At The Sophia Approach, which operates two extended-stay shelters for ladies in Bellevue and Kirkland, and PorchLight, the Eastside’s solely shelters for grownup males, we proceed to function a vital start line on the trail out of homelessness. However like many shelters in our area, we’re below intense strain. Demand is overwhelming, and too usually we’re pressured to show folks away.
This problem has grown much more pressing within the wake of President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order on Homelessness. It encourages stricter enforcement and expanded civil commitments whereas chopping funding to housing-first and harm-reduction packages just like the King County-funded Health Through Housing Initiative.
This federal shift threatens to reverse years of native progress. As an alternative of providing folks housing with providers that promote well being and stability, it prioritizes criminalization and involuntary therapy — insurance policies that analysis has proven usually fail to resolve homelessness in the long run.
In King County, almost 17,000 folks are actually experiencing homelessness — a staggering 26% enhance since 2022, in accordance with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Point in Time Count. Clearly, we want greater than enforcement. We’d like properties. Census information reveals our inhabitants is rising quicker than ever. Until we construct at the least 12,000 new deeply affordable units per year until 2044, in accordance with Washington state wants evaluation, our shelters will stay overcrowded, and extra folks will proceed to stay unsheltered.
We will’t afford to criminalize poverty and psychological sickness. What we will afford — and what has confirmed outcomes — is investing in supportive housing, just like the county’s Well being By way of Housing Initiative.
Well being By way of Housing transforms former accommodations and different properties into long-term supportive housing. Residents signal leases. They’ve non-public rooms with a locking door, their very own lavatory and kitchenette — primary dignity that fosters belief and restoration.
For shelters like The Sophia Approach and PorchLight, this program is significant. It gives the essential subsequent step for folks able to transition out of shelter and right into a everlasting residence with supportive providers like workforce growth, behavioral well being care, monetary teaching and case administration.
Regardless of shifting nationwide coverage, the outcomes in King County are clear:
● In 2024, 95% of residents in these packages remained stably housed or transitioned to different housing, in accordance with the Health Through Housing dashboard.
● Emergency room visits dropped almost 18% for residents in comparison with pre-housing ranges, in accordance with the dashboard.
● And importantly, 97% of residents have native ties to their neighborhood — displaying this mannequin reduces displacement whereas stabilizing neighborhoods (from the HTH 2024 annual report).
This 12 months, King County will open three extra Well being By way of Housing buildings — in Kirkland, Seattle, and Federal Approach — including greater than 300 further properties. These cities are standing up for sensible, compassionate and cost-effective options whilst federal coverage pivots towards extra punitive measures.
To different cities and counties: Now could be the time to face together with your neighborhood. Investing in confirmed regional methods like Well being By way of Housing is how we ease the burden on emergency providers, scale back unsheltered homelessness and restore dignity to folks dwelling on the margins.
Let’s not transfer backward by changing evidence-based assist with failed insurance policies of coercion and criminalization. Let’s transfer ahead, with properties — not handcuffs.
Do it for our unhoused neighbors. Do it for our shelters. Do it for a future the place each particular person has the soundness and alternative they deserve.
