Critics Say Draft Plan From Homelessness Task Force Underwhelms
When created last December, King County’s “One Table” task force had a clear goal: to address homelessness on a regional level. But after releasing a first-draft set of recommendations last week, some members of the task force say they feel the proposals are coming up short.
The draft recommendations—as first reported by The C Is For Crank’s Erica C. Barnett—were based on input from a group of 75 individuals, including state-level elected officials, business owners, and those from the nonprofit sector, all brought to the proverbial table by King County Executive Dow Constantine, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, and Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus. They name six “priority actions”: building 5,000 affordable homes over the next three years; creating a housing stabilization fund to prevent people from becoming homeless; providing on-demand behavioral health treatment; training and hiring 1,300 people at-risk of homelessness over two years by the county; reducing jail bookings and charges against individuals facing housing instability; and expanding foster-care services.
Notably, the draft doesn’t include new revenue sources to pay for any of these priority actions, nor do they list cost estimates for the new investments. According to the draft, the task force believes that these actions “can put a stop to the flow of our friends and neighbors into homelessness.” Yet, some members of the task force say the working recommendations fall short.
One Table member and executive director of the Seattle/King Coalition on Homelessness Alison Eisinger said that the draft “does not reflect an accurate response to the scale of the crisis.”
Read more: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/critics-say-draft-plan-from-homelessness-task-force-underwhelms/
