In January, Darryl Smith became CEO of HomeSight in Southeast Seattle, the most diverse part of the city. When COVID-19 hit the United States, Washington was the first to be listed as a hotspot. There have been more than 25,000 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the state, and more than a thousand deaths. About half of those have been in King County, named for Martin Luther King, Jr., the county where Seattle is located. Meanwhile, Seattle has also been a scene of protests, including a portion of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where residents are demanding police reform following the May death of George Floyd.
What's happening: "We got hit pretty early here, with COVID. Whenever an emergency happens, it tends to hit brown and black communities faster and harder. We got set up to do what we needed to do. Then we turned to figure out how to support the community.
Civil Rights: "The [civil rights fight] is pretty dramatic here in Seattle. There are lots of events and lots of marches. We are serving as a conduit for our community. Many of the staff gathered [June 14] for a 70,000-person, silent march. We are trying through our actions to be allies and to stand in solidarity with folks at the forefront of this fight.
Response: "We have a lot of People of Color (POC)-owned, POC-run businesses here. We have a lot of women-owned businesses, a lot of refugee-owned businesses. As the economy began to turn, we realized this was going to be devastating for a lot of them." A business community development manager told him that there were leftover funds from a program HomeSight ran last year. They revamped the program to help businesses now, adding funding from foundations, banks and NeighborWorks. "A lot of people were realizing that if we don't do something to help Seattle small businesses, there was a possibility we'd lose some of them." They also found funding for rental programs, food distribution programs and youth programs for organizations around Othello Square, a community they are developing. "In total, we were able to get $250,000 in a couple of months out as COVID relief. We've also worked with other organizations to put together a website called essentialseseattle.com where you can get all kinds of information on who's open and what they're offering."
Impact: "There have been a lot of layoffs. Many businesses are teetering. There's lack of access. And people are asking ‘how do we get a PPP [Payroll Protection Program] loan?' We've been trying to be a conduit. We're in a unique part of the city and we want to see it survive."
Message of hope: "I always try to tie it back to our mission. HomeSight has a track record of 30 years. We broke the log-jam on redlining in the central district. When nobody would build there, HomeSight did. Our mission is geared to address, in our corner of the planet, structural and institutional racism. We understand that building wealth and having people able to own something is incredibly important. [What's happening] isn't just about the police; it's about everything else, too."
How to help: Smith says his organization can always use financial donations. "We are a part of this community. We'd love to have more people in support of what we're trying to do."
From their offices six miles away, Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI), another NeighborWorks network organization, owns and operates housing for low-income, formerly homeless, and homeless Seattle residents.
What's happening: "We have been on the front lines of the COVID crisis," says Aaron Long, executive assistant to Sharon Lee, executive director of LIHI. "Seattle has the third largest homeless population in the country." In May, still impacted by COVID, Seattle residents also focused on a renewed call for racial equity after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota. Some of the protests were peaceful, like the silent march last weekend. Some were not. "As a precaution we boarded windows on a few of our centrally located properties, but didn't have any property damage," Long says. "Our organization strongly supports racial equity. A disproportionate number of homeless people and low-income tenants are minorities."
COVID response: "Most traditional homeless shelters have people packed in pretty tightly," Long says. To change the paradigm, even before COVID, LIHI created villages of tiny houses where homeless people can stay in their own, private, lockable tiny house. Singles, couples, and families with children are living in tiny houses. "When COVID-19 hit Seattle, the city immediately reached out to us to ask us to create more shelter of this type. We already had 9 tiny house villages in Seattle, as well as one each in Tacoma and Olympia. The City of Seattle provided us funding from FEMA and city funds to create 100 new tiny houses and shelter beds.This included opening a new village focusing on homeless Native Americans, African Americans and Alaskan Natives, doubling the size of an existing village, and opening a 24/7 enhanced shelter. Thanks to our experience and the simple designs we use we were able to open these in a matter of weeks." Long says the city may ask them to build more villages as the threat of coronavirus to the homeless population continues. "There have been no positive cases in our tiny houses," Long says.
Impact: "About half of our long-term housing units are fully subsidized, but half are not. Where subsidies are lacking many residents are struggling to pay rent as many have lost their jobs. We're making payment plans with our residents, but it's possible that we'll have substantial defaults. We're hoping that government assistance to residents and non-profits will help cover these kinds of losses."
Message of hope: "A number of our staff and clients marched together in the silent Black Lives Matter march. We issued out a statement of support for racial justice."
The statement from Lee acknowledges deeply rooted pain and trauma."LIHI, and service providers like LIHI, need to be committed to racial equity in our work as we fight housing instability and homelessness."
Internally, says Long, "we've had a series of zoom meetings about racial justice where we've discussed what our organization can do better both internally with our employees and externally with our residents and clients."
He says the tiny house program also offers hope. "It's a great crisis response to homelessness. It works well in a pandemic situation. Villages can be set up very quickly. We urge other municipalities and organizations to consider adopting this model. We have information and expertise that we can share."
- How to help: Donations to the Low Income Housing Initiative's Tiny House Program can be made at the organization's website.
- Further reading: Sharon Lee talks about the Tiny House Program.
