Memorial Day update: Funding from King County Veterans Levy providing assistance, opportunity throughout region

May 20, 2009

Summary

Focus on health, housing, and reintegration

Story

As Americans honor the men and women who have served in our armed forces this Memorial Day weekend, King County is working to provide veterans with the services they deserve.

Area veterans have benefited from over $19 million in support from the countywide King County Veterans and Human Services Levy. Serving King County’s 150,000 veterans, these tax dollars have increased access to post-traumatic stress disorder counseling, employment opportunities, and benefits, while reducing homelessness and recidivism rates among veterans.

“Many of my family members served in the military, including my father and eight uncles who served in World War II,” said King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson, the prime sponsor of the Veterans Levy. “We owe it to our veterans to honor their service and sacrifice by helping connect them with the treatment, job training, and housing services they may need.”

Veterans Levy funds are being used to help veterans and their families throughout King County by:

• Expanding the geographic range and capacity of the King County Veterans Program, which serves low-income, homeless, disabled, and at-risk veterans and their families. Services provided include: emergency financial assistance, housing assistance, employment guidance and assistance, benefits counseling, and mental health referrals.

• Placing veterans in permanent housing through the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Project, which assists veterans and their families with basic needs, employment, housing, and counseling.

• Providing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment to veterans with PTSD and trauma counseling to spouses, and children who have grown up with a parent suffering from PTSD.

• Leveraging resources to construct 58 units of new permanent affordable housing, including 14 units prioritized for homeless veterans, at the Compass Veterans Center in Renton.

• Providing funds to break ground in mid-2009 on the Downtown Emergency Service Center’s 83-unit permanent supportive housing project in Seattle, which will provide housing for at least 27 homeless veterans.

• Funding case management, employment services, and operating support for McDermott Place, a 75-unit permanent supportive housing project currently under construction in Lake City, which will provide housing for chronically homeless individuals including veterans.

• Providing mobile medical outreach to serve homeless veterans in the community, including health screenings, episodic care for common health conditions, immunizations, and help enrolling for Medicaid or other veterans’ benefits, if eligible.

Additionally, the Veterans Levy supports King County’s Jail Initiative Project, which was named one of “20 Innovations Achieving Results” by the United States Interagency Council to End Homelessness. The project works to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for incarcerated veterans, saving taxpayers over $500,000 annually and increasing the number of veterans who become employed and secure a stable living situation after they are released from jail. The average annual recidivism rate in the program is 17 percent, compared to 58 percent for King County’s general jail population.

The Veterans Levy has its origins in 2005, when wars in Afghanistan and Iraq increased the demand for veterans services and federal funding proved to be inadequate. In response, the King County Council proposed asking King County voters to decide whether they wanted to invest in increased veterans services. After leading a 12-month effort to work with citizens and elected officials, the King County Council voted 12-1 to place a veterans levy on the ballot. In November 2005, voters overwhelmingly passed the Veterans and Human Services Levy by nearly 60 percent of the vote.

The six-year levy taxes King County property at a rate of $0.05 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. For a $400,000 home, the cost is $20 annually, and it generates approximately $13.3 million per year. Fifty percent of the levy proceeds are dedicated to services for veterans, military personnel, and their families, and the other fifty percent is dedicated to improving health, human services, and housing for a wider array of King County citizens in need.

To ensure levy funds reach the intended recipients, two citizen boards oversee the expenditure of levy proceeds.


Veterans and Human Services Levy