All Home and our partners are engaged in a system transformation process, shifting our services and housing to be person-centered, housing-focused, low barrier, and data-driven, all aimed at reducing racial disparities and making homelessness rare, brief and one-time.
Additional information about the the regional homelessness system redesign can be found here.
All Home, King County, and the City of Seattle are leading an effort to define and design a unified Regional Homeless System. This work is coordinated in partnership with people with lived experience of homelessness, homeless advocates, housing and service providers, Sound Cities Association (SCA) members, and local business and philanthropy.
The effort is seeking to address the fragmentation that currently exists, which diminishes the effectiveness of homelessness-related funding, service delivery and system performance. Most importantly, the redesign is meant to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. It will accomplish this by placing persons experiencing homelessness at the center of the system design.
The National Innovation Service (NIS) was brought in to analyze the current homeless response system through policy analysis and customer and provider engagement, and to make recommendations to unify and redesign the system for equity and impact. Their findings and recommendations are summarized in 10 Actions to guide the system transformation. The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) was also brought in to provide support for the transition of the Continuum of Care (CoC) governance.
In December 2018, County Executive Constantine and Seattle Mayor Durkan accepted the NIS actions to transform and unify the region’s homeless services. Joining All Home, King County, and the City of Seattle, leaders from the Sound Cities Association, business, philanthropy, and the Lived Experience Coalition identified the following four actions as top priorities to begin the work:
- Institute a system-wide theory of change
- Consolidate homelessness response systems under one regional authority
- Become accountable to customers
- Create a defined public/private partnership utilizing a funder collaborative model
NIS was chosen to serve as project managers to support the development of these four actions. Simultaneously, philanthropic partners contracted with CSH to develop a Regional Action Plan, a critical tool to guide and align our work across the community. Data and investment analyses conducted between the fall of 2018 and early 2019 will offer a baseline of local data to inform the development of the Regional Action Plan.
In addition to developing the Regional Action Plan, CSH will continue to support the Continuum of Care in preparing to adjust its governance structure to align with both the new consolidated authority and with the theory of change. This entails the development and adoption of a new CoC governance charter and redefining seats on the Continuum of Care Board.
On September 4th, 2019, Executive Constantine and Seattle Mayor Durkan transmitted legislation to King County Council and Seattle City Council to establish the King County Regional Homelessness Authority to oversee policy, funding, and services for people experiencing homelessness countywide. The legislation includes a proposed Interlocal Agreement (ILA) and a Charter that authorizes the creation of the new entity to administer and oversee regional homelessness efforts. More information is available here.
The final Interlocal Agreement for the Establishment of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority Between King County and the City of Seattle is available here. A visual on the newly adopted governance structure for the Authority is available here.
