This text was produced for ProPublica’s Native Reporting Community in partnership with KUOW public radio. Join Dispatches to get our tales in your inbox each week.
Reporting Highlights
- Utilizing a Lodge as a Shelter: Seattle leased the Civic Lodge as shelter area, and a nonprofit used the Civic and different buildings to put homeless folks coming off the town’s troubled Third Avenue.
- Placements Halted: After filling the city-funded rooms, the nonprofit was instructed to allow them to empty out — at the same time as the town signed a $2.7 million lease extension.
- Main Want: Of an estimated 5,000 shelter beds in Seattle metropolis boundaries and on close by Vashon Island, a median of three% had been free every night time final 12 months.
These highlights had been written by the reporters and editors who labored on this story.
When Brenna Poppe moved into the Civic Lodge off the damp streets of Seattle in late 2022, she cried with pleasure. Throughout her subsequent 12 months on the city-sponsored homeless shelter, she’d meet different visitors who felt the identical means — overwhelmed by the sudden realization that tonight, they might stay awake exterior.
The Civic received quieter final 12 months, nevertheless. Rooms round her, their doorways nonetheless painted vivid yellow from when the lodge was a boutique property, began to empty out. A “deafening silence” crept in, she recalled.
The 53-room lodge was transformed to a shelter within the early days of the pandemic, and the town of Seattle saved it going. After Poppe’s first 12 months there, the town in February 2024 signed a $2.7 million lease extension to proceed utilizing rooms on the Civic and different buildings as shelter area via the tip of the 12 months. And but, regardless of committing to pay the lease, the town stopped sending folks there.
Present residents moved on to everlasting housing or elsewhere and nobody took their place. Dozens of rooms went unfilled.
By December, Seattle taxpayers had been paying a hefty $4,200 a month per empty room — at a time when hundreds of Seattleites had been with no roof over their heads.
Metropolis officers described their choice to go away the rooms vacant as merely a “pause” whereas they evaluated what to do about an anticipated funds deficit.
One-time federal funding was going away and, if the town ultimately succeeded in securing long-term funding, officers wished to discover a cheaper location than the Civic. They mentioned the uncertainty compelled them to each maintain onto the Civic and cease putting folks there, to keep away from later sending shoppers again to the road.
However inside information reveal extra difficult motives. Similtaneously the town was halting placements, it rejected a transfer to a less expensive shelter location, which the principle advocate of the plan mentioned would hold this system working with out interruption. A prime official within the workplace of Mayor Bruce Harrell, explaining the choice in personal, voiced animosity towards the nonprofit chief who pitched the brand new location and signaled an finish to metropolis help for the chief’s program.
Whatever the rationale, the result of the town’s choice was that for almost a 12 months, Seattle paid for simply as many rooms as earlier than but helped fewer and fewer folks off the road with them.
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Megan Farmer/KUOW
Placements resumed this 12 months, in a brand new location, after a 16-month hole.
Many West Coast cities are struggling, as Seattle has, with an increase in homelessness lately. Earlier than referrals had been halted, the hassle that positioned folks on the Civic had already moved hard-to-reach homeless folks from the road to a shelter area and, in lots of instances, then on to long-term housing and stability.
Seattle’s choice to maintain {dollars} flowing to an effort it had suspended comes as cities similar to Los Angeles are dealing with criticism for failing to precisely observe outcomes of their huge outlays on homelessness.
Permitting vacancies to develop at city-leased shelter area additionally appears to be at odds with a dedication by Harrell, whose 2022 plan to deal with homelessness promised efforts to “higher observe shelter capability and guarantee beds don’t go unfilled.”
(A spokesperson for Harrell responded that it’s necessary to notice city-funded shelters had 2,850 models in all final 12 months, 87% of which had been full on any given night time. Town declined a request to interview Harrell.)
Poppe, who lived on the Civic via 2024, considered its empty rooms as a squandered alternative, and she or he instructed the shelter employees as a lot.
“A number of instances,” Poppe mentioned, “I spoke to employees about this egregious quantity of open rooms.”
The Blade
On any given day in a piece of Third Avenue between Pike and Pine streets generally known as The Blade, dysfunction is commonplace. Some persons are screaming on the air, their pants falling off their frail frames. Others are sleeping, huddled in doorways to maintain heat and secure. This human struggling stands in distinction with neighboring symbols of Seattle’s affluence: Pike Place Market, Benaroya Corridor and the downtown purchasing district are inside a five-minute stroll.
A walk-up-only McDonald’s on the nook has been dubbed “McStabby’s,” referencing violent crimes which have taken place close by over time.
In 2022, nonprofits and downtown companies got here up with a plan that will in the end contain the Civic Lodge.
The Third Avenue Mission was designed to scale back the violence and open drug use via intensive outreach and the deescalation of conflicts between folks on the road. However housing was additionally on the minds of the organizers.
Many believed in a modified model of the “housing-first” strategy, which is based on the concept that any points folks wrestle with on the streets are greatest addressed in the event that they first discover shelter, with no necessities for sobriety. Regardless of Seattle’s scarcity of shelter beds and inexpensive everlasting housing, the nonprofit leaders concerned with Third Avenue hoped to assist not less than some shoppers transfer indoors.
The idea appeared to line up with the priorities of Harrell, who on his marketing campaign web site the 12 months earlier than had promised “an accountable, bold plan with transparency and benchmarks to develop and supply housing and companies on demand to each unsheltered neighbor.”
Third Avenue Mission organizers started working after Harrell took workplace, with vital funding from the town.
“Security ambassadors” had been step one. They might reverse overdoses and intervene when scuffles broke out, but in addition develop relationships with folks on the street after which join them with shelter and companies.
“The toughest factor that we do is seeing folks within the dire straits that they stay in day by day,” mentioned Stephenie Wheeler-Smith, CEO of the corporate that hires the ambassadors, We Ship Care. “This isn’t simple work. Individuals don’t wish to come out and contact these folks or have a look at them or see their wounds or assist them get well being care.”
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Megan Farmer/KUOW
Importantly, security ambassadors wouldn’t simply transfer folks alongside. In addition they might be a primary level of contact on a path to everlasting housing.
As one aspect of their $2.1 million contract with the town, the protection ambassadors referred homeless folks on Third Avenue to housing and emergency shelter suppliers. The principle one they’d use was a nonprofit-led program known as CoLEAD, which had a $4.6 million contract with the town in 2023 that included putting folks in non permanent lodging and offering help companies they wanted.
The following step was the Civic Lodge. Metropolis officers signed a $1.1 million six-month lease with the Civic’s homeowners for its 53 visitor rooms. CoLEAD would additionally let Third Avenue shoppers use rooms in any of the opposite shelters it managed, and on the similar time this system would ship shoppers from different referral sources to the Civic.
Not like with another shelters, these shoppers didn’t should cease utilizing medicine or alcohol, and so they had entry to their very own area, which was ultimate for individuals who might have struggled at conventional shelters.
The plan received outcomes.
By November 2023, city-funded rooms on the Civic and different buildings had been packed.
Marco Brydolf-Horwitz, who studied CoLEAD for almost two years as a part of a doctoral program, mentioned he noticed folks reworked by the soundness of non permanent lodging.
“You’ll be able to’t do a lot when persons are on the road,” he mentioned. “As soon as persons are inside, then you possibly can determine what degree of housing assets are wanted.”
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The Halt
For all of the success tales, the issue with the Civic was value. The county had snapped it up as a brief measure through the frenzy of the pandemic, and the town inherited it. After the preliminary lease, lease had risen to the equal of $2.6 million a 12 months in 2023.
On Jan. 2, 2024, Lisa Daugaard, one of many nonprofit leaders managing the Third Avenue Mission, pitched the town on a less expensive different: an condo constructing in North Seattle with 11 extra rooms the town might use for $1 million much less.
Town’s obligations with the Civic had ended when its lease expired the month earlier than. Daugaard might get the town’s shoppers moved by February. Daugaard merely wanted some assurance the town would hold backing the mission as a result of she was contemplating a three-year lease on the brand new location.
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Obtained by KUOW
Just a few weeks later, Daugaard had her reply: Cease putting Third Avenue shoppers in city-funded beds, cycle present ones into everlasting housing and “ramp down” the Civic Lodge shelter. It was couched as a “pause” in placements via CoLEAD, information present.
In emails to Daugaard — and, in not less than one case, internally — metropolis officers cited uncertainty created by a looming funds deficit as one of many predominant causes for the brand new marching orders. They reiterated this clarification, together with an anticipated loss in one-time funding, in interviews and emails with KUOW and ProPublica.
The mayor’s press secretary, Callie Craighead, mentioned the town was “dedicated to sustaining shelter investments” however had “no means to offer such affirmation” to Daugaard till the town developed its subsequent funds. She mentioned the North Seattle condo constructing was additionally not move-in prepared on the time. Extending the lease on the Civic was a stopgap to keep away from sending shoppers again to homelessness.
Chief Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington described the halt in referrals as a means of “winding down” operations on the Civic in anticipation of a transfer to a brand new spot, a “greatest observe” amongst social companies managers.
However a chat message from Washington to a colleague, launched to KUOW and ProPublica final week via a public information request, spells out further causes for turning down Daugaard’s proposal. It says, partially: “as a result of I would like her out of the homelessness enterprise. She will not be good at it.”
Washington acknowledged within the message, incorrectly, that the proposed North Seattle location was one other lodge, “which isn’t low-cost” and concluded, “This implies we’d be leasing accommodations eternally.”
She additionally asserted that CoLEAD had a excessive charge of returns to homelessness and a low charge of placements in everlasting housing.
Information offered by the mayor’s workplace and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority reveals in any other case. The 12 months earlier than, CoLEAD moved a far greater share of its shoppers from its city-funded beds into everlasting housing than emergency shelter operators as a complete: 65%, in contrast with 26%.
Contacted by KUOW and ProPublica final week, Washington mentioned she’d recognized Daugaard for 10 years and that “I’ve nothing however respect for her work.” She mentioned of her chat message about ending CoLEAD’s function within the metropolis’s response to homelessness: “Discussions are completely different than choices.” She famous that the town’s relationship with CoLEAD continues right now.
Daugaard declined to touch upon Washington’s personal message naming her. The nonprofit that employs Daugaard and oversees CoLEAD issued a press release defending this system’s observe report at putting folks in everlasting housing as “distinctive.”
The mayor’s proposed funds for subsequent 12 months helps packages that comply with CoLEAD’s strategy, the assertion mentioned, “and we tremendously admire that, in the long run, the Metropolis has backed this mannequin which has confirmed to serve the pursuits of Seattle neighborhoods and chronically unsheltered people alike.”
As of February 2024, the North Seattle plan was formally off the desk. Town prolonged its lease with the Civic.
Officers dedicated to spending $225,000 a month for 53 rooms via 12 months’s finish — regardless of having simply instructed nonprofit shelter managers to make sure these rooms emptied out.
The Fallout
The disruption to the movement of shoppers off Third Avenue and into the city-funded rooms step by step grew to become noticeable.
The sort of shelter that the Civic Lodge offered — particular person rooms that got here with companies similar to assist in accessing well being care — is a priceless useful resource, particularly relating to individuals who could also be fighting psychological sickness or dependancy, like lots of these on Third Avenue. Conventional shelters lack privateness and private area.
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Civic Lodge by way of TripAdvisor
With the ending of placements on the Civic and city-funded rooms in different CoLEAD shelters, security ambassadors who had been paid to quell the violence on Third Avenue turned to different shelter organizations. Nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to completely offset the lack of CoLEAD’s buildings.
KUOW and ProPublica examined knowledge from We Ship Look after placements to organizations that present shelter or housing, together with the nonprofit that operates CoLEAD. The quantity went from 47 in 2023 to 30 in 2024.
In the meantime, 35 rooms on the Civic and different shelters that CoLEAD managed sat empty as of December 2024.
Among the many individuals who would have mentioned sure to one of many rooms the town had left unused was Tiffany Fields, who on the time was struggling to remain secure open air.
“It ain’t no joke,” Fields mentioned of life on the road. “It’s not enjoyable. It’s not for play.”
Fields slept at downtown bus stops, typically gathering with teams or pretending to have a firearm in her coat to remain secure. She spoke to herself out loud when she felt in danger within the hopes that feigning psychological sickness would ward others off.
“I’ve seen numerous bizarre issues,” Fields mentioned. “They have a tendency to prey on girls by themselves, however I understand how to carry my very own.”
A 2023 College of Washington examine of the Third Avenue Mission discovered that of the 980 folks contacted by We Ship Care’s security ambassadors via October 2023, 90% had been unhoused.
“From a human perspective, folks wish to be inside and so they wish to be sheltered,” mentioned Wheeler-Smith, chief of the outreach efforts to attach folks on Third Avenue with companies. “And sadly, we don’t have numerous locations to ship folks to be sheltered, interval.”
Daugaard, whose group works alongside Wheeler-Smith’s security ambassadors, mentioned it was demoralizing for the outreach staff to maintain speaking to folks on Third Avenue about their struggles with restricted possibilities to essentially change the trail they’re on.
Shedding the rooms that the Civic offered meant that “all they’re doing is sort of preserving a lid on the extent of dysfunction and its affect on different folks,” Daugaard mentioned.
(The College of Washington report, primarily based on time spent on the road with the protection ambassadors, described reversed overdoses and defused conflicts.)
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Megan Farmer/KUOW
Of the estimated 5,000 shelter beds out there in Seattle’s metropolis limits and on close by Vashon Island throughout early 2024, solely 3% had been free, in keeping with an annual point-in-time rely. One other 4,600 folks lived with out shelter on the time.
Rachel Fyall, affiliate professor on the College of Washington Evans Faculty of Public Coverage & Governance, mentioned the price of not housing folks consists of emergency room care, jail cells and police on the road.
“Philosophically,” Fyall mentioned, “any room that’s unused is just too many rooms.”
However when organizers know a shelter is more likely to shut quickly, does it then make sense to go away rooms unused so newcomers received’t should relocate shortly after they arrive?
Noah Fay, senior director of housing packages at one other nonprofit that runs homeless shelters, mentioned the need to keep away from disruptions for residents must be balanced in opposition to the need to maintain beds full when unmet demand in Seattle is gigantic.
He mentioned his group lately ready for a shelter shutdown by halting referrals two months forward of time. Town did so 11 months earlier than its lease ended.
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Megan Farmer/KUOW
“Pause” Lifted
In July, Fields was strolling via the Third Avenue space.
A security ambassador known as out to her and mentioned Fields’ caseworker had been searching for her. The caseworker had excellent news. She was getting shelter.
“I mentioned, ‘Are you kidding?’” Fields recalled. “‘Please inform me it’s not a sick joke.’”
Town had lately ended the “pause” on putting CoLEAD shoppers in non permanent shelters.
The brand new venue was the North Seattle condo constructing Daugaard had proposed greater than a 12 months earlier. The nonprofit working CoLEAD named it the Turina James.
Washington instructed KUOW and ProPublica CoLEAD had “considerably improved” its report of transferring folks to everlasting housing because the pause, proving it was a great choice. (Information present CoLEAD’s success charge with city-funded shoppers declined from 65% in 2023 to 56% final 12 months, whereas its success for all shoppers improved marginally, from 69% in 2023 to 71% final 12 months. Town didn’t deal with the obvious discrepancy.)
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Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Supply picture: courtesy of Tiffany Fields.
Fields’ consumption was carried out over the cellphone, and an Uber was despatched to select her up and take her to her new non permanent dwelling. When she arrived, she mentioned, she was welcomed with open arms. She was given presents and a key.
“God, he works in mysterious methods,” Fields mentioned. “Typically if you name on him, he might not come proper then and there, however when he does come, when he does present up, he reveals out.”
Fields mentioned she’s felt way more steady since making it indoors.
“I’m comfortable. I’m in a really, very, excellent place,” Fields mentioned. “So I can, , get my life again on observe, get my life again so as.”
Others on Third Avenue are nonetheless ready for housing. However the paths out there to them look a lot completely different now, even with referrals resuming, than they did in 2022 and 2023. When making placements on the Turina James, in contrast to on the Civic and different CoLEAD shelters, the town is not emphasizing Third Avenue shoppers however as a substitute folks from Seattle’s Chinatown-Worldwide District.
Brenna Poppe, the lady who lived within the Civic because it emptied out, was nonetheless sleeping indoors as of July. She was staying on the North Seattle property, nonetheless grateful to have a roof over her head.
Round her, the rooms had been beginning to refill.
