SEATTLE — This year the city of Seattle is investing $250 million in affordable housing, which is the highest one-year investment in Seattle history. But some homeless advocates say the city is not connecting people with the right kind of housing and that homeless outreach needs to be improved.
Bruce Drager, the founder of Greenlake Homeless Advocates, has spent time in around 30 encampments throughout Seattle in recent years, working to get to know the people who live there and connecting them with services. Right now, he is spending about an hour a day at a homeless camp in Ballard on Leary Way.
“They deserve to be treated like every other human being, given an opportunity to have a place to live,” said Drager.
Recent data from the City of Seattle’s Unified Care Team shows in Quarter Two of this year they offered shelter to 1,352 people and 554 accepted shelter. This acceptance rate is 21% higher than last year.
Drager said most people do not turn down housing because they want to live on the streets, he said people turn down the offers because they are given on short notice before a sweep and that many times the shelter options are not what they are looking for.
“There are all kinds of things wrong with shelters. They're unsafe, they're insecure,” said Drager.
Drager said the city needs to invest in more secure housing options, like more tiny homes.
“They will accept almost universally, and I think I can see the nods of all the folks here, tiny homes,” said Drager.
According to data from the Unified Care Team for Quarter Two of this year, the top four reasons people gave for not accepting shelter were:
- Wants Tiny House (16%)
- Does Not Want Shelter (14%)
- Wants Placement with Partner/Family/Friends (10%)
- Reports Having Housing/Shelter (9%)
Drager said he hopes homelessness in Seattle can come to an end, but he said in order to do that, the housing needs to be adequate and available to everyone.
"Unless we get the housing, nothing is going to work,” said Drager.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell's Office sent a statement that, in part, said:
"With the help of KCRHA and 30 outreach providers, the UCT facilitated 1,831 referrals to enhanced shelters and tiny house villages in 2022—nearly double the number of referrals made in 2019."
The mayor’s office also added:
“The City currently funds more than 3,000 shelter units, which includes Tiny House Village (THV) units as part of this overall system managed by KCRHA.”