Snohomish County recently awarded more than $2.2 million to 23 projects designed to help end homelessness.

This is the fifth year Snohomish County has distributed Ending Homelessness funds, keeping in line with County Executive Aaron Reardon’s plan to assist families and individuals in need of housing as well as to prevent more families from slipping into homelessness.
 
“These projects put us closer to our goal of ending homelessness in Snohomish County,” Reardon said. “They are innovative and successfully show our dedication to eliminating this very real problem.”
 
Ending Homelessness funds, which are collected from local document recording fees, are used to support agencies that are working within the goals of Snohomish County’s 10-year affordable-housing plan “Everyone at Home Now.”
 
Projects selected continue to advance the county’s efforts to reduce homelessness through innovative programs and best practices models. While 20 projects selected this year have received program funding in the past, three new projects were chosen, based on the merits of the project applications.
 
New Ground Everett, a Friends of Youth project, is a six-unit apartment complex that provides supportive housing and intensive case management services to 12 young adults at a time.
 
Mercy Housing Northwest will provide housing and case management for 22 homeless families with children at Family Tree Apartments in Everett. Families will receive intensive case management services to help them achieve family stability, self-sufficiency and success in permanent housing.
 
The VOAWW’s Housing First for Jail/Prison Releasees will serve homeless individuals being released from jail or prison who suffer from severe mental illness, a substance-abuse disorder, or who are developmentally or physically disabled. They will be placed in housing coupled with intensive case management.
 
In addition, an ongoing housing subsidy program for veterans and people with disabilities has been recently subcontracted to Catholic Community Services to provide recipients with an additional year of housing subsidy coupled with intensive case management. The ultimate goal is for all voucher holders to be placed in some form of permanent housing that they can afford by June 2012.
 
Below is a complete list of project recipients:
 
Bridgeways
Transitional Housing Program
$85,898
Catholic Community Services
Chronic Homeless Programs
$38,582
Catholic Community Services
STEP
$424,050
Cocoon House
Project SAFE/Prevention
$132,376
Community Health Center
Health Care for High-Need Homeless
$50,000
Compass Health
Housing Vouchers for Chronically Homeless
$148,534
Domestic Violence Services
Positive Transitions
$64,500
Friends Of Youth
New Ground Everett/Transitional
$44,363
Housing Hope
Child Development Project
$37,500
Housing Hope
College of Hope
$80,740
Housing Hope
Homeless Teen Parent Program
$56,550
Housing Hope
Prevention/Rapid Re-Housing
$50,000
Interfaith Assoc. of NW WA
Interfaith Family Shelter
$20,000
Mercy Housing
Homeless Family Case Management
$24,750
Salvation Army
Permanent Housing
$171,047
Snohomish Co. Legal Services
Legal Services to Prevent Homelessness
$42,000
VOA WW
Housing First/Sky Valley
$234,391
VOA WW
Housing First/Prison Jail Releasees
$198,633
VOA WW
Rental Housing Certification
$73,328
VOA WW
Sky Valley Prevention
$105,072
YWCA
Children's Services
$72,548
YWCA
Family Village-Everett
$50,297
YWCA
Supportive Housing Case Mgmt.
$47,062
TOTAL
 
2,252,221
 
For more information on the program, funding and other projects selected, contact Dean Weitenhagen, supervisor of the Office of Housing, Homelessness & Community Development, at 425-388-3267.