By Jason Johnson, City of Kent Housing and Human Services

The need for housing and human services is rising in South King County.

The tough economy and budget cuts to government-funded programs are hitting South King County residents hard. Layoffs in King County increased in 2008, as did the number of people using food banks and the number of late payment notices issued by Seattle City Light and Puget Sound Energy.  Meanwhile, new foreclosure filings are up county-wide — and 47 percent of foreclosed properties are in South King County, a number disproportionately higher than the amount of housing stock.

At the Federal Way-based Multi-Service Center, which assists residents in meeting basic needs, housing supervisor Tammy Money reports that demand for their services is way up. The Multi-Service Center (MSC) has 15 short-term units for families, but in 2008, the MSC received and had to turn down requests for shelter from over 1,000 households from the cities of Auburn, Burien, Federal Way, Kent and Renton.

Staff at the MSC refer those people they cannot help to the Washington Information Network. In 2008, the Washington Information Network 2-1-1 telephone services received 37,481 calls from King County residents — a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Of these calls, more than 35 percent are housing-related, including requests for shelter and rental and utility payment assistance. The largest number of calls to 2-1-1 comes from South King County, ahead of Seattle. Rent/mortgage payment assistance, utilities, emergency shelter and low-cost housing are identified as four of the top five gaps, or areas where requests exceeded the amount of service available.

2-1-1 responders attempt to connect all callers to an appropriate and available local agency or organization. Callers from Federal Way are often referred to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of St Theresa’s Catholic Church. The society offers a food bank, food and gas vouchers, and temporary emergency rent and utilities assistance, among other things.

Most of the funding and food bank items primarily come from St. Theresa’s church parishioner contributions, with additional money from the City of Federal Way and Weyerhaeuser Foundation. According to Joseph Roni, the chapter president, they assist around 400 households a year, including individual meetings with clients to assess their particular situation and determine the best way to help.

During this growing economic crisis, Roni notes that demand for food assistance remains constant — but one really noticeable trend is that more cash-strapped households are facing things like power shut-off and eviction. The funding the parish has only goes so far, and Roni hopes that the temporary emergency assistance they can provide helps keep some families from becoming homeless, a problem he suspects is growing.

Expanding services

With demand for services exceeding availability and capacity, many communities have taken extra steps to expand local services.

In Federal Way, for example, a combination of faith communities, social services agencies, local businesses, elected officials and citizens collaborated to expand services for homeless residents including a men’s shelter, a day center, and a mobile medical and dental van. Other local cities have also taken steps, such as increasing or at least maintaining their human services budget during a year full of budget cuts.

Individual citizens are extending their hands, too — and local organizations like the Multi-Service Center and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are counting on contributions from those more fortunate.

Learn more

For more information on how you can help, contact a leader from the South King County Response to Homelessness at (253) 856-5061.

Also, check out the Committee to End Homelessness in King County at www.cehkc.org.

For more data about basic needs and community well-being trends, visit the United Way indicators at www.uwkc.org/kcca and Communities Count regional health trends at www.communitiescount.org

Jason Johnson, Housing and Human Services Planner for the City of Kent, facilitates the South King County Forum on Homelessness and the coordinated effort to end homelessness in South King County. This article was developed and written by members of the South King County Forum on Homelessness including Megan Horst of Communities Count, Tammy Money and Linda Maser of Seattle/King County Coalition for the Homeless, Bill Block of the Committee to End Homelessness in King County, Kelli O’Donnell of the City of Federal Way, and Karen Bergsvik of the City of Renton.