King County ineligible for federal funding source to help homeless
King County won't be receiving this year the funds it has received for decades that has in past years helped pay for thousands of meals and shelter nights for people who are homeless or at risk.
Now, some Seattle nonprofits are looking for funding alternatives or they face having to make cuts.
The funds, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are meant for organizations that help those experiencing homelessness. In past years, King County has received hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which has gone to several nonprofits in the area.
But this time, the county was deemed ineligible due to its unemployment and poverty rates, which were too low for the cutoff.
"We know that despite our poverty and our unemployment rates being relatively low, we have an absolute homelessness crisis in our region," said Lauren McGowan, senior director for Ending Homelessness and Poverty at United Way of King County. "So many people are struggling, with 5,000 plus people living outside, to not have funding that can help them was a surprise and something that really is going to have a huge impact on our local community."
United Way is in the process of appealing the decision. McGowan said there isn't an official appeal process, but the organization is writing a letter to the board that decides who receives the funds.
In the long run, she said, United Way wants to advocate for a change to the process, calling for better criteria to be used to determine whether a county should qualify for funding -- such as looking at the number of unsheltered individuals. According to the 2019 Point-in-Time count, more than 5,000 individuals were living unsheltered in King County.
"There has to be a broader conversation," McGowan said.
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