New Washington Youth & Families Fund grants aim to give families more housing options and help pregnant moms solve their housing crises.
Building Changes, through the Washington Youth & Families Fund, has awarded two new Systems Innovation grants in King and Pierce counties:
All Home King County will receive $400,000 over two years to support the launch of a new landlord liaison/housing locator initiative designed to recruit and engage landlords, property managers and housing developers to expand the housing inventory for families experiencing homelessness. The goal is to create coordinated partnerships between the homeless system and affordable and private market housing providers so that families have more options for getting into safe and stable housing quickly. This is critical to strategies such as Diversion and Rapid Re-Housing, which are increasingly reliant on market-rate housing. Partners in this project include the City of Seattle, King County, and United Way of King County.
A new cross-sector project in Pierce County will train maternal/child health (MCH) staff in the strategy of Diversion to help clients who are homeless or unstably housed creatively solve their housing crises. The three-year grant of $681,810 will support MCH providers to deliver Diversion services to pregnant and post-partum women and their families. This project builds on Pierce County’s success with implementing Diversion strategies and has the potential to improve both housing stability and health outcomes, including avoidance of costly neonatal care and infant hospitalizations.
