(Image: Salvation Army Street Level)

A red van filled with shoes, socks, and hygiene bags navigates the streets of Seattle’s core this winter across Capitol Hill and the Central District. The words “Street Level” appear on the side. They are looking for unhoused individuals who they can help find housing.

“We offer the one thing that not many outreach workers offer,” Tina Lewis director of Salvation Army Street Level ministry said. “Nine times out of 10 they’re offering hygiene kits, blankets,and tents, street level goes a bit further. We are offering you the chance to get into permanent housing. Asking people to allow us to help them eliminate those barriers that are stopping them and causing them to be out here.”

The Salvation Army has never had an outreach team before. Street Level is the first of its kind for the charity. Launched in South King County by Lewis in 2019, Salvation Army says the team has helped more than 1,200 people gain housing last year.

While Street Level is unlike any approach from Salvation Army before, it is shaped in the spirit of the organization with its official status as a religious organization.

In June, Street Level received a new $1.2 million contract with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to expand its efforts to Central Seattle including the Central District and Capitol Hill. That team consists of five individuals; a behavioral health specialist, a resource coordinator, and three outreach workers equipped with one van.

(Image: Salvation Army Street Level)

It is one team of many now funded by the KCRHA for similar outreach work in Seattle and across the county. Seattle has shifted away from its previous Navigation Team outreach model centered around city workers and officials have more and more put the work into the hands of teams like Street Level. Meanwhile, the city’s growing encampment clearance team has been fielding 100+ “service requests” per day.

Since June, Street Level in Central Seattle has been able to serve 209 individuals, according to Lewis. Of these, 36 were considered permanently housed, which make up 19 households. Families are an important focus. There are also 15 individuals who are sheltered and two individuals currently detoxing.

Housing options in the central city are also increasing including this Central District project to add workforce and affordable housing on 22nd Ave that is expected to open in early 2024.

Street Level was previously under contract with King County to focus on outreach to people living in cars and RVs. The KCRHA contract now enables them to serve those in vehicles in central Seattle, but also those living in doorways, tents or encampments.

“I’ve noticed the influx in certain categories of folks,” Lewis said. “There’s a lot more veterans that are out on the streets in Central Seattle which we never saw a lot of in South King County.”

With the new contract there are more vans and teams of people to go out into the city, some specific to the KCRHA contract and others specific to the King County contract. The paperwork will determine how they are able to approach individuals. The funding provides money for all the outreach supplies, whether it be sleeping bags or for assisting individuals with moving costs.

“Each van is normally operated with two individuals, one male, one female, and it can transport two individuals in a shopping cart if need be,” Lewis said.

Their methods are direct. A Street Level outreach worker approaches a displaced individual and has an official meet and greet. Lewis said they will try to help them with anything, from setting up a line of communication with a tablet or fine, to supplying someone with an ID.

“There are two different groups when you go from tents and encampments,” Lewis said. “There is a sense of stability when it comes to cars or RVs. That means this person has got a roof over their head. It’s not the ideal way to live but they have a place to store their belongings. With a person that lives in a tent or on the ground they can’t keep anything because people steal from them. Their ID cards are constantly gone, and a lot of people are from out of state so it’s harder for a person to obtain a Washington State ID.”

(Image: Salvation Army Street Level)

With permanent housing a priority, Street Level keeps track of the individuals they have met and who they have helped. In the vans, the teams are supplied with tick sheets where everything is calculated every time they have an interaction with a person. The sheet has numerous categories on it from resources that might have been given to a person to when a person is placed in a shelter.

If an individual is interested in moving forward for permanent housing they are added to the system and Street Level begins to work with that person to establish housing. Lewis and her team even sometimes go to apartment complexes in search of housing for their clients.

“We make ourselves known and we let them know who we are and what we’re out here doing,” Lewis said. “We search specifically for tax credit properties but it is always voice and choice when it comes to clients. We ask them where they would like to live and what area they are okay with living in and then we know how to move forward from there.”

As for questions of faith, the Salvation Army says it has a place in Seattle’s response to the ongoing homelessness crisis and it has been part of Capitol Hill for decades with its shelter on Pike just above downtown.

“The Salvation Army’s mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name, without discrimination,” Lewis said. “We tend to assist people in the form of our prayer, and I have yet to have someone tell me they don’t want to talk to me because I’m a Christian.”

Lewis started the Street Level team with a history on the streets herself. She described how invisible she felt walking the streets of downtown Seattle.

“People were looking past me and through me and I felt like I was dead,” Lewis said. “That moment will stick with me. Not one person ever stopped to ask me if I needed help, or could they assist me in any way or even if I was okay?”

She said she started the program five years ago with the goal to let every person she meets who is homeless to let them know she sees them.

“I see you and you’re not dead,” Lewis said. “There is a way to get out of this.”

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