Many people still struggling in Seattle
As the director and manager of programs that work day in and day out with Seattle’s homeless and low-income populations, we would like to respond to Danny Westneat’s recent column “Homeless count down, eyebrows up” [NWWednesday, Dec. 9].
One fact remains abundantly clear to those of us who provide housing and supportive services in Seattle: homelessness is not going away.
This fall, the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) had more than 8,000 households on our waiting list for subsidized housing. These numbers represent people of every description —homeless adults, seniors, working families with children who have never before faced life on the streets. The last 18 months saw such a dramatic climb in the number of people waiting for housing, LIHI took the unprecedented move of scrapping our wait list, in order to immediately serve the families and individuals with the greatest need.
The most recent LIHI housing project, McDermott Place in Lake City, recently began accepting applications for housing. Within two weeks we had more than 300 applications for 75 units, all of them coming from people desperately in need of a place to live.
Usage of the Urban Rest Stop (a hygiene center that provides free showers, laundry and restrooms) has been climbing steadily. Each month this year has shown a 15-20 percent increase, with the biggest percentage increase among families with children.
Quantifying the number of people struggling with homelessness is a tremendously complicated endeavor. We applaud the city’s efforts to track the numbers of people using shelters, however, we are also aware that simple numbers, however they are generated, cannot possibly capture the complexities of homelessness in our region.
— Sharon Lee, LIHI Executive Director, and Ronni Gilboa, Urban Rest Stop Project Manager, Seattle