RC Blog

Good news for local homeless youth programs: $7.75M in grants

posted by Rosette Royale on Thursday, February 4 at 4:46pm

In the early morning hours of Jan. 29, the One Night Count found 5 percent fewer homeless people in King County than the year before (2,675 people for year 2010, as opposed to 2,827 for year 2009). Of this year’s current total, only 17 people under 18 years of age were counted, in Seattle, Renton and Federal Way. That’s not a lot of young people, but still: Wouldn’t it be better if the number was zero?

Which begs the question: How could that happen? The charitable group Raynier Institute & Foundation may not have the answer, but it might have a partial solution: Provide money to organizations serving this community, so they can offer more housing and shelter to homeless youth. And so the foundation did just that, giving out grants to the tune of $7.75M.

Raynier Institute & Foundation announced on Feb. 4 that YouthCare — which provides a drop-in center, offers emergency, short- and long-term housing, not to mention job training to homeless youth — will receive two grants totaling $3.6M to help create 15 emergency shelter beds, as well as helping to retire a mortgage; and ROOTS — which offers shelter and a free meal to homeless young people between 18 and 25 — will receive two grants amounting to $2.05M, to underwrite services and pay for capital improvements. Another $2.1M will go toward the “Catalyst,” a pilot program co-created by YouthCare and ROOTS that focuses on homeless youth who are most marginalized; the program is currently underway at the Straley House.

Hip hip hooray to the Raynier Institute & Foundation, for giving Seattle a little bit — make that a lot — of good news. Or, as young people like to say: The Raynier Institute & Foundation gets major props.

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