With the state deficit projected at $5.1 million and tax revenue expected to decline, the Governor will have some tough decisions to make this coming year. Financial forecasts are expected to worsen, and it seems that government restructuring and program cuts are inevitable.
As we wrap-up the fourth funding round for Washington Families Fund, I can't help but think about the homeless and low-income individuals, families, and children that will be impacted by the financial crisis we find ourselves in. Those who are already relying on government subsidies and housing service programs will certainly be stretched even further as community agencies struggle to find ways to keep people in their homes and provide more people with the services needed to prevent homelessness. Additionally,
On December 9th, several Building Changes staff members attended a special screening of the film, "Where God Left His Shoes," which is about the daily struggles of one homeless family in New York City. The film won the 2007 Humanitas Prize, Best Sundance Feature Film "for its unblinking look at the desperation inherent in poverty and homelessness, for its edgy portrayal of a father and stepson trying to connect and for its implicit belief that a family can be the strongest refuge in adversity" (John Horn, Humanitas Prize Trustee). The film screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring representatives of the United Way of King County, Family Services, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Seattle Seahawks.
We recently received very exciting news from Becky Bicknell at Housing Resources Group:
Kenyon House has earned
LEED Platinum certification through the
U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Homes rating system. Kenyon House is the first project in the State of Washington to attain LEED for Homes Platinum certification for affordable housing and only the second in the entire country! The project received grant funding from
Home Depot and
Enterprise Green Communities to support green building efforts, including the LEED certification process.
Specific green building elements of Kenyon House include: the preservation of many tall, mature trees, which offer natural beauty as well as solar shading in the summer; orientation of the building to take advantage of passive solar heating and
A couple of months ago, I sat down with Ed Petersen, Executive Director at
Housing Hope in Everett, WA. Joining me was Mark Putnam, Building Changes' Manager of Community Initiatives, and John Rio, of Advocates for Human Potential. We had heard that Ed was beginning to seek ways to increase employment outcomes for his tenants. Housing Hope is in the early development phase of creating a new program designed to increase employment opportunities for the tenants who live in their 280 housing units. A person must earn over $15 an hour to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in Snohomish County. It is therefore essential to increase access to education, training, and well-paying jobs to end homelessness.
Ed showed us Housing Hope's housing facilities, childcare center, and the home of
Seattle's Public Health Department has found evidence that the only rapid HIV test licensed to screen both saliva and blood (OraQuick) was not as accurate as the manufacturer claimed -
it missed 8% of 133 people who were later found to have HIV. These results raise a question for all jurisdictions using oral testing: is reaching a wider range of people with testing worth it, if the results may be flawed?
Since the introduction of OraQuick in 2004, spikes in false positives have been reported at least twice, causing alarm in San Francisco in 2005 and halting use of the test in New York City. But in some ways the Seattle results are more troubling. False positives can be re-tested with rapid blood tests immediately, but false negatives represent missed opportunities to diagnose people who
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