Pierce County’s way of dealing with homeless families isn’t so much a system as an earnest attempt.
As much as providers have tried to improve it, it remains a collection of good programs cobbled together. They don’t always operate efficiently.
Desperate families are given a list of about 20 numbers to call, and call, and call, until a shelter or a program has a spot for them. It can take weeks.
Because they grasp at the first slot that opens, there’s no assurance they will get the services they need. Some are put through a shelter’s required classes, even when they don’t need them.
That’s not good enough. Providers have known it for years. But they’re all struggling to stretch thin resources. They haven’t had the time or means to rebuild the system on solid data and proven practices.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Sound Families Initiative funded and studied programs to end family homelessness for seven years. The 2008 results showed it wasn’t about houses, but complex family and societal problems.
To eliminate it would require that families get matched to training and services they need.
Based on that, the nonprofit Building Changes, the administrator of the Washington Families Fund, and the Gates Foundation, plus about 20 others, worked with Pierce, King and Snohomish counties to study homeless families’ needs and what’s available to meet them.
County social services staff members looked at what was working at home and nationally, then decided how to make changes.
Pierce County’s first step is centralizing its intake for any household that’s homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The plan is called “Outside In.”
Beginning in January, there will be one number to call for help, and that help will be targeted to the caller’s needs. Satellite offices will be based in Puyallup, Lakewood and Gig Harbor.
For providers, it’s a shift toward prevention and ensuring that people who are sent to their programs will be good matches.
For taxpayers, it means money used more efficiently.
It does not mean there will suddenly be enough emergency, transitional and permanent housing for all who need it. That will take time, said Diane Powers, who is the lead planner on the initiative for Pierce County Human Services.
The first change, however, should make an immediate difference.
“Prevention is really the answer to stopping homelessness,” Powers said. “But most organizations that offer prevention offer one month of rental or utility assistance, and then you can’t apply for another year.”
Under the new system, a family will be interviewed when they call.
If they still have a roof over their heads, the focus will be to keep them in their home. That’s less expensive than relocating them to a shelter, then paying first and last month’s rent, deposits and background checks to get them into a new place.
The county is pooling its rent and utility support funds to make this possible. Pierce County is spending $500,000 to set up and staff the centralized intake system. It’s putting another $250,000 toward rent and utility payments to keep people housed.
Building Changes has pledged $60 million over 10 years for the three counties. It has not announced how much of that will come to Pierce County.
At the same time, a family will be connected to, say, education or job training to get the skills to be self-sufficient.
Powers said many homeless families in the county stay with relatives or friends until their hosts can no longer afford to shelter them. A few hundred dollars a month toward food and utilities might keep them where they are – and out of a shelter – while they search for a permanent home.
They’ll have more tools to find that home, said Troy Christensen, county manager for mental health and ending homelessness.
“We are building an online housing locator system for affordable housing in all the neighborhoods of Pierce County,” he said. “Our goal is to house families in their own neighborhoods to keep kids in their own schools.”
Christensen sees the immediate limitations of Outside In, but he also sees the long-term good, including “a better picture of who is experiencing homelessness.”
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman@ thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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