Real Change News | Safe Harbors, troubled waters

January 18, 2012
Vol: 19 No: 3

News

Safe Harbors, troubled waters

by: Aaron Burkhalter , Staff Reporter

To keep federal funding, King County shelter providers must convince more clients to give personal information

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You know those forms you have to fill out, for taxes, jobs and driver’s licenses? They don’t go away if you’re poor, homeless and don’t have a car.

Usually, people can decline to give any personal information when asked to fill out a form at a shelter or food bank. But now, local social service providers have a strong incentive to get them to change their minds: Money.

To qualify for federal funding through Seattle, King County and United Way, shelter workers and others who provide services to the homeless will have to register 90 percent of their clients with Safe Harbors.

That means collecting biographical data on the person, including their name, date of birth and Social Security number.

Safe Harbors is a federally mandated data collection system that tracks how many people receive services.

Locally, the data will indicate whether the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness is working.

Since Safe Harbors took effect in 2007, Seattle service providers have, on average, been able to collect data from about 60 percent of the people they serve.

They’re not allowed to force clients to fill out the forms or deny services to them if they don’t.

Safe Harbors Program Manager Sola Plumacher said meeting a higher standard will make the region competitive for federal grants. Social workers need to convince clients that filling them out is important, she said.

It’s all about the money. Seattle and King County receive about $23 million of federal funding each year in a competitive process based partly on data collection. In 2009, the area lost out on an extra $1 million that became available, largely because Washington’s data was insufficient, Plumacher said.

Service providers fear they can’t meet the new standard. (A worker at different shelter, who asked not to be named, said even before the ramping up efforts, staff members collected data on just 70 to 80 percent of the clients.)

Lantz Rowland, board member at Seattle Housing and Resource Effort (SHARE), said collecting data on

90 percent of the group’s clients would be impossible. Using a point-in-time system, SHARE collects data on 40 to 70 percent of its clients each month.

Now SHARE must attempt to collect data on every new client every night.

They don’t have much choice. SHARE receives about 40 percent of its funding from federal sources.

Bob Goetschius, program director of the St. Martin de Porres Shelter on Alaskan Way said the increased effort comes with a cost. The group needs the federal funding, but he has to bring in additional staff in order to collect the information.

Matt Fox, director of operations for ROOTS Young Adult Shelter at University Temple, said it’s especially difficult for high-volume shelters.

“We’re an agency with a paid staff. We’re reasonably well funded. We have staff to do this,” he said. “But it takes a lot of staff time.”

Seattle agencies aren’t the first to face this burden. The Washington State Department of Commerce has the same standard for data collection as Safe Harbors, and for years, agencies across the state have been able to meet it and receive funding.

Plumacher, of Safe Harbors, said since May 2011, just one King agency failed to meet the Department of Commerce’s reporting requirements.

She said none of this should cause a funding problem for service providers. Early tests on the system have worked.

“I don’t envision there are going to be very many agencies that aren’t able to meet the standard,” she said.

But she couldn’t speculate why King County agencies have not been able to even approach 90 percent compliance.

“It shouldn’t be difficult,” Plumacher said. “Clients provide their information when they’re receiving services all the time.”

In any case, at least one agency has given up on Safe Harbors altogether.

Operation Nightwatch Executive Director Rick Reynolds said by opting out of Safe Harbors, his organization walked away from $4,000 of federal funding doled out through the state in 2011.

The amount of federal funding his agency has received in the past was too small to justify the extra effort, he said.

“We think if there’s still people outside, it’s kind of dumb to be collecting information,” Reynolds said. “The city, they want to see outcomes, and keeping people alive isn’t an outcome to them.”

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