Its request for extra budget money deep-sixed in a backroom budget deal, the self-managed homeless provider SHARE is finding another way to keep its low-cost shelters running: by ceasing the distribution of bus tickets to guests who need to get around the region.
In letters to public officials and supporters, SHARE says it will stop issuing bus tickets to its shelter guests as of Jan. 15, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. From then on, those traveling to and from shelters will board a bus and explain the situation to the driver, asking for a free ride to or from shelters scattered from Rainier Beach to Maple Leaf, and in the Eastside suburb of Woodinville, where the Tent City 4 authorized encampment will move at the end of the month.
"Our own budget has been stripped to the bone," says a Dec. 15 open letter, "and our pleas for a modest supplement from City Council were thwarted by the Mayor." ("SHARE gets shafted," Nov. 17-23). "This is another chapter in a struggle for human rights that Dr. King so ably led. Regardless of race, creed or income, everyone deserves shelter that they get to."
With some exceptions for shelters located within the downtown Ride Free area, each guest at a SHARE shelter is typically given two bus tickets daily, one for peak-hour fare and one for the off-peak period. A draft 2008 financial statement by the organization puts annual bus ticket expenses at more than $72,000, a 32 percent increase from 2007.
Shelter guests are planning to travel in groups to get basic chores done, like trips to the laundry and public showers, said guests in an interview with Real Change Jan. 9. In light of the already low operating cost of the self-managed shelters, bus tickets were "the easiest thing to cut," said Tent City 3 resident Lisa Kier.
SHARE has embarked on a letter writing campaign to philanthropies and authorities notifying them of the move and requesting last-minute help. "There are 500 of us who will be without the ability to get to and from our shelters or to appointents, jobs, and medical facilities vital to our survival" come Jan. 15, says a letter dated Jan. 9 to the Seattle Seahawks CEO Todd Leiweke. "Any help the Seahawks could give would be greatly appreciated."