The Seattle City Council’s Housing and Human Services Committee will be briefed Wednesday on the organizations handling some $6.1 million in city funding to perform outreach work hoped to help connect more of the thousands living on the city’s streets with shelter and services.
The city says in 2025 it is deploying a new “District Outreach Model.” In District 3 covering Capitol Hill and the Central District, the Salvation Army will handle both street-level and vehicle-based outreach.
The Downtown Emergency Services Center is handling behavioral health outreach in D3 and across the city.
The Salvation Army’s street work will also cover downtown and the rest of District 7.
CHS reported here in 2023 on the Salvation Army’s outreach work around Capitol Hill. In June 2023, the Salvation Army’s “Street Level” program received a $1.2 million contract to expand its efforts to Central Seattle including the Central District and Capitol Hill. The team consisted of five individuals; a behavioral health specialist, a resource coordinator, and three outreach workers equipped with one van.
Evergreen Treatment Services REACH and University Heights Center will handle street and vehicle outreach in the rest of the city’s districts.
The morning briefing (PDF) comes as the city has clawed back much of the administration of resources including outreach from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, to ensure, the Seattle Human Services Department says, “services align with City needs, focus on unsheltered homelessness, and are coordinated with the Unified Care Team,” the city’s effort linking together its own resources dedicated to combating homelessness.
In the briefing, the city says five organizations are also handling “Population-Specific Outreach” including YouthCare’s focus on youth and young adults.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration has emphasized metrics and fiscal responsibility in pulling back power from the regional authority. HSD says it will “measure agency performance across three areas” and “evaluate impact to ensure the model best serves all Seattle’s communities” as it considers program funding.
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Just remove all of them from the streets – no excuse to see a single tent in a public space.
For anyone who cares about the wellbeing of addicted homeless people, they can always house them in their own homes. The public spaces are NOT meant for individuals to take over and limit access to other people.
Ladies and gentlemen, our modern day Scrooge…
“I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Merry Christmas ya filthy Animals…*pew pew pew* And a happy New Year!”
you are watching too many of them dystopian movies.
Salvation Army $1.2 to a hate organization. I have always voted for spending for schools, homeless…. Not anymore. I am not voting to give money to the Salvation Army!
North Broadway, Roy-Republican, west to Melrose. Please assist tent campers.
Hate organisation? How so?
Salvation Army has a long history and recent of refusing services to LBGT community, has lobbied against gay rights around the world, reufused services to cities with same sex partnership protections…. They have been slowly changing, but the government should not support or give contracts to a religious organization that spends those funds to help people but also to preach to those they help. I am OK with an organization especially religious to preach all the hate they want, but not on the tax payers dime.
Quick google serch can give you many concrete examples. The organization has made some positive changes in the last decade, but I am very wary in todays political climate that this will continue.
The issue is getting aid to people. The infrastructure has to be there. Otherwise? It’s 200 little organisations and the oversight becomes impossible.
My point was what other way is there right now. And now is when it’s needed.
I guess we should begin taxing every religious organization then, because they are all preaching whatever they want, including hate, on the taxpayers dime.
We should, but that is not going to happen. But one thing we definitely not do is give government contractor to them.
But the way things are going, every public school will ran like a religious school. Look at Oklahoma, Florida, Tex-ass….
And actually we should not be taxing churches, and we should have a very clear line between church and state. BUt if said church or organization breaks the rules, than yes tax them.
exactly
The only metric of success should be number of homeless people camping on the streets of Seattle. The goal is to reduce/eliminate street camping for the benefit of homeless people and the health and livability of the city. Nothing else matters. Stoppissing away billions on enabling people to do drugs and live and die on the streets. If aid organizations can’t deliver results, their funding should be pulled.
Once again I wish there was a “like” button on CHS. Your comment is spot-on!
What about the portions wanting to refuse assistance or want to keep doing substances do they step their game up to help them too
We need to change the laws. People in the grips of addictions are in no place to make competent choices for themselves. We need to be able to force them into a rehab for a short enough time that they can sober up and make decisions. Europe didn’t decriminalize drugs the way we de facto have done here, they allow judges to force people into rehab. And doing heroin on the street gets you arrested and taken in front of a drug judge.
sorry..it’s still America. There’s still a constitution.
Your orange messiah is trying to change all that.
Don’t see where in the constitution someone that breaks the law cannot be placed in jail for committing a crime. And if they happen to get rehab, great. Unfornunately our prisons are much different than many European countries and those in jail have a very good chance of getting worse not better in prison.
The city should also pull funding from and fine any organizations that hand out camping supplies and “harm reduction” drug supplies to campers because it is in conflict with the goal of getting everyone indoors. Camping on public property shouldn’t be a choice. Open shelters in non-residential areas and ban camping.
Open shelters and rehab facilities and halfway houses with wraparound services. Instead of funding 8 different organizations with 8 different CEOs and VPs of Finance and VPs of HR who make big $$, the city should internalize this work for itself. This experiment of funding non-profits to “experiment with the best ways” to handle the crisis has failed. We have a governance crisis and the government needs to solve it.
I agree that the these are government services and the government should fund and perform them itself, and stop the massive cash giveaways to nonprofits
I second this. By clawing back some funding from KCRHA, the city is in itself testing out the theory of internalizing this work from a managerial perspective. My only concern is DESC
The performance metrics are such a joke. The more drug addicts that move here for free stuff and no rules, the more contacts the service providers will have. According to the metrics that would be considered success. Why is Seattle’s homeless response and drug policy so stupid? Even San Francisco and Portland are changing course.
Why didn’t they call out veterans outreach? they’re also a large population of homeless. however, I have heard many cases of homeless people lying that they’re vets only to discover from the VA that they weren’t even active duty or were dishonorably discharged.
Not sure what you are trying to say here. I am a veteran.
Ask a question. I seriously am not sure here what you are saying.
Why DESC? Their facilities share some of the highest numbers of 911 calls in this city.