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
In 2006, Building Changes and the City of Seattle Office of Housing led a community planning process to assess the existing connections between the workforce development and homeless service systems. This process began a couple of years into our community's Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, which included only limited strategies related to increasing economic opportunities for those experiencing homelessness. That process, and the opportunities for action that the resulting report recommended, spurred our community to action. Over the past year, homeless housing and services funders have ramped up their funding, and their expectations, for employment programs serving homeless job seekers. Some homeless housing and services providers have already stepped up to that challenge by developing
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