SEATTLE'S CRISIS OF CARE
One of the first things Marc Dones proposed after taking the reins of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) last year was funding high-acuity shelter space for people living on the streets with acute mental health and substance abuse disorders.
(The chronically homeless) are the folks who again and again and again get left behind, no matter what the engagement is. Its not because we are bad at engaging them, its because theres nowhere for us to route them to, Dones says. If they do get a placement, theyre often kicked right back out because the facilities lack the intense levels of services they need.
The cost of these services represents a fraction of the estimated up to $1.1 billion annual cost to fully address homelessness in King County, according to a 2020 report by McKinsey & Co. Six years after homelessness was declared a crisis in Seattle, it remains highly visible in downtown, which has the regions highest concentration of chronically homeless people.
The reasons for homelessness are varied and often purely economic loss of a job, medical emergency, rising rent or a combination of these things, according to KCRHA. Mental illness and substance abuse, however, are among the most visible causes of homelessness.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/03/20/seattle-homeless-shelters-face-funding-challenge.html