SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced a new approach Wednesday aimed at connecting people experiencing homelessness with shelter, housing, and services based on their individual needs.
The city plans to expand a pilot program used in Pioneer Square that placed people experiencing homelessness on a by-name list identifying their specific needs rather than referring people from agency to agency.
City officials say the approach is intended to help connect each person with programs and resources tailored to their circumstances.
“We are going to scale up what we know works,” Wilson said.
The mayor described the plan as a “commitment to common sense” and said Seattle is building on approaches used elsewhere, including Denver. Wilson acknowledged Seattle faces a different challenge, noting Denver began its effort with a lower level of unsheltered homelessness.
As Seattle develops the lists, Wilson said the city will be able to more closely track whether individual people living outside are ultimately connected with shelter or housing.
“We will have a very tangible measure of our progress because we will know, like, here are these individuals who are sleeping on the street and now, here is how many we have navigated into shelter and housing,” Wilson said.
The effort will be funded using money earmarked for shelter expansion in the city’s 2027 budget, according to Wilson.
“We are doing this with efficiency, using existing resources,” Wilson said. “Marrying my shelter acceleration initiative with this proven model.”
Noah Fey of the Downtown Seattle Association said adding shelter capacity cannot be the city’s only focus.
“This group knows full well we simply can’t expand shelter without designing pathways for more people moving through our system and out of homelessness,” Fey said.
Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Jon Scholes also voiced support for the approach while acknowledging public skepticism surrounding previous efforts to address homelessness.
“I think whatever skepticism or cynicism you come in with or whatever skepticism or cynicism your readers and viewers have around these issues is fair,” Scholes said.
Scholes said the length of time many people have been living outside has compounded the problem.
“Not only do we have a homelessness crisis in Seattle, but because so many people have been out there so long, we have a medical crisis on our streets,” he said.
He also acknowledged the potential cost of addressing the crisis.
“Yes, it’s expensive,” Scholes said. “But you know what’s also expensive is the status quo.”
Asked why he was optimistic about this plan in particular, Scholes said Seattle is drawing from strategies that have already been tried.
“We’re building on what works. Not just here, but in other places,” Scholes said. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We are doing what has worked.”
“This is entirely solvable,” he added. “We have the resources. We have the smarts. We have the means, and we have a plan.”