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Pathways Home: Seattle’s Person-Centered Plan to Support People Experiencing Homelessness or are long‐term shelter stayers, and lowering or removing barriers to entry. We also recommend a large‐scale “moving on” effort that identifies current tenants in permanent supportive housing, who are stabilized and no longer need intensive services. This program would help them transition to regular affordable housing. This approach has been successfully implemented and utilized in several communities and has proven to be a highly effective way to free up capacity in the existing permanent supportive housing inventory for chronically homeless, unsheltered individuals. System Transformation Recommendations from Barbara Poppe Building on the analysis and recommendations from the Focus Strategies SWAP process, the City of Seattle contracted with Barbara Poppe and Associates to provide recommendations for the development of the Homeless Policy Framework. The result has been “The Path Forward – Act Now, Act Strategically, and Act Decisively” report, which helps the City to operationalize the vision of homeless as rare, brief and one‐time in our community. The report identifies twin priorities: 1) Reduce unsheltered homelessness. 2) Increase the “throughput” from homelessness to stable housing. These priorities can be accomplished through a series of recommendations designed to shift key policies, reallocate resources and advocate with local partners to support system improvements: 19 Recommendation 1: Create a person‐centered crisis response system To be successful, the City of Seattle must develop and invest in a comprehensive array of interventions that are integrated to provide a person‐centered crisis response system that responds to the unique needs of each family and individual. Some interventions will be existing program models, some will need to be re‐tooled for improved results and greater efficiency, and some will be new approaches. Additionally investment in some program types may need to end or at least not be included as part of Seattle’s investment in homelessness. All interventions must contribute to rapidly providing access to stable housing for families and individuals who are at imminent risk of or experiencing literal homelessness, that is, living outside, on the streets, or in a shelter…. Recommendation 2: Improve Program and System Performance and Require Accountability 19 Recommendations for the City of Seattle’s Homeless Policy: The Path Forward – Act Now, Act Strategically, and Act Decisively, Commissioned by the City of Seattle, Barbara Poppe and Associates, August 2016, p. 6‐15. < http://www.seattle.gov/documents/departments/pathwayshome/BPA.pdf > Page | 25
Pathways Home: Seattle’s Person-Centered Plan to Support People Experiencing Homelessness To be successful at reducing homelessness, the homeless crisis response system must be organized and invested in by public and major philanthropic funders. The system leadership must be action‐oriented and nimble enough to enable course corrections promptly when needed. Funders must invest only in evidence‐based, best and promising practices and providers should be required to effectively implement these practices and meet performance standards as a condition of receiving funding. In keeping with the HEARTH Act 20 and national best practices, Seattle and King County have begun undertaking the shift from a loosely organized network of programs to building a system of care with the intent to quickly rehouse individuals and families. The large number of providers that will need to shift practices makes the challenge of transformation daunting. The current level of public funding investment is strong so the impact of shifting to more effective approaches can be immense if the funders establish a strong infrastructure to support the new system. HMIS and other data should be used to inform planning, set resource allocation strategies, measure progress and system performance, and evaluate program performance to inform investment decisions. Seattle should invest in and use HMIS as the primary data system. HSD should require providers that receive funding to collect and input quality, timely, and comprehensive data in order to receive city funding…. Recommendation 3: Implement well with urgency The communities which are making the greatest reductions in homelessness – Houston, Las Vegas, and New Orleans – are acting boldly and with urgency to rapidly change systems to meet the needs of families and individuals who are facing homelessness. The findings of this report and the 2016 Focus Strategies report indicate that solutions are within imminent reach. The City of Seattle will need to act concurrently in six key areas: 1) Translate the investment recommendations from the Focus Strategies modeling and the Path Forward recommendations into City of Seattle specific investments and design a competitive funding process. Develop and implement updated policies, procedures, and protocols to implement the Path Forward recommendations. 20 On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009. The HEARTH Act amended and reauthorized the McKinney‐Vento Homeless Assistance Act. One key change was requiring communities to adopt a performance based, data driven, systems approach to ending homelessness. Page | 26
Page 1 and 2: The vision of the City of Seattle i
Page 3 and 4: Pathways Home: Seattle’s Person-C
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