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Seattle Community Network |
Monday
September 18, 2000 |
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September 18
"...a place to sleep on a night-by-night basis is not our goal. Rather, we attempt to provide homeless families with the support (physical, emotional, social) necessary to help them regain complete self-sufficiency. "...using a continuum model, we provide a combination of emergency and transitional housing, permanent rental, and self-help home ownership along with a variety of social services to help families become independent and self-sufficient. "Unlike most traditional shelter programs, Housing Hope allows homeless families to stay together. There is no need for the mother and children to go to a women's shelter while the father goes to the men's mission. While several programs exist for mothers with young children, only Housing Hope provides housing for two-parent families and for single fathers with their children. Many shelter programs do not allow teen boys. Housing Hope encourages the family to remain together. "The child care program offers a safe, nurturing environment for children while their parents attend school, seek employment, or address person or medical problems that may have contributed to the family's homeless situation."
Evening Concert in Mill Creek
".... traditional and contemporary multi-cultural spirituals... A free-will offering will be taken to benefit Housing Hope."
Sno-Biz 2000
"Housing Hope will have... an informational table about homelessness at Snohomish County's largest showcase, Sno-Biz 2000, held at the Everett Mall."
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September 17 - 23
Seattle Site of the Week: 
Real Change News
Listen to the Poor
- Aug. 15
Real Change News is a Seattle newspaper written by the homeless and formerly homeless, published on newsprint every other week. Each current issue is now available on the Web. Anitra Freeman, a director of the SHARE and WHEEL homeless housing groups, which operate self-managed shelters, recently considered how Seattle's government, nonprofits and homeless residents might together approach the planning for the new transitional housing that is to be funded by the Gates Foundation grant and by matching funds many of whose sources are still unknown. Here are a few excerpts from Anitra's comments. There is much more in Real Change's current and recent issues. "This July, the Gates Foundation announced a gift of $40 million that will help women and children who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. ... "Seattle's Office of Housing estimates that 24,800 families were turned away from shelter in these three counties last year. The target of the Healthy Families Program is building 1,500 units of transitional housing and providing five years of support services. ... "Just how many will be helped depends on how the Healthy Families Program is implemented. "In the summer of 1998, Mayor Paul Schell pledged $500,000 toward additional services to get homeless women and children inside. "WHEEL pushed for a public process to decide the use of that money, and the result was a cooperative effort among city officials, service agencies, and homeless women themselves that led to the Women's Referral Center, Hammond House, the beginning of expansion of Angeline's, and an ongoing group project known as the Community Action for Homeless Women. "With that model to work from, a fund of $40 million could drive a cooperative effort that could change this region like no traditional, competitive process could. "One of the factors in the success of the Community Action for Homeless Women has been the involvement of homeless women themselves. "...the Healthy Families Program is only one step forward on a very long road. ... Homelessness will be ended when we each do what we can." |