Housing Shit

Sometimes I write shit for my grants, and I look at it, and I'm like, "That didn't suck too bad" so I thought I'd share some of the rationale I've posited for a grant here....mind you, most grants have character restrictions, so some of this could have delved deeper, but brevity, data, and theory of change are three key points to remember in grantwriting. You know, this was in response to the typical request for <not a lot of $ that makes you "Describe the history of your agency, your program, your program's theory of change, extensive demographic data about your population, how you came to serve the target population, how you came to do what you do, and name all positions to be covered with these funds.....BTW, 5,000 character limit."

Also, brevity is not my strong suit. How did I get into this field? In the end, I ended up deleted almost half of what's below in the final submission because I didn't realize the restriction was so fierce. Here's close to the original. Nothing really discusses our agency's provisions, just the climate/issues that we're requesting $ for.

 

I think it's also apparent that I loved book reports, right?

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Seattle is currently experiencing a population boom of a magnitude not seen since, well, the Gold Rush. (http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattles-population-boom-approaching-gold-rush-numbers/) “Well, since 2010 — the year Amazon consolidated operations in South Lake Union and began its hiring spree — Seattle has gained 14,511 people per year, on average, according to census data.” This increase in population has driven up rent and the price of home sales, as well as made available housing scarcer.

To understand the challenges facing our program participants, one must first understand that homelessness no longer affects Seattle’s chronically homeless—but also the underemployed and those individuals and families living paycheck-to-paycheck. People experiencing homelessness have oftentimes lost their housing after a medical emergency or crisis left them unable to afford rent AND medical bills. The scarcity of affordable housing in Seattle and King County also disproportionately affects those people living on low incomes.

To qualify for housing provided by _______, our tenants must earn 30% or less area median income (AMI), which, for a family of 4 in Seattle is $26,900. This translates to a family of 4 living on 30% AMI being able to afford a 2-bedroom house for $585/month. Unfortunately, the actual average cost of an affordable 2-bedroom in Seattle is between $640‑$1,262/month, with the real cost being closer to $2,000/month. (http://clerk.seattle.gov/public/meetingrecords/2014/plus20140213_1a.pdf)

The escalation of prices is not the only thing adding to homelessness in Seattle. The economic downturn resulted in layoffs and shuttered businesses throughout the country, as well as in record numbers of foreclosures and evictions. Many of our tenants have a history of foreclosures or evictions, poor credit, high debt, and other barriers that landlords refuse to allow. While it is illegal for landlords to deny tenant applications based on source of income (meaning landlords cannot refuse Section 8 vouchers), the growing number of Amazon, Google, and Facebook employees, for example, has created a back-door for discrimination: landlords are allowed to state they have preferred employers for their tenants. Being that few, if any, persons living on low income work for these tech giants, the employees of these growing tech companies swoop up available higher-end and middle –rate market rate housing, and push middle income earners (with 60-80% AMI) into “workforce housing.” This in turn creates more competition for the remaining affordable (read: "workforce" and low-income) housing.

Competition for affordable housing is fierce. Our housing advocates have seen 80-90 potential tenants lined up for affordable unit open houses. The landlord requires a holding fee and/or first and last month’s rent plus security to remove the unit from the market. This holding fee is nonrefundable for any reason. Meaning, if the potential tenant changes their mind for any reason, they lose that holding fee. Also adding to the competition, the open houses are spread throughout the week and at all times of day and require people to line up in advance of the showing. This operation is not necessarily conducive to the inflexibility of a working class schedule, where you are often given a schedule and must use unpaid time off to request days off.

The City has created “Incentive Zoning for Affordable Housing,” incentivizing construction and management companies to build a percentage of new builds as affordable units— or opt out and pay into a fund to support affordable housing. While this fund may support affordable rents in the future, it also delays the real-time availability of affordable housing for people living on low incomes. As evidenced by the 14% jump in the One Night Count for homelessness, it is obvious that Seattle can not keep up and needs additional solutions. (SIDE NOTE: The site shows a 21% jump, but that is including two new areas; in the previous territories only, the jump was 14%.) As our agency continues to serve this growing population, we are challenged with replacing outdated, archaic systems that fail to provide reliability for our staff and residents. When our agency ventured into residential services in the 1990s, we promised that we would provide safety, security, and stability for those families living on low incomes and experiencing homelessness and multiple barriers to success. Your support will continue our promise and delivery on that vision.

Housing models for families living on low incomes offer varying levels of supportive services. Our Residential Services programs are located throughout Seattle, and provide support to families to make homelessness “rare, brief, and one-time”—the new language supported by “All Home,” the community-wide partnership to address growing homelessness in King County. 

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Then I went on to connect the fact that everything in this world feels hopeless, especially when it comes to affecting poverty, but that IF they gave us $, things would be slightly less shitty for residents who are trying to exit poverty because we would use technology to exit us from communicating in the Dark Ages of smoke signals and Morse code.

Some days, everything feels all uphill. And typey typing on a computer may not be the most effective way to create an impact in the world. And then I question if I ant to actually have an impact at all because I REALLY want to move to the country and learn to milk goats and make my own damn cheese and live in a tiny house with a HUGE kitchen and BIG garden with only electricity and internal plumbing and gas so I can cook in my HUGE kitchen but not be bothered by the outside world. 

I think I need to work on my FB addiction first tho...Don't think the irony of me writing about people with real problems is lost on me.

FLORY OUT.