The 2016 Legislative Session may have ended, but there are still plenty of ways to stay engaged in housing advocacy! Join HDC for the upcoming Advocacy Week, a new annual tradition that the Housing Development Consortium is kicking off to organize a series of community efforts highlighting the need for affordable housing in cities all throughout King County. Taken together, this will shine a spotlight on the need for affordable housing regionally, and will demonstrate the support for the movement to provide all people with the chance to live in a safe, healthy, affordable home in a community of opportunity. For more information, and to register to receive updates, click here! As always, if you have any questions or would like to find out how to become more engaged with SKHHP, don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
— Joy Scott, SKC Housing Planner Read More
News
Updates from the South King Housing & Homelessness Partnership!
Updates from the South King Housing and Homelessness Partnership!
Questions of best practices, capacity, and resources have weighed heavily this month, as many of us have been wondering about the right approach to address the housing and homelessness crisis our region is experiencing. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen dozens of cities come together to explore local and regional models of addressing homelessness. Many communities are having internal conversations, bringing together community members, service providers, the business community, and others to increase their understanding of the issue and decide on community actions. South King County had a strong presence at the recent Cities Convening on Homelessness, and I look forward to continuing to work with you all as we address this crisis, and continue to demonstrate South King County’s regional, unified voice.
– Joy Scott, SKC Housing Planner
City Spotlight
Three years ago, the City of Renton entered into an exciting and unusual partnership with the Renton Ecumenical Association of Churches (REACH). The city offered the old jail space in the city hall building for use as a day center, if REACH could fund and make the required renovations to re-purpose it. REACH held a successful fundraising campaign, and in May of 2013, the Center of Hope opened. Read More
Updates from the South King Housing and Homelessness Partnership!
As we move further into 2016, we’ve been working to determine what we want to collectively accomplish as the South King Housing and Homelessness Partnership. Members of the Homelessness Action Committee and Joint Planners and Developers workgroup have each met to identify priorities and opportunities for action this year. For more information on the policies and practices we’ve identified that could help to address affordable housing and homelessness issues in our region, click here. And as always, feel free to contact me ([email protected]) with any questions!
— Joy Scott, SKC Housing Planner
Places to Be
The Puget Sound Regional Council is hosting a peer networking series focused on best practices and resources for local planning and implementation. The March 17th panel discussion and webinar will be focused on partnerships for affordable housing, with the topic of “Models of Cross-Jurisdictional Coordination from Around the Region to Produce and Preserve Affordable Housing.” Get more information, including how to sign up for this and future events here.
Updates from the South King Housing and Homelessness Partnership
January was a great time for me to come on board with SKHHP! With the start of the new year came a renewed focus on data for many of us. Events like the One Night Count and community forums provide us with the opportunities to not only define the issues we’re looking to address, but shape the response to it in a way that makes sense for our communities. These SKHHP updates will provide a space for you to find out what’s happening with housing and homelessness in South King County, where to find new resources, and places your voice can make a difference.
—Joy Scott, SKC Housing Planner
City Spotlight
The City of Auburn has been working on engaging with its residents to shape a conversation on homelessness and what it means for our area. The Auburn Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness brings together community members, business owners, and city staff to create meaningful dialogue about the experience of and response to homelessness in our region. The Task Force recently held its fourth meeting. Read More
Are You Turned Outward?
Written by Kelly Rider, Government Relations and Policy Director, Housing Development Consortium
A few weeks back, the Harwood Institute came to King County for a 3 day workshop with local governments and community partners. The workshop goals included:
- Strengthen and empower community partnerships to address community priorities and challenges
- Train participants to identify and authentically understand community priorities and
- Inspire public institutions toward authentic engagement.
Throughout our time together, we were challenged to turn outward:
JUST Program: Available to HDC Members
Guest post written by Francis Janes, JUST Program Manager
Developed by Seattle based International Living Future Institute, the JUST Program is a robust and elegant social justice transparency platform and disclosure tool. The JUST Program can be viewed as a “nutrition label” for socially responsible organizations and corporations. The JUST Label provides at-a-glance information about an organization’s progress in key social justice categories such as diversity, equity, safety, employee benefit, local benefit and community stewardship.
When organizations participate in the JUST Program, organizations can test how they are really doing in reference to these social justice metrics and, as a result, may choose to work towards greater social justice and equity in the workplace. The JUST Program is available to all organizations in all sectors including publicly traded corporations, privately held businesses, non-profits, government agencies, educational institutions, and cooperatives.
Introducing All Home
Written by Erin Murphy, HDC Communications Manager
We are very excited to share the announcement below regarding the Committee to End Homelessness re-branding as All Home as of today. HDC has participated in this re-naming and re-branding process and fully supports this change. While the name and look of an organization or group is not necessarily more important than the impact of their work, a name/logo/website etc. still go a long way in reflecting the desired impact and the perception of the organization. For this reason, HDC is completely behind All Home as they strive to build an inclusive movement in order to achieve their plan to address homelessness in King County.
The news below comes directly from our partners at the Committee to End Homelessness, now All Home.
What is HDC Reading?
In anticipation of the upcoming HDC 7th Annual Celebration Luncheon on April 30th, and guest speaker, Eugene Robinson, Executive Director, Marty Kooistra, recently had a conversation with Racial Equity Initiative Coordinators, Monica Joe and Reuben Waddy, to ask them about their impressions and key takeaway’s from Robinson’s book: Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America.
Marty: Monica and Reuben, I hear that you have had a chance to read the Eugene Robinson book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, in anticipation of his appearance here. Did it spark enthusiasm for you to hear him speak?
Monica: It definitely helps shape the HDC work specifically for Seattle-King County and the Racial Equity Initiative, because he talks about how we can’t just address one “Black Community” because that doesn’t mean anything in this day and age. So that definitely complicates our work while guiding how we move forward.
Reuben: The whole point of the book was to establish a sort of progression for how we view African American dynamics. How he framed that progression is applicable to how King County itself can become more inclusive. We have to be aware of cultural differences even within different cultural brackets. And once you get to the nitty gritty, nuanced details, equity work becomes, not necessarily easier, but a lot more apparent with more definable goals.
