Seattle Homeless Service Orgs Now Have To Compete For City Funds

SEATTLE, WA - The city of Seattle will now require homeless service providers to compete for funds and meet quarterly performance goals to keep some funding, acting Mayor Tim Burgess announced Monday. The new bidding process is a "fundamental shift," Burgess said, because service providers in previous years were funded without showing specific results.

Thirty agencies won funding from the city for 2018 out of 98 groups that submitted proposals. Those 30 agencies will split $34 million between them for various services including: prevention, diversion, outreach and engagement, emergency services, transitional housing, rapid re-housing, and permanent supportive housing.

Almost half of the $34 million will fund emergency services, and the city is tripling its funding for rapid re-housing to about $4.3 million. Rapid re-housing is an intervention technique that puts unsheltered people in permanent housing as quickly as possible.

The 30 agencies that will provide homeless services this year have set high goals.

By the end of 2018, Burgess said, the providers will move 7,000 households into permanent housing. There are about 8,800 people experiencing homelessness in Seattle, according to the 2017 point-in-time count. The agencies will also create about 2,700 new shelter beds.

Each agency must meet quarterly goals for moving people into shelter. If an agency misses a target, it could lose up to 12 percent of its funding from the city.

Seattle is in the midst of a homelessness crisis as housing prices rise due in part to an influx of high-paying tech jobs. During the 2018 budget process, Council members Mike O'Brien and Kirsten Harris-Talley proposed a "head tax" to fund homeless programs. Companies with gross revenues above $10 million would be taxed 6.5 cents per employee per hour to pay for homeless services. The tax, which would've raised an estimated $24 million in 2018, was defeated in a 5-4 vote - but the Council has pledged to revisit the idea in 2018.

The new approach to awarding homeless services funding is likely Burgess' last act as mayor. Mayor-elect Jenny Durkan will take the oath of office Tuesday.

Image by Neal McNamara/Patch.com