KING COUNTY, Wash. — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
King County Executive Girmay Zahilay signed an executive order Tuesday to increase housing availability for the homeless.
Zahilay’s executive order establishes the Breaking the Cycle Initiative on homelessness.
“We need to end the cycle of crisis that sends vulnerable neighbors repeatedly through emergency rooms, jails, shelters, and back onto the streets without finding stability or recovery,” Zahilay said. “This executive order will take concrete steps to align partners, actions, and funding across the continuum to help more people rebuild their lives and create healthier, safer communities across King County.”
Zahilay has big plans to end homelessness, and he’s setting his own time limit.
“We will open 500 new units of housing in the next 500 days. This will include emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing, and other options that connect people to the services they need to stay housed,” Zahilay said.
King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda backed Zahilay’s executive order, saying housing leads to stability.
“You can’t have stability, health, or healing without the basic necessity of a place to call home, and too many across our county are facing just that reality,” Mosqueda said. “Today’s executive order sets up King County and our partners to act, collaborate, and identify tools at our disposal to create the housing and shelter our communities need. Breaking cycles means building the supports and structures that lead to lasting stability.”
King County homelessness workgroup to span multiple departments
Zahilay said he will convene a cross-sector and intergovernmental Breaking the Cycle workgroup to further develop policy, structural, and funding recommendations to improve outcomes and coordination in the homelessness, addiction, behavioral health, and incarceration continuum.
The workgroup will include a representative from the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS), Public Health – Seattle and King County, the King County Sheriff’s Office, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Department of Public Defense, the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, Jail Health Services, the Department of Local Services, and King County Information Technology.
Zahilay said the county will look at unused county-owned properties that can be converted into affordable housing and emergency shelters. And, the plan comes with a first-ever countywide levy on homelessness. Zahilay admitted that part of his plan may not be popular, but he said it’s necessary.
“We know there are tradeoffs here, but we absolutely have to have a commitment to the people who are most vulnerable in our community,” he said.
Zahilay added that the plan reflects the urgency of the homelessness crisis in King County and its place atop his list of priorities.
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