ActionPlan

Pathways Home: Seattle’s Person-Centered Plan to Support People Experiencing Homelessness
It is essential that the homeless crisis response system be solely focused on exiting persons from
homelessness. While there are many economic, social and personal factors that contribute to the
experience of homelessness, the homeless crisis response system must be intensely focused on placing
individuals and families into housing. This is an enormous task in such a challenging housing market, but
that cannot be a barrier allowed to stand in the way of identifying solutions to ensure someone has
access to housing. Overcoming the challenge of a high cost housing market will require creative
solutions and abandoning some of the ideals of affordable housing in an effort to exit people from
homelessness. That may mean that formerly homeless clients are placed in shared housing, or housing
that is a considerable distance from work or which creates a substantial rent burden. While these are
not ideal situations, they are all better than the alternative of homelessness. The response to
homelessness must stay focused on responding to the immediate crisis of exiting individuals and
families from homelessness and rely on the City’s efforts in other arenas to address larger social and
economic issues such as housing affordability, income inequality and food insecurity.
Housing First
Underlying the idea of a Homeless Crisis Response System must be the philosophy of Housing First.
Housing First’s foundation is that living on the street is a barrier to successfully accessing services and
that vulnerable people are more successfully engaged in clinical services once that barrier has been
removed. Funded programs must allow access and remove barriers to admission, including
requirements that participants be sober, participate in treatment, or have a certain level of income.
By providing unsheltered homeless adults, youth, and families with a safe and permanent housing
option as a first step, they are able to engage more successfully in necessary additional services. The
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the United States Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) identify Housing First as a proven method of ending
homelessness. Housing First has also been shown to demonstrate higher housing retention rates, lower
returns to homelessness, and significant reductions in the use of crisis service and institutions. 22
Housing First projects ensure housing and service options are modified to meet the unique needs of
each individual or family requesting services and that clients are offered the services that they identify
as important to them. However, participation in services should not be a condition of housing.
The City of Seattle, along with other local funders, such as King County, the United Way and the Gates
Foundation all recognize the importance of utilizing a Housing First philosophy as a means to address
homelessness. There are providers and programs in Seattle who pioneered the Housing First approach
and continue to embrace it. However, Housing First must not be limited to specific programs, but must
be a philosophy throughout our entire system. Emergency shelters, rapid re‐housing programs,
transitional housing (e.g. Youth and Young Adult or Bridge Housing), and permanent supportive housing
programs must all have low‐barrier admission criteria. Communities that are making progress on
22
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), Housing First Checklist: Tool for Assessing Housing
First in Practice, https://www.usich.gov/tools‐for‐action/housing‐first‐checklist
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