Drafter
Clerk 09/10/2019
Title
A MOTION requesting the executive to develop, implement and report on a pilot program to deploy at least one multidisciplinary homeless outreach team that is dedicated exclusively to Metro transit department public transportation services and report to the council with a full evaluation on the pilot program and any further recommendations to improve the pilot program.
Body
WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") defines homeless as including individuals and families who: (1) are living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements; or (2) have a primary residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a vehicle, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport or camping ground, and
WHEREAS, HUD requires all Continuums of Care, which is "All Home" in Seattle and King County, to conduct a Point-in-Time Count of their unsheltered population on a biennial basis and Seattle and King County is among several communities that conducts an annual count, and
WHEREAS, in 2019 and in prior years, as part of the Point-in-Time Count, All Home implemented special outreach efforts to count the homeless on late-night bus routes; in particular utilizing volunteers to tally individuals observed sleeping on the buses during a single round-trip journey, and
WHEREAS, aggregate results of individuals experiencing homelessness in Seattle and King County tallied during the 2019 Count Us In Survey showed that forty-six percent of those queried on the night of the One Night Count on January 25, 2019, had been living for the past twelve months in either an emergency shelter or on the streets, or both, with on the streets including bus stations, underpasses, encampments and abandoned buildings, and
WHEREAS, a total of 11,199 individuals were experiencing homeless...

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