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How do you go about ending homelessness?
For the past two decades, countless individuals and organizations
across the U.S. have been committed to this effort. Billions of
dollars have been spent, and millions of homeless people have been
helped to secure stable long-term housing. Yet despite all these
efforts, homelessness is still with us. Every day, about
three-quarters of a million people in the U.S.—and approximately
25,000 people in our state—are homeless.
The good news is that right now a profound shift is taking place in
Washington State as a result of the passage of the Homeless Housing
and Assistance Act (HB 2163) during the 2005 legislative session.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Timm Ormsby of Spokane and signed
into law on May 16th of last year. The big-picture approaches that
communities are adopting as a result of this bill include system
change, prevention, and housing first, all of which I’ll discuss in
the following pages. As you will see, there’s a growing conviction
that we’re on the right track to meet the state’s 10-Year Goal of
reducing homelessness by 50%.
      
Efforts to implement House Bill 2163
are gathering momentum
Last month, I attended the Washington State Coalition for the
Homeless (WSCH) 16th annual conference in Yakima. The theme of
the conference was “Putting the Pieces Together: Implementing Plans
to End Homelessness.” The upbeat energy shared by participants and
presenters was electric.
The overarching focus of the conference was on county plans set in
motion by House Bill 2163. By the end of 2005, some 35 of 39
Washington counties had submitted individualized 10-year plans,
signaling their participation in the work of ending homelessness.
Many of these county plans are still in their infancy. Yet what I
took away from Yakima, after speaking with dozens of the people
involved, is that this bill is proving to be a powerful catalyst
providing momentum for counties and municipalities—and helping to
bring all the critical players to the table.
HB 2163’s strong focus on setting
goals and tracking results
House Bill 2163 is not a panacea. It is, however, a crucial step for
Washington State. There are a number of great things about this
bill. It’s very specific about accountability, about setting
realistic, workable goals and tracking results. It is funded, not by
taxation, but by county document recording fees. Though the bulk of
the revenues go directly to the county that generated them, a
portion of these revenues is dedicated to providing technical
assistance to counties for creating plans and implementing them
effectively.
HB 2163 also requires the formation of a statewide Interagency
Council on Homelessness, appointed by Governor Gregoire, that brings
together the directors of state agencies involved in areas that are
linchpins to solving the homeless crisis. These include social and
health services, corrections, veterans’ affairs, employment
security, health, and financial management. Council members will be
meeting on a regular basis to align policies and resources in these
areas.
It’s been clear for some time that homelessness must be treated as a
system-wide crisis that involves schools, jails, health care,
substance abuse, and mental health facilities, and takes into
account affordable housing, transportation, employment, and living
wage issues. It has also been clear that we need to devote
significant efforts to preventing homelessness. HB 2163 recognizes
all of these issues and integrates them into its implementation and
oversight framework.
Building capacity—and support—in
Thurston County
Some Washington communities are well along in the process set out by
HB 2163. Thurston County is one of these; Chris Lowell, director
of the Housing Authority of Thurston County (HATC), was at
the WSCH conference. “About three years ago we set the goal of
reducing homelessness by 50% by 2005,” she told me. “We’re close to
a 60% reduction already.”
“About three years ago we set the goal of reducing homelessness
by 50% by 2005. We’re close to a 60% reduction already.” Chris
Lowell,
Director, Housing Authority of Thurston County (HATC)
In many ways, Thurston County, which includes the cities of Olympia,
Lacey, and Tumwater, is a poster child for how to approach the
complexities homelessness advocates face. An essential ingredient is
cultivating buy in. “We’ve had support from our elected officials -
the political will and support to make this happen. That’s key. You
have to have support from the top,” Chris said. Our interview, in
fact, was genially interrupted by Thurston County Commissioner Cathy
Wolfe, also in Yakima for the conference. Cathy stressed the team
efforts made by everyone across the spectrum in the county, from
nonprofit community partners to residents to elected officials to
county employees, alongside the visionary role Chris has played in
her 16 years as housing authority director.
These are some of the other elements of Thurston County’s success in
reducing homelessness:
Building capacity. “The need is never going to go away. We have to
recognize that there will always be people in crisis and in need,
and there will always be homelessness,” Chris said. To be
successful, communities need to have the capacity to address these
needs as they arise.
Housing first. The housing first model, increasingly embraced in
communities across the U.S., starts from the premise that homeless
people need to secure stable, relatively permanent housing right
away in order to turn their lives around and break the homeless
cycle. When homeless individuals and families are able to secure a
stable home, they are then better positioned to benefit from the
supportive services they receive.
Continuum of care. “What we’ve found is the importance of providing
coordinated housing and services together. We try to serve people as
much as possible as a community,” Chris said. To that end, Thurston
County’s Home Consortium, which is chaired by Cathy Wolfe, meets
together weekly to work on housing issues. The Consortium is the
county’s ending-homelessness engine, and is made up of eight
different jurisdictions in Thurston County. All of the county’s
shelters and housing providers participate.
In terms of building capacity, HATC has been working with community
partners to bring six projects on line in the next year that will
add 130 units or beds. These include permanent housing units for
homeless families with children; permanent housing units for at-risk
youth; a project sponsored by Catholic Community Services for
chronically homeless individuals that will provide both permanent
units and shelter beds; 34 units of permanent housing for the
chronically homeless mentally ill; and a remodel of the current
shelter for victims of domestic violence, adding 12 new beds.
What’s the next step for Thurston County? Refining services, for one
thing. On Chris’ wish list is a respite shelter for homeless people
who are too ill to be on the streets. “In most cases, shelters
release people at 7 or 8 in the morning,” she says. “But when you
have a broken leg, or you’re sick, what do you do?” Chris would like
to see a respite shelter area in Thurston County for individuals who
need 24-hour care. It makes sense fiscally, in terms of reducing the
sky-high costs of emergency room (ER) visits; it’s also the humane
thing to do.
Serenity
House's effective partnerships in rural Clallam County
Every Washington county presents a unique profile of demographics
and needs in terms of ending homelessness. Clallam County, on the
Olympic peninsula, has about one-third the population of Thurston
County, and different resources. But one thing the two counties
share in common is leaders who are passionate about ending
homelessness. In Clallam County, Kathy Wahto, executive director of
Serenity House in Port Angeles is leading the way.
“The
identified priority need probably common to all rural counties
is homeless families with children." Kathy Wahto,
Executive Director, Serenity House,
Port Angeles
“My agency is the lead agency for continuum of care planning, and by
far the largest homeless provider on the whole peninsula. So we felt
this was our role to undertake,” Kathy said. Serenity House was
founded by two nurses about 25 years ago. The original program
focused on recovery from substance abuse, but it has since evolved
into a full-scale effort to provide housing and supportive services
to all homeless populations.
Clallam County started working on its 10-year plan in 2003. To
adhere to HB 2163’s requirements, some refinements were needed, but
Clallam, like Thurston, had already hit its stride. “The
commissioners have been involved with the plan, and cities as well.
We’re in a fortunate position,” Kathy said. “A collaborative
approach has been ingrained in the county.” At least 55 agencies and
churches are very active in the effort to end homelessness. This
network has been in place long before people started talking about a
10-year plan, meeting since 1989.
What else is working right in Clallam County? “Preventing
homelessness is one of the four corners of our plan,” Kathy
described. Serenity House coordinates with the entire network to
intervene where needed to reach out to families or households who
need help “before they get in too deep.” They’re building outreach
connections to school districts, food banks, landlords, property
owners, and police officers.
“Schools are useful. Teachers and administrators see kids in school
whose families are struggling and don’t know what to do about it.
We’re seeing the same kind of success rate that I hear from other
organizations. With this kind of intervention, between 85 and 95% of
people sustain and retain housing,” she said.
Kathy described how pleased she was to get a call from a police
officer in Port Angeles, who had just tracked her down at the Yakima
conference. He was worried about a man living in an alley, and
sought help in making a referral. “Two years ago, that never would
have happened. You can see this working on an individual level.”
Looking ahead, Kathy sees homeless single adults, who are often
chronically homeless, as presenting a tremendous unrecognized need.
“The identified priority need probably common to all rural
counties,” she says, “is homeless families with children. Family
homelessness is decreasing in most of Clallam County; the system
really works better for families in a rural setting like ours.”
On the Clallam County agenda is coordinating within the region on
effective discharge planning, including neighboring Kitsap and
Jefferson Counties. Often, hospitals and detox centers call Serenity
House to try to arrange a shelter bed for someone being
discharged—so that they don’t get discharged into homelessness.
Ideally, Kathy said, planning would result in agencies working
together to place someone in permanent housing upon discharge, “and
that’s what we want to work towards. The relapse rate is huge.”
A
promising work in progress in Washington's largest county
Last year, Bill Block quit his private-sector job to take on the
formidable role of coordinating efforts to end homelessness in King
County. His title is Project Director, Committee to End
Homelessness—for a county that runs from Seattle to the Cascade
Mountains. King County has about 8,300 homeless individuals on any
given night and some 24,000 people who will experience homelessness
this year.
Bill Block,
Project Director
Committee to End Homelessness
King County’s 10-year plan got its start in 2001 when Seattle’s St.
Mark’s Cathedral convened a conference on homelessness. The King
County Plan submitted for HB 2163 was a refinement of the planning
that has been more than five years in the making. I asked Bill for
his perspective on how things were going in King County. “The
committee to end homelessness is responsible for being the
catalyst,” he said. “It’s still a work in progress. We’re nine
months into the plan, but a lot is happening.”
One of Bill’s early successes has been the Committee’s push to
extend foster care housing and services to youth aged 18 to 21 who
are enrolled in college or vocational education. Outcomes for young
adults exiting foster care at age 18 include an increased risk of
homelessness, as well as substance abuse and crime. The hope is that
these individuals will have a chance to increase their education and
support—and lessen the odds for homelessness now and in the future.
To Bill’s way of thinking, prevention is a huge priority. “The job
ahead is to figure out how to prevent homelessness and then to
shift, in a well-planned way, from a shelter-focused system to a
housing-focused system, by moving people into permanent housing,” he
said. It’s become increasingly clear to Bill and other low-income
housing advocates across the U.S. that the costs to the system of
providing temporary fixes, like shelters and ER visits and tenures
in jail, ultimately end up costing more than permanent solutions.
Bill gave the example of the King County Jail. “It costs almost $300
per night to house a mentally ill prisoner,” he said. “The King
County Jail is the second-largest mental institution in the State of
Washington. You can take someone and house them in supportive
housing where they won’t be in the situations that cause them to
reoffend, for less money in many cases than it costs to jail them.
In King County, we have a wonderful jail director who understands
that, and is working very hard to figure out how you deal with this
population in a way that both serves their needs and the needs of
society.
“Homelessness doesn’t lend itself to easy stories,” Bill asserted.
“One of the things you need to understand is multiple barriers. If
you’re an African-American male and you get a non-violent felony
conviction, it’s a one-way ticket to homelessness.” He described a
focus group he held with a large group of homeless African-American
males. Their chief theme? “It was I want a job,” he told me.
On paper, the numbers are bigger, but King County’s approach isn’t
all that different from Thurston or Clallam County’s: it’s a matter
of concerted efforts. “One big piece that is going on in King County
is the true integration of services in housing,” Bill said. “For
many years, housing providers would provide housing, and the
residents would need to sift through six or seven layers of service
providers to try to find services. It’s now part of the program
design, so that things are not done haphazardly—so you don’t have
five different caseworkers.”
Bill, by the way, has been a tireless advocate for the homeless and
for affordable housing for many years in various volunteer board
capacities. I asked him what prompted him to leave his position as
partner of the Seattle law firm Buck & Gordon to become project
director for King County. The answer, he said, was twofold: “First
of all, it’s really the first time everybody’s been at the table.
There have been lots of plans to end homelessness in the past. But
they were isolated—they were one jurisdiction, one group.”
Secondly, he said, before he took the job he made the rounds to see
how seriously people were taking this new initiative to end
homelessness. “And when I asked the City of Seattle departments,
what’s your work plan? They had four goals, one of which is ending
homelessness. United Way has two uses for discretionary dollars: One
is early childhood education, and one is ending homelessness. The
King County Department of Community and Human Services has ending
homelessness as one of its priorities.
“It really is a dedicated effort, not just a conversation,” Bill
said.
Common Ground: A
little fertilizer and a few seeds
Lynn Davison, executive director of Common Ground, was also at last
month’s WSCH conference. Common Ground is the agency that has
contracted with the Washington State Department of Community, Trade
and Economic Development (CTED) as the lead technical assistance
provider to counties implementing HB 2163. Common Ground holds a
variety of roles in our state, but a primary focus for the past 25
years has been providing real estate development services to other
nonprofit organizations to create affordable housing.
Lynn Davison,
Executive Director
Common Ground
About a decade ago, Common Ground, first with HUD dollars, and now
with CTED funding, also began to assist organizations in building
the capacity to develop and manage housing. With Common Ground’s
extensive experience in these areas, assisting counties in creating
10-year plans and refining and implementing their
ending-homelessness strategies has been a natural fit. Common Ground
is also providing assistance in the development of the State’s
10-year plan, which is also required by HB 2163—the final version of
the state plan is due next month.
I asked Lynn for her perspective on how things are going on the
county level. “There is, predictably, a breadth of actions,” she
said. “There were a number of counties that started processes prior
to the passage of 2163. For those counties, 2163 was just an
opportunity to refocus. But with others, these are the first
conversations that they’re having, and their 10-year plans reflect
that. Yet it’s remarkable to me that we have 35 counties that
submitted plans in such a short period.” Because the guidelines were
issued last September and the plans were due by the end of last
year, counties had, on average, only three to four months to submit
plans.
In terms of focus, every plan included housing-related strategies,
and most plans have some focus on preventive approaches. Overall,
Common Ground saw the most detail and focus on families, and the
least detail in plans to provide for homeless youth.
Right now, Common Ground and a few sub-contractors are focusing
their efforts on helping counties put effective models together, “to
help communities who are wanting to take the next step: to
implement. There are evidence-based best practices out there,” Lynn
stressed. “These practices have been implemented all over the
country—and here in Washington. We’re looking at a combination of
two things: what we know works, and what communities say they are
most interested in.”
She gave the example, common to most counties, of efforts to bring
landlords and service providers and homeless people together. “In a
lot of counties, there are landlords who haven’t had any experience
renting to homeless people—who have concerns about that. We can help
by pulling from other communities where they have had success. This
world is all about learning from one other. While there are
differences, some of these approaches can be adapted easily. And
that’s our goal. If we can give counties the basics, then
communities are fully capable of adjusting and doing what they need
to do to make something work.”
For Lynn, one of the biggest values of HB 2163 has been “the
broadening of community understanding and awareness.” She described
a meeting where she’d just witnessed this with Yakima community
partners. “The issue of homelessness is bringing together people who
have not worked together before. People who knew each other, but
really didn’t know what their organizations did—people from the
justice system, health system, human services—through 2163 and just
a little before that, they’ve recognized that there had to be a lot
more players.
“I think we’re in quite a good launch position with 2163,” she
concluded. “We’re providing a little fertilizer and a few seeds.
Communities have to be invested in making it happen.”
CTED’S
prescription for systemic change
Stephen Buxbaum has focused on community and economic development
systems and policy for his entire career, with a strong focus on
housing. As Assistant Director, Housing Division for CTED, he holds
the pivotal oversight role for the implementation and delivery of HB
2163. I can think of no one more capable of taking this on. Stephen
also chairs the Interagency Council on Homelessness.
“Going for system change is always tough. But at the same time,
how else will we really make a difference?" Stephen
Buxbaum,
Assistant Director, Housing Division, CTED
Stephen is working particularly hard to foster systemic change. HB
2163, although it will provide much-needed funding towards the work
of ending homelessness, raises a relatively small pot of actual
dollars, and he wants to help ensure that communities can make the
most of them.
One of the most interesting revelations at the conference took place
at workshops on HB 2163. Stephen announced that CTED had created a
pool of $8 million to fund three to five projects, with the goal of
underwriting efforts that will demonstrate systemic change: projects
that can result in cost savings, reduce homelessness and be
duplicated in other communities. $5 million will come from the
state’s share of collected document recording fees as stipulated by
HB 2163; the remaining $3 million will come from CTED HOME funds.
For those communities interested in submitting proposals, CTED made
available specific details on this program earlier this month. An
RFP will be released in August, with a 90-day response time; funding
decisions will be made in December.
“Going for system change is always tough,” Stephen admitted. “But at
the same time, how else will we really make a difference? I believe
that’s what 2163 is all about: it offers us a tremendous opportunity
to create new partnerships that will lead to different ways to
provide services in housing for the homeless.
“We’ve got the methodology. We have some fairly separate and
distinct needs between the urban, the more moderate-sized counties
and our rural counties. We need to be very thoughtful about paying
attention to the different needs that exist in those different
contexts.”
Stephen believes that 2163 is an extraordinary act in that it is not
highly prescriptive. “It directs what is expected in terms of
results, but it doesn’t dictate how we get there,” he said. “It is
masterfully written: it places responsibility on the state and on
counties to come up with their own solutions. And I think that in
taking that course, it recognizes the extraordinary diversity of
challenges that we face. The ultimate thrust of 2163 is
performance-based targeting of resources. The Act is very clear that
we must place resources where the data is telling us that we’re
getting results.”
Where does Stephen think resources are best targeted? He says that’s
up to counties to determine. But he believes that having counties be
in the lead, with flexibility given for large municipalities to also
be direct participants, is a good formula. One staggering statistic
he cited: there’s no county in the state that has less than 65% of
its general fund operating dollars going to criminal justice. “What
that says is that we are using local revenues to warehouse people.
And we have to do something to turn that around.”
For Stephen, HB 2163 emerged from the current dialogue on
homelessness as much as it has prompted it. “Over the last few years
we have been moving from the concept of merely sheltering people and
putting band-aids on things, to going to a very different kind of
approach, which includes transitioning people into permanent
housing. We’re really beginning to talk about a new kind of social
contract, that respectfully gives people the opportunity to lead
stable lives.”
Representative
Mark Miloscia's plea for unity
I’m going to give the last word in this article to Washington State
Representative Mark Miloscia of Federal Way, who is one of our
state’s most ardent and hard-working homeless advocates. Mark is
Chair of the House Housing Committee and was a cosponsor of HB 2163.
At his roundtable discussion held at the conference, Mark gave
feedback to all the participants involved in the 10-year planning
process. He offered both a rousing tip of the hat to the enormous
efforts made thus far by counties, and a plea for continued
diligence and unity in creating permanent solutions to homelessness.
“The key to solving this problem is focusing on
prevention, and the factors that cause homelessness. These need to
be included in plans. We’re not going to build or tax our way out of
this.” Mark Miloscia,
Washington State
Representative
Mark is holding counties up to exacting standards in their follow
through with HB 2163, because he knows that’s the only way we’re
going to get the job done. He’s holding himself up to the same high
standards: he has actually read and assessed each county plan six
times. He took particular care in recognizing two counties for the
best 10-year plans: Thurston for the best large-county plan, and
Clallam for the best small -county plan. And he discussed the major
elements he thought were critical in creating and implementing
successful 10-year plans for ending homelessness. These are some of
the highlights:
Prevention. “The key to solving this problem is focusing
on prevention, and the factors that cause homelessness. These
need to be included in plans. We’re not going to build or tax
our way out of this.”
Action. “Work groups need to meet at least monthly to
evaluate success.”
Recommendations. “Counties must understand the gaps that
exist. And they need to recommend funding sources, and how much
money they need. I’m going to ask for more money next year. If
you ask for it, you give me the strength to ask the legislature
for it.”
Identified principles and values. “Do you really mean it?
Has the county accepted responsibility and gotten community and
business support? The people in Olympia who don’t care about
this issue wish it would go away. If you have people on your
board who don’t support your plan, fire them.”
Results focus. “We need the right results, and we need to
hold ourselves accountable for them.”
“Affordable housing is only as strong as you make us,” Mark urged.
“I need your help in getting all of our advocates working together.
Please speak with one, unified voice. That’s where you get the
power.”
Nan Roman’s
National Perspective: Effective strategies across the
U.S.
How does Washington State’s effort to end homelessness look from a
national perspective? That’s the question I asked Nan Roman,
president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH).
Unfortunately, Nan was unable to make the trip to the Yakima WSCH
conference due to illness, but I caught up with her on the phone
afterwards.
Nan Roman, President
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Because NAEH is located in Washington, DC, Nan is well positioned to
keep tabs on developments in different parts of the country.
According to Nan, “Ending homelessness is about using resources more
wisely and allocating them in smarter ways, which we’re now seeing
in communities around the country. Places as different as Columbus,
Ohio, Hennepin County, Minnesota and New York City are making
progress and actually reducing the number of homeless people. A lot
of that has to do with the availability of affordable housing.”
Nan pointed to three key strategies that are working consistently in
a variety of situations across the country:
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Control of resources. Are there enough resources
available to create change? Frequently, the success of a program
depends on who is driving the implementation and whether they
have the resources needed to create systemic change—not only in
the homeless system but other related systems, such as mental
health, substance abuse, temporary assistance for needy families
and child welfare.
Coordinating efforts between multiple public and private
agencies is always a challenge. As Nan noted, “If you only have
advocacy groups doing the plan and not the city and institutions
involved in it, then advocates have to get the city to adopt the
plan; so the places where that’s done together obviously get
started a lot faster.”
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Creative approaches to housing. “If we had enough
Section 8 housing subsidies that would pretty much solve the
problem. Since we don’t, the answer,” said Nan, “is to invest a
lot more in prevention. It’s not cost effective to build a big
infrastructure for homeless shelters in every county or every
town. It doesn’t make sense. I think prevention would solve a
big percentage of problems, particularly in small towns and
rural areas. There are places where housing finance authorities
have put money into flexible pools for homeless prevention and
rapid re-housing programs.” These creative approaches helped
Hennepin County Minnesota reduce family homelessness by 43
percent from 2000 to 2004.
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Effective use of data. It’s important to establish a
baseline so you can measure results, drive processes and
evaluate the effectiveness of programs.
As Nan pointed out “it can be cost effective to get homeless
people into housing faster. That’s the interesting twist on it.”
She pointed to the example of Columbus, Ohio, where the
installation of a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
enabled the city to determine that permanent housing was less
expensive than supportive or transitional housing for families
with fewer service needs.
Nan said she’s not aware of any other state confronting the
challenge of homelessness with a comprehensive legislative plan like
House Bill 2163. She believes Washington State is well positioned to
succeed because of the infrastructure and expertise we’ve built,
together, over the years. “You already have so many pieces in place:
You have high-functioning, high-capacity providers and people in
government. You have the Gates Foundation and a lot of other
philanthropy in the area, including businesses that are
philanthropic. We just gave our award to Dan Bartlett from Car Toys
who’s been engaged through United Way in your plan to end
homelessness. You have a good solid tax base. The state is starting
to get engaged through the Washington Families Fund. You now
have this legislative plan 2163. You have so much: We’re going to be
using your stats next year, I’m convinced.”
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
About Us
The Washington State Housing Finance Commission is a self-supporting
agency that provides below-market financing to buy, build or
preserve affordable housing and nonprofit capital facilities. The
Commission builds partnerships with the private sector to raise
capital needed to further these social and economic objectives at no
cost to the taxpayers of Washington State. For more
information about the Commission and its work, visit
www.wshfc.org or call
206-464-7139 or 1-800-767-HOME (4663) toll free in Washington State.
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