Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a bill on June 22 to create 500 new shelter beds in the next three months, bumping Seattle’s supply of bridge housing and shelter units by 25 percent.
According to a press release, the city currently has 2,032 shelter spaces to serve people found homeless in Seattle during a point-in-time count conducted in January. Those shelter beds are 93 percent full each night.
Options under consideration include 233 new shelter beds, 75 new spaces of “bridge housing” in a downtown building, another 100 spaces at City Hall beginning June 29, support for the tiny house village in Whittier Heights and an additional 76 tiny homes split between South Lake Union and 18th and Yesler that will serve an expected 95 people.
The legislation also maintains 163 shelter spaces that would otherwise go offline.
Included in the 2,032 count are several hundred spaces maintained by the Seattle Housing And Resource Effort (SHARE), a self-managed system maintained predominately in local churches. share did not receive funding through the November 2017 bidding process, meaning the organization was expected to either find new funding sources or shut down.
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Ashley Archibald is a Staff Reporter covering local government, policy and equity. Have a story idea? She can be can reached at ashleya (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Follow Ashley on Twitter @AshleyA_RC
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