Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has announced that the city will expand its 'Streets to Housing' homelessness model from one downtown neighbourhood to the whole city, after a pilot in Pioneer Square placed 70 out of 80 people living outside into sustained shelter or housing.
Source: Office of Mayor Katie Wilson, City of Seattle
The pilot was launched in June, weeks before the first World Cup match at Lumen Field, and was led by the Downtown Seattle Association with a coalition of service organisations, the mayor's office said. Partners shared data, followed individuals from outreach to placement, and monitored what happened afterwards. Only three people declined all services.
Source: Office of Mayor Katie Wilson, City of Seattle
KNKX Public Radio reported that service providers, law enforcement and city leaders collaborated during the World Cup to find housing for almost everyone living on the street in Pioneer Square, and that Wilson's proposal to expand the effort citywide would cost an estimated $37 million (yaani about 3.7 crore dollars) while better coordinating existing services.
Source: KNKX Public Radio
How the scaled-up model would work
Under the citywide version, neighbourhoods and partners will build real-time 'by-name' lists of people living outside, prioritise shelter placements for the individuals having the greatest impact on public space, and match services to each person's needs, Wilson said. Of the people placed in the pilot, 47 percent had been homeless for more than three years, 77 percent suffered from addiction or mental illness, and 16 percent were seniors, according to the mayor's office.
The approach follows a framework pioneered by the national organisation Community Solutions, which the city says has been used in cities including Houston, Denver, Atlanta and Kansas City. Seattle has used related methods before: the JustCARE programme during the pandemic and a state right-of-way encampment programme that, the city says, resolved 40 large encampments with a 95 percent shelter or housing acceptance rate.
Pilot: 70 of 80 people placed (nearly 90 percent). Citywide expansion depends on $37 million for shelter in the mayor's budget proposal, which she says closes a $175 million (yaani about 17.5 crore dollars) city deficit.
Wilson said the expansion will largely be done by reorganising existing resources, but its success depends on the City Council passing the $37 million shelter funding in her budget proposal. 'We are scaling up our success from this summer's World Cup in one downtown neighbourhood, to other parts of Seattle,' she said.