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Several Snohomish County organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness are concerned about the federal government’s latest policy changes to a permanent housing program.
The changes include cutting permanent housing program funding by more than half.
Mary Anne Dillon, vice president of permanent housing for YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish, said this would impact the county’s most vulnerable neighbors.
“This will completely upend the homeless support system in every community across the nation,” Dillon said.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued the Continuum of Care (CoC) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on Nov. 13. State, local and nonprofit organizations have a Jan. 14 deadline. Awards are expected in May.
Bobby Thompson, executive director for the Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County (HCESC), said that isn’t enough time.
“These are not small applications,” Thompson said. “Usually, organizations spend three to four months putting stuff together.”
The CoC program is the largest resource for federal homelessness assistance funding. It serves thousands of people at risk of and experiencing homelessness each year, including veterans, people with disabilities, older adults and young children.
About 87% of CoC funds are currently allocated to permanent housing, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) said in a statement Nov. 14. This includes permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing.
Under the NOFO, organizations can only spend 30% of their CoC funding on permanent housing.
The Washington State Standard reported that the state receives about $120 million per year for permanent supportive housing. Most of that goes to the following counties: Snohomish, King, Pierce, Clark and Spokane.
HUD currently provides Snohomish County about $17 million in CoC funding to house around 800 households in permanent housing, according to the Housing Authority of Snohomish County (HASCO).
Multiple states, including Washington, sued the Trump administration Nov. 25 to challenge the policy changes it made to the CoC program. The states are asking for a preliminary injunction as litigation continues.
HUD said in a statement Nov. 13 that the changes are in line with Trump’s Executive Order issued in July and titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.”
The NLIHC, along with other organizations, condemned the executive order as it promotes harmful policies for addressing homelessness, such as mandating work and service requirements.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in the statement: “These long-overdue reforms will promote independence and ensure we are supporting means-tested approaches to carry out the President’s mandate, connect Americans with the help they need, and make our cities and towns beautiful and safe.”
Many studies have shown that the housing first model is an effective approach to helping people experiencing homelessness, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH).
YWCA offers rapid rehousing and permanent housing, among other types of services. The shelter plus care program, specifically, is the organization’s largest program. It helps unhoused adults and families with disabilities by giving them permanent housing and long-term support services.
CoC funding keeps the program going. With the 30% cap, Dillon said the county’s most vulnerable neighbors are at risk of being homeless and on the streets.
“Federal funding is an essential source of support for our programs,” Dillon said. “The importance of federal funding goes beyond what service providers receive directly from the federal government.”
Thompson said the policy changes would send housing providers back to a “harm reduction model,” such as a transitional housing model. This type of housing can be ineffective, he said, because not everyone can overcome their challenges in 24 months.
Although the HCESC doesn’t directly receive CoC funding, Thompson said housing providers that are a part of the consortium have been trying to process the changes since they were released.
“I think they’re working very hard right now to understand the overall landscape with this and where things are going,” Thompson said.
Cocoon House CEO Joe Alonzo said the NAEH released a summary analysis that can help guide providers’ thinking about the policy changes.
The CoC application is not available yet, which means Cocoon House and other organizations are only anticipating what might be required for each type of housing program.
“Once the application is released, we will have to start making some concrete decisions on how to minimize the impacts to local individuals and families being supported with CoC funds,” Alonzo said.
Founded as an emergency shelter for youth in 1991, Cocoon House has grown to include a continuum of programs designed to prevent and end youth homelessness. Cocoon House offers short- and long-term housing, street outreach and prevention services aimed at strengthening families in Snohomish County.
Debra Bordsen, CEO for Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, said the uncertainty is “very tough” for her clients and staff. Her organization is waiting to see what the courts decide on.
Lynsey Gagnon, executive director of Interfaith Family Shelter, said her organization doesn’t receive CoC funding but is preparing to see an uptick in calls and requests for help due to the changes.
“We’re going to see those trickle down effects,” Gagnon said. “It’s going to be a cycle for many of these families again into homelessness.”
HASCO Communications Manager Pam Townsend said the housing authority doesn’t receive CoC funding. However, the “about-face shift in priorities” should alarm everyone as it won’t make communities safer or better funded, she said.
“It will lead to more expensive interactions with law enforcement and emergency rooms, far beyond the $17 million currently spent,” Townsend said. “To reverse priorities overnight and further penalize housed families, putting them at risk of eviction and homelessness, is a societal failure.”
Brian Smith, president/CEO of Volunteers of America Western Washington, said his organization doesn’t receive CoC funding and doesn’t anticipate disruptions to services.
Kari Bray, communications director for the Snohomish County Executive Office, said the Human Services department is considering different options, including whether to use some funds from the Affordable Housing and Behavioral Health fund to help keep people housed through the end of 2026.
“Though we’ll continue to do what we can at the county level to reduce and prevent homelessness, it’s important to know that local dollars simply cannot make up for sustained losses of federal funding,” Bray said. “We expect that longer term solutions will be needed for gaps in federal funding, and those solutions will require coordination at the local, county and state level as we head toward the County’s 2027-28 biennium.”
Angelica Relente is a Murrow News Fellow covering housing and related issues in South Snohomish County for the My Neighborhood News Network. Contact her at angelica@myedmondsnews.com.
If only these agencies could pass an audit so we know where these dollars go. WA is a corrupt state.
Good one, but, define the word, ‘corrupt’ and then apply it to context.
Define = Where is each and every cent going and to whom.
If only you realized that just because *you* haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Here’s one for king county. All the wa counties that have these programs are audited by our state auditor. ar1037534.pdf https://share.google/tNqG8IXksvs4ioYl0
Your reflex is clearly to shout “corruption” when you dont understand, dont know or dont approve of something.
I went to this site you reference and all I could find was a paragraph or so that basically says all is well with the housing authority and when you go over to the reference table for each year of a specific study the “findings” slot just says N/A all the way down. Maybe you can do a better analysis of s this audit business and report back things like how much money is going to actual housing units as opposed to what is being spent on administration costs, etc. If these state audits are anything like the state audits of Edmonds City Finance, they are basically a bad joke and pretty useless. (The Edmonds audits I’ve seen basically say we’ve found some issues but they are being addressed by the city so all is well). Since you are pushing the idea that these audits prove that the programs are well run and efficient, it seems like you would want to give other commenters here the specific evidence from the audits that this is true. All I could get from what you referenced was, the programs are good and just take our word for that because we are state auditors.
Yeah right. If you believe that then you also believe in the fairy god mother and tooth fairy. It’s folks like you who are to blame for the fiscal issues.
It seems Jesus was more than a casual observer ( he is after all God himself) when he said “….the poor shall always be with us.” Most think this to be a social observation, however, those of His Ecklesia discern this to mean he refers to those not of the ‘called out ones’ but
Those poor in the Spirit. The Trump administration constantly bears this lable as caring less for the community at large and specifically his socialist Nationalist view of identifying the poor as not worthy of caring for.
Here in Snohomish county greed drives the costs of both materials and services. When for many will enough, be enough? Until that day, Trumpism is the policy of greed in spite of his propaganda.
First we’re going to focus on who actually needs the housing rather than roll and dole it out to everyone including those who should not be receiving assistance deemed for US citizens only. States also need to do random spot checks on those receiving renters assistance to make certain they are not committing fraud. Such as sub-letting out a room (happens frequently).
He said it in the beginning of his article . We can’t get up and running in four or five months . Gee, this takes plan̈ning. He left out the part that we ain’t working for free and that’s why most of the money goes into the pockets of these clowns running the show.h7
Wrong. These programs are all audited by our state auditor, but that’s clearly not as much fun for you as is vaguely asserting corruption because you don’t like a program or its goals.
As once a former homeless person who was also homeless with two small children for over a year back in 2016/2017, if it wasn’t for these programs, so many more people and families would still be struggling and many would have been torn apart, which also weighs heavy on other agency’s such as dshs, cps, the judicial system, jails, etc. Housing first model is the only effective way to manage a societal proble as large as this one is. We have many people who also take advantage of these types of families and individual and seek them out because they are desperate to find somewhere for themselves and their loved ones to be able to even temporarily call their own. Without certain services and funding to provide not only essential, but thr human right to be able to live without having to worry about so many things as one does day to day while being homelesss, is going to end up costing the taxpayers even more than the housing first model. It’s costs even more to toss them in jail. It’s costs even more to end up having to clean up encampment. It’s costs even more in other ways than money, to do this. Sickening is what this administration is. And why? What’s the reasoning? To save a few bucks, allegedly?
Thank you, Mr. Bess, well said!
My daughter & her kid lived in gov funded apt. She worked & 1 other resident did. It was horrible, lots of drugs & dealers driving expensive new Mercedes, BMW, Hummers, etc. How can they pay for those but can’t pay rent? Police raids happened a few times in a yr and several dealers w/guns & lots of drugs arrested. Called the County Housing office & shared our experiences and what we witnessed – they weren’t interested & didn’t seem to care. We went to police & they told daughter they knew it was a dangerous place & to move if she could. I support NO funding until the program is COMPLETELY revised. Residents should be REQUIRED to work or attend school; housing should have a time limit and drug use or any illegal activity should be cause to remove the person & anyone living with them. 1 resident told my daughter she was stupid to work because she could get more money if she didn’t. Why help people like that? I worked my entire life. I’m sick of supporting illegal aliens, drug addicts and lazy people. If it hurts maybe they will try to change.
I understand that not every church is going to have the means to support an individual in need, but others have the means to support several if not more which could balance the numbers and being that the number of churches in the United States is around half of the total population of homeless individuals meaning that If every church supported 2 individuals that would end the homeless problem. I know it’s more complicated than that, but it would drastically reduce the issue .
You haven’t reviewed church financial records lately. Many, if not most, are facing declining membership and donations. Budgets are getting smaller every year, staff are being cut, programs,….
These comments are useful for better understanding how we think about this important question. I sometimes wonder if we might pay the homeless to paint over or remove the graffiti that harms our community.
CHURCH? Ignorance of the etymology of that word, and it’s abuse translating the Scriptures
as well as the agentivation of a spiritual precept
referred most often to The Great Comission, says nothing about fixing social errancy, and
soth, and human nature that by some ratings is
corrupt, absolutely. Fix man’s nature? That
Is pointing to a plank in one’s eye when your eyes are full of planks. It is man’s inborn nature
for corrupt behavior. No one steps up to fix that.
Only one url…
Going bankrupt folks, it’s on borrowed money
usdebtclock.org
…Just sayin’
The apartment I live in ( homeless housing) sat empty for over a year but the landlord was being paid through federal funding for monthly rent on an empty unit. There are hundreds and maybe thousands of these empty units and the only person benefitting is the landlord and the non profit that manages these empty units. Im part of the GOSH program. My funds don’t come from federal funding. They are paid directly from the state via an 800 million dollar lawsuit 2012. I was almost forced to live on a sidewalk but I demanded the help I was entitled to and at the last minute received one of the empty units previously being paid for by the federal funding. Corruption is a revolving door.