution of information about COVID-19, and hygiene kits.  The removal of the encampment on the Navigation Center stairs aligns with the Navigation Team’s COVID-19 operational plan — and was the first removal under these guidelines — which calls for encampment removals in response to a significant public safety danger to occupants or the greater community.  

The Navigation Team will continue to monitor the area to discourage the return of unsafe living conditions. The team will continue engaging individuals living in the area—many of which the team has interacted with for a number of years—to connect them to services and shelter.

The City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) today announced the opening of a new, 24/7 enhanced shelter in the Bitterlake neighborhood. The shelter has been named the Lakefront Community House. This new shelter was announced in March by Mayor Jenny Durkan and opened within weeks following the announcement, highlighting the urgency with which the City and its partner, LIHI, is working to add new shelter capacity during the COVID-19 crisis. The City’s Navigation Team will coordinate referrals to Lakefront Community House and will work with LIHI to identify and connect vulnerable people experiencing homelessness to this shelter that are high-risk of exposure to COVID-19. 

This announcement builds on last week’s opening of T.C. Spirit Village, which is a new tiny house village in the Central District, and the expansion of the Lake Union tiny house village. To learn more about the City’s efforts to shelter Seattle’s most vulnerable communities, watch this video.  

The Lakefront Community House will support up to 50 people and will provide access to hygiene services and case management throughout and beyond the COVID-19 crisis for individuals experiencing homelessness. LIHI will operate and manage the shelter. This project was under consideration prior to the public health crisis and was opened ahead of schedule under the Mayor’s emergency powers. Typically, the siting, development, and opening of an enhanced shelter take several months to complete.  

Located at 600 N130th St in North Seattle, the shelter building is owned by LIHI and has 28 units that can shelter up to 50 people. There are shared restrooms and showers on each floor, common areas, a kitchen cafeteria, laundry, and outdoor spaces. Each room could be used as double or more occupancy, but will likely be used as single occupancy during the COVID-19 crisis. LIHI will provide housing case management.  

The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods (DON), HSD, and LIHI have and will continue to engage neighborhood stakeholders, including the neighboring Seattle Housing Authority program, to ensure community has the opportunity to partner with LIHI and the City to support the long-term success of the Lakefront Community House program. 

Today, the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) announced Lake Union Village, an existing tiny house village in the South Lake Union neighborhood, has expanded by 20 units and is now accepting new referrals from the Navigation Team. This expansion brings Lake Union Village’s total capacity to 42 units. The increased capacity was announced in March, when Mayor Durkan exercised her emergency powers to expedite the siting and opening of emergency shelter to support people living unsheltered during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Lake Union Village was established in 2018 and is operated by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI). Services at the village will increase to accommodate new residents referred to the village by the Navigation Team. Services include housing case management from LIHI and behavioral health support provided by LifeLong.  

This expansion builds on the City’s efforts to create 95 new safe spaces for people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier today, the City announced the opening of another tiny house village, T.C. Spirit Village, which is a part of this effort to create more shelter for COVID-19 response and is also a Navigation Team referral shelter.  

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in King County, the City of Seattle’s Navigation Team has stepped-up its outreach efforts to assist vulnerable people living unsheltered through the crisis.  
 
To limit the spread of COVID-19 among unsheltered individuals, the Navigation Team has focused on sharing essential public health information through one-on-one interactions , distributing public health flyers, and providing hundreds of hygiene kits through direct engagement. This work is being done in parallel with other direct engagements, such as connecting individuals to essential services and making referrals to shelter.  
 
Since March 1, the Navigation Team has:  

(The above figures are preliminary and may include duplicative data, however hygiene kits are unique. Shelter referrals for all outreach providers, including the Navigation Team, have been impacted during the COVID-19 crisis.) 
 
This work by the Navigation Team to combat the spread of COVID-19 has included supporting its Seattle Human Service Department (HSD) and King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) partners with the opening of new shelter spaces for individuals experiencing homelessness. Navigation Team members have assisted with the set-up and operation of Fisher Pavilion and Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center, Miller Community Center, and Garfield Community Center. 
 
In addition to fighting the spread of COVID-19 among vulnerable people living unsheltered, the Navigation Team has been helping address the recent increase in the number of hepatitis A cases in Seattle. Partnering with Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC), the Navigation Team has  conducted outreach in impacted areas, providing hepatitis A information and coordinating vaccines. This work is ongoing and will continue in support of PHSKC’s response to hepatitis A.  
 
The Navigation remains one of the City’s front-line responses and its continued work supports the Human Services Department Continuity of Operations Plan, which requires continued efforts to support people living unsheltered during a crisis. 

Today, the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) announced the opening of Cherry Hill – Spirit Village (T.C. Spirit Village), a tiny house village in the Central District with 25 units for people currently living unsheltered. The new tiny house village is the eighth location of its kind and expands on resources the City has deployed to mitigate against the spread of COVID 19.  

The program is sponsored and named after the Christ Spirit Church and located on the church’s property.  

The Cherry Hill – Spirit Village (T.C. Spirit Village) will provide safe shelter spaces, access to hygiene services, and case management throughout and beyond the COVID-19 crisis for individuals experiencing homelessness. Although this project was already under development prior to the public health crisis, with the Mayor’s emergency powers, the village was established and opened months ahead of schedule to meet this need.

The City’s Navigation Team will coordinate all referrals at the Cherry Hill – Spirit Village (T.C. Spirit Village) and will partner with the Chief Seattle Club and Seattle Indian Health Center to ensure that Native and First Nation clients are also served by the village.  

“In the midst of this public health crisis, assisting those who are the most vulnerable among us has been even more critical. With unemployment skyrocketing, we have worked to ensure more people aren’t falling into homelessness – it is why I moved quickly to halt all residential evictions, invest in a rent relief fund, and provide grocery vouchers,” said Mayor Jenny A. Durkan. “For our neighbors experiencing homelessness who are currently sheltered, we’ve prioritized standing up de-intensifying shelters with expanded services and worked with providers to ensure they have the resources they need like personal protective equipment for staff. For those living unsheltered, we’ve made investments in opening more hygiene service locations, and with today’s announcements, more people will have a bed to sleep on. We know that we cannot scale to the need of this crisis without significant efforts by the state and federal government to help the City address the true scale of our housing and homelessness crisis.”  

This village—and all City-funded villages—are practicing public health guidelines and social distancing to curb potential exposure to COVID-19.  The City is partnering with the Chief Seattle Club and Seattle Indian Health Center to ensure that Native and First Nation clients are served by the village, and the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) will operate the new village and continues to be the operator for all of the City’s tiny house villages. Referrals to the village will be done through the Navigation Team, which refers people living in unmanaged encampments to the City-funded tiny house villages. The team will partner with outreach workers and day centers to connect their clients to a shelter that provides a tiny home, 24/7 access, hygiene facilities, a kitchen, case management, and housing connections. The village will be in place for at least two years.  

The tiny house village program is one the most effective sheltering models, proven to safely shelter people and connect individuals to permanent housing. The opening of Cherry Hill – Spirit Village brings the number of City-funded villages to eight, sheltering approximately 230 individuals (the Northlake Village not included in these figures). Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the tiny house village program overall saw a 34% exit rate to permanent housing—one of the highest performing shelter to housing programs the City funds.  

For weeks, the City and County have deployed unprecedented resources and measures to help those experiencing homelessness during this public health emergency. The City’s Navigation Team is a part of that effort and continues to conduct critical outreach to vulnerable people living unsheltered during the COVID-19 response.  

Since the first case of COVID was confirmed in King County, the team has focused exclusively on getting important public health information out to people living unsheltered and distributing hygiene kits. The team has also continued making referrals to shelter during the public health crisis, and remains one of the few groups continuing to conduct outreach in the field during the pandemic.  

Over the course of the last few weeks, the Navigation Team has:  

• Made 341 site visits across Seattle
• Talked to 1,733 people about COVID-19 and preventative measures 
• Distributed 981 public health flyers 
• Distributed 735 hygiene kits to people living unsheltered—the kits include paper towels, soap, and water for handwashing 
• And, made 21 referrals to shelter 

(The above figures are preliminary and may include duplicative data, however hygiene kits are unique. Shelter referrals for all outreach providers, including the Navigation Team, have been impacted during the COVID-19 crisis.) 

Outreach will continue to conduct outreach to unmanaged encampments and to RV encampment sites if encampments are present during the COVID-19 response. The team remains one of the City’s front-line responses and it’s continued work supports the Human Services Department (HSD) Continuity of Operations Plan, which requires efforts to support people living unsheltered to continue during a crisis. Additionally, the team has been working with HSD and service providers to support the opening of de-intensifying shelters and overall City and County efforts to create safe sheltering spaces during the outbreak. Additionally, the team will connect people to the recently announced expanded hygiene services.  

As we move forward, the City  will continue to work with providers, the County, and public health to help those experiencing homelessness, however, this unprecedented deployment of resources will need the continued support of the state and federal government to create additional mass shelter facilities with personnel and resource

The City of Seattle announced it has reached an agreement with Nickelsville residents of the Northlake Tiny House Village that will allow residents to stay in place through June 1. The City and Nickelsville have agreed to continue operations of Northlake under conditions that will allow site access for the City’s public health, safety, and service providers. This builds on the City’s work to create hundreds of new spaces to both add capacity and de-intensify shelters during the COVID-19 outbreak.  

This announcement follows weeks of negotiations between City departments and Nickelsville organizers. Last year, the City announced that it was suspending the Northlake Tiny House Village program out of performance and transparency concerns. Earlier this week, the City hand-delivered a letter to Northlake residents offering a June extension—which includes maintaining hygiene services during the COVID-19 outbreak—in exchange for an agreement from Nickelsville that they would leave the property in June. Today, Nickelsville organizers agreed to these terms.  

“I’m relieved that—during this extraordinary public health crisis—our Mayor is able to provide more time for those experiencing homelessness at the Northlake ‘tiny home village,’ so they may remain for additional months on the property they have called home during the past two years,” said Councilmember Alex Pedersen, who represents District 4. “I look forward to the folks there – many of whom I have met personally – staying safe and eventually transitioning to permanent housing, and I commend their Wallingford neighbors for being so welcoming and compassionate.” 

The City recently planned for Nickelsville organizers to leave the property by April 1, which was the original permit expiration date for the village. The City will be replacing the hygiene facilities and will return the existing hygiene facility to the owner, the Low Income Housing Institute. There will be no gaps in hygiene services.   

The City of Seattle has been working to provide more resources for people living unsheltered leading up to and during the COVID-19 public health emergency. The City’s Human Services Department (HSD) has been in close partnership with the King County Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), Public Health Seattle King County (PHSKC), and City departments to stand up critical resources and services for people experiencing homelessness.

Shelter Expansion

The City and King County have prioritized the deployment of resources that can provide critical services, facilities, and resources for people living unsheltered during this public health emergency.

The County, in partnership with the City, is moving forward on three key priorities, which could serve individuals experiencing homelessness or individuals who cannot recover at home. This includes:

• Expanding all shelter capacity and de-intensifying shelters
• Creating isolation (for confirmed cases) or quarantine spaces (for possible/suspected cases)
• Creating spaces for recovery of individuals who do not require emergent care

Specifically, efforts over the last two weeks include expanding existing shelter capacity by at least 100 spaces at existing and new City-funded shelters, opening up Seattle Center Exhibition Hall to help relieve capacity at Seattle’s most high-use shelters, and supporting DCHS in efforts to create hundreds of spaces for isolation, quarantine, and recovery spaces for people experiencing homelessness or for individuals who cannot recover at home.

In the coming days, HSD, DCHS, and City partners will have more announcements regarding expansion of additional resources. If new state and federal staffing and financial resources become available (which is anticipated ), the City and the County can continue to significantly expand efforts to serve more individuals experiencing homelessness. 

HSD is closely monitoring service levels at shelters and is working with PHSKC to ensure safe operations for clients and staff. HSD and DCHS have bulked ordered sanitation and hygiene supplies for service providers and is distributing materials to providers.

Hygiene and Sanitation Services

In addition, the City has been working on a series of efforts to increase hygiene facilities and sanitation services citywide in partnership with City Council and PHSKC.

The City, through HSD and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), will deploy portable toilets, hand-washing stations, and four hygiene trailers at locations across Seattle. These facilities will be staffed and provided with garbage and needle disposal services. These hygiene and sanitation resources will be deployed in locations across Seattle in consultation with PHSKC. The City will have more details about these resources in the coming days. For current guidance for effective sanitation and hygiene practices as well as preventive measures, please click here.

Additionally, SPU has also deployed more resources to do additional litter services and serve encampments with 12 sites receiving encampment trash program services with the goal of serving 16 sites continuously in the upcoming days.

Outreach and Navigation Team

The Navigation Team will continue to play a critical role in connecting individuals who are at risk for COVID-19 with expanded shelter resources, referrals to testing and medical treatment, and hygiene services. The Navigation Team is Seattle’s only program that mitigates the impacts of hazardous encampments that pose public health risks, while providing offers of shelter, services, and support to individuals who are impacted.

The Navigation Team’s outreach services supplement the work of over 10 City-funded and independent outreach providers who specifically address broader needs of Seattle’s unsheltered community.  Outreach providers are receiving guidance from PHSKC for providing safe services to encampments.

Since the beginning of March and in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Navigation Team has primarily focused on conducting outreach and eliminated scheduled encampment removals. Since March 2, there have been limited Navigation Team removals. As of March 13, the team has visited 172 sites, handed out 462 COVID-19 Public Health flyers, and distributed hygiene kits to 126 people. Hygiene kits include paper towels, water, soap, contact cards with information regarding services and shelter resources. The team is asking individuals basic symptom-screening questions and is providing information on community-based hygiene resources.

All encampment removal operations have been suspended. This includes Community Police Team and Parks efforts. Exceptions will be made under extreme circumstances. An extreme circumstance may be living structures completely blocking the entire sidewalk, living structures prohibiting safe entry and exit from a building or use of a facility, or is a public safety danger to occupants and/or greater community. Here are some examples of what could be considered an extreme circumstance: 

• A living structure on a ramp or roadway
• A living structure blocking an entire sidewalk or bike lane
• A living structure that presents fire or safety hazards to infrastructure (i.e. freeway supports/bridges) 
• A living structure blocking an entry/exit to a building
• A living structure in a play area 

The City and HSD will provide further updates regarding shelter, hygiene and outreach as it becomes available. 

The Seattle Human Services Department (HSD) has released Quarter 4 (Q4) performance metrics for the City of Seattle’s Navigation Team, which is comprised of contracted outreach workers, System Navigators (City outreach workers), Field Coordinators, and police officers that work to connect our neighbors experiencing homelessness to shelter and support services, while removing unsafe encampments with public health risks from public property.

Q4 represents the first quarter in which System Navigator data was fully available, which helps understand the impact City outreach workers have in connecting people to resources. These new positions were added in-mid 2019 and an additional System Navigator will be brought on in 2020. For many people living unsheltered, factors such as time spent outdoors, behavioral health needs, past history, their sense of community, all play a role in weighing shelter options offered to them by the Navigation Team’s System Navigators, police officers, and contracted outreach workers.

The Q4 data showed a continuing trend of the team contacting more individuals living outside and connecting people to shelter throughout the year. Contacts are many times informal conversations, initial efforts at relationship building with people living outside. Q4 data also shows the team continued to operate at a higher operational capacity, removing more unsafe encampments from public property and also cleaning up more than a thousand tons of garbage, waste, and debris. 

For people experiencing long-term homelessness, repeated contacts reflect an important first step in developing relationships that will assist with an accepted offer of shelter.  Although recording the number of informal contacts is not a standard data point collected from Citywide outreach service providers, the City believes that this number is important to understand trends month-over-month to better serve individuals living unsheltered. It is important to note that no other City outreach program, contracted or City-staffed, captures and reports data at the level of the Navigation Team.

With Q4 data now available, preliminary year-to-date are also available. Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Number of contacts with unique individuals increased 10% over the course of the year; from 737 in Q1 to 810 in Q4.
• 973 total (unduplicated) referrals to shelter were made in 2019
• On average, the team made 215 unique shelter referrals per quarter
• Average reported enhanced shelter availability increased over the course of the year
• 1,578 tons of garbage, waste, and debris were removed from public property, which is a 19% increase between Q1 and Q4
• 833 unsafe encampments were removed from public property throughout 2019

With the addition of System Navigators, the team’s outreach capacity has increased. System Navigators enter data in the NavApp and can transport people directly to shelter, which previously was the responsibility of the team’s contracted outreach operator. Stronger data and shelter connections helps the team ensure more people are ultimately enrolled into shelter. As previously reported, verifying who the team contacts and refers to shelter in the field versus who is then entered into a shelter database by a shelter provider is an incomplete analysis due to privacy opt-outs and differing data entry. HSD will continue to explore avenues for improving this analysis in the year ahead.

This post will be updated as more data from 2019 becomes available.

Earlier this month, the City of Seattle’s Human Services Department (HSD) put into action its severe winter weather response plan to create safe and warm places for people in need during the cold weather and storms. This action, in partnership with Seattle Parks and Recreation, created 450 additional beds for people living unsheltered. HSD opened or expanded emergency shelter at Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, City Hall, Seattle Municipal Tower, King County Administrative Building, and Bitter Lake Community Center. The Bertha Knight Landes room at City Hall served as an early morning warming shelter as well. Mary’s Place provided shelter for families with children, and all City-funded sheltering programs were asked to expand and provide shelter so that no one would be turned away.

Additionally, the Navigation Team focused on outreach services in efforts to connect people to shelter and resources. The team made 196 site visits during the severe weather, making over 550 contacts with people living unsheltered. The team transported 44 people to shelter and made 77 referrals to emergency shelters during the course of the week.

As the weather conditions improved, emergency resources were ramped down to allow for programs and buildings to return to regular daily use. The following data visualizations illustrate the availability and resources used during this period:

*Note that figures are subject to change.