Summary

The City of Seattle and King County have been awarded nearly $1 million to support the operating costs for two new homeless housing projects opening in 2010, bringing the total for 2010-2011 federal homeless assistance awards to over $21 million for the region. King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the award Thursday, following the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announcement of nationwide awards.

Story

The City of Seattle and King County have been awarded nearly $1 million to support the operating costs for two new homeless housing projects opening in 2010, bringing the total for 2010-2011 federal homeless assistance awards to over $21 million for the region.  King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the award Thursday, following the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announcement of nationwide awards.

“The new McKinney funds will help us to reach out to some of our most vulnerable residents, offering safe and stable housing to help break the cycle of homelessness,” said Executive Constantine, co-chair of the Committee to End Homelessness Governing Board.  “We are grateful to our federal partners for thier continuing support for the range of programs and services in our region that are so important to our efforts to end homelessness in King County.”

New funding in the amount of $920,000 will sustain two new supportive housing projects for chronically homeless persons with disabilities.  The funds will support 20 units for homeless women in the Archdiocesan Housing Authority's Bakhita Gardens opening this fall and Downtown Emergency Service Center's Canaday House, which will provide 83 new units of housing for single adults when it opens in August 2010.  This new money is in addition to the $20.5 million in existing grants through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act that were renewed earlier by HUD for 2010-2011. 

“These grants are critical as we work to end homelessness by helping people find safe and stable housing to rebuild their lives,” said Mayor McGinn, who sits on the Committee to End Homelessness Governing Board.  “The McKinney funds are especially important in our efforts to preserve basic human services in a time of economic recovery.”

Community-based organizations joined with the City of Seattle and King County to submit the annual joint application for the McKinney funding that allows county and local governments and their many partners to provide essential housing and supportive services for homeless people.  The funding is critical to the ongoing work of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County and the implementation of the Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

“Communities have to show that they are performing well in a number of areas and that they have compelling projects,” said Bill Block, Project Director of the Committee to End Homelessness.  “I am pleased that we have met that test and that we were rewarded with a $1 million addition to our McKinney funding, which we expect to have renewed in each funding cycle for many years into the future, creating an important new ongoing resource.”

The Bakhita Gardens project ($279,300) in Belltown will use grant funds to support 20 semiprivate units as permanent supportive housing in a new six-story structure.  The units will operate with a very low barrier to entry and include intensive wraparound services focused on achieving housing retention for the most vulnerable and chronically homeless women.

Canaday House ($640,926) will use McKinney funding to provide 83 units of permanent supportive housing designed to serve chronically homeless, single men and women who are high users of publicly funded crisis services and who have one or more significant disabilities such as mental illness or chemical dependency.

The new money is in addition to $20.5 million in existing McKinney grants that the Seattle/King County Continuum of Care receives from HUD, renewed late last year for 2010.  Renewed were 62 existing housing and supportive service programs that help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, a total of 818 units of transitional housing, 847 units of permanent housing for homeless people with disabilities, and two Safe Haven facilities that offer supportive housing for severely mentally ill adults who have been homeless.  Also renewed was funding for the Safe Harbors Homeless Management Information System, which collects data on services provided to homeless people in programs throughout King County.  The attached chart provides detail on the Homeless Assistance Awards.

The Continuum of Care is already working on the 2010 application for next year.

For more information on the programs and projects funded by the McKinney grant funds, please contact Eileen Denham, City of Seattle McKinney Programs Coordinator, 206-684-0915 or Kate Speltz, King County Housing and Community Development Program, 206-263-9084.

Seattle/King County Continuum of Care
Homeless Assistance Awards for 2010-2011
This information reflects the award for the 2009 Seattle-King County Consolidated application for McKinney funding.  Newly funded projects were awarded by HUD on July 7, 2010.

** Units can be houses, apartments, rooms or beds