Goal to End Homelessness Still Out of Reach
The Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness turns 10
By Mandolin Brassaw January 26, 2015
This article originally appeared in the January 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
On January 24, 2014, there were 3,123 people sleeping on the streets and more than 6,000 in shelters or transitional housing in King County.
When the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness conducts its One Night Count again in the chilly, dark hours of a January night*, that number probably won’t be smaller, despite the fact that 2015 marks a full decade since King County embarked on its Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness. When it was launched in July 2005, the ambitious regional plan aimed to “confront the issues that cause homelessness” and expand housing and support services for those affected, and it was backed by a broad coalition composed of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, United Way of King County and various government and religious groups.
Given the Sisyphean nature of the task, it’s not surprising that such a goal is still out of reach. There is some good news: The decade has seen an overall reduction in first-time homelessness. But on the brink of the decade milestone, Mayor Ed Murray formed an emergency task force to address homelessness during winter. And when this issue of Seattle magazine went to press in December, King County was set to act on a proposal to renew legislation allowing tent cities—originally conceived as a temporary measure—for another decade. The Ten-Year Plan looks like it may need another decade, too.
Update to this story: The One Night Count happened Thursday, January 22, and results from the count revealed 3,772 people in King County without shelter, which is a 21 percent increase from last year.
Follow Us
Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy
Words and photographs by Anna Starr.
Riding the ferry is my favorite Seattle pastime. At any given time on a Washington State Ferry you will find a group of tourists with too many suitcases, someone in work clothes peacefully napping, a jigsaw puzzle diligently being completed, lovers having a Titanic-esque moment on a balcony (fun fact: those balconies are called pickleforks),…
AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle
From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…
Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World
The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life.
On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…
Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…