Lake City Partners Ending Homelessness 3rd Quarter update

Lake City Partners Ending Homelessness operates three main programs: the GLA Day Center in Lake City, Community Outreach in North Seattle/King County, and the Aurora Oaks Enhanced Shelter in Shoreline.

Their organizations hum with activity but Executive Director William Towey took time to report on their 3rd quarter in a newsletter.

By William Towey, Executive Director

Lake City Partners Ending Homelessness

The third quarter of 2023 was a strong example of how our approach of providing direct services through Outreach, Day Center, and Enhanced Shelter that is closely integrated with our Client Services team creates a very productive pathway to housing and shelter.

For example:

• In Q3 the GLA Day Center assisted 32 unsheltered individuals get off the street into emergency shelter.
• In Q3 Lake City Partners placed 17 individuals into Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH).
• Additionally, our close partnerships with Catholic Community Services and Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) have confirmed 19 individuals in the soon to open St Margaret's Place and another 13 in the soon to open DESC building (Burbridge Place). We anticipate that by the end of 2023 all of these individuals will be moved into brand new apartments!

Currently, 45% of the folks staying at the Aurora Oaks Enhanced Shelter have an active housing referral. 

We anticipate that 33% of the Oaks census will exit into housing this month.

Congratulations to our Client Services team for their work with the Coordinated Entry for All (CEA) system – which is a complex and challenging system because it is a single access point for many different housing providers and types of housing. Coordinated entry ensures that all folks experiencing homelessness have equitable access to housing resources.

What does this look like qualitatively?

'Ranger' joined the Oaks right before Christmas 2021. Prior to moving into the Oaks he had been living in his truck since 2013. Ranger arrived at Oaks with some serious medical and mobility issues that have gotten more under control as a result of having a stable place to stay that has a Primary Care Clinic just 5 minutes away. Ranger, who is of retirement age, enjoys fishing and being in nature as much as possible. 

The Client Services team sought to incorporate those loves into a housing placement for him, securing an apartment in Magnuson Park and he will soon be able to walk out of his building to go fishing down at the water to his heart's content.

Maintaining a sense of identity and finding joy while being unsheltered for years is difficult. The client services team strives to ensure that participants end up with an apartment that really suits them and meets their specific needs while allowing them to rediscover who they are and what they love.

Lucy arrived at the Oaks in August of 2023. She had been struggling with various health care needs and these were really impacted by her lack of stable shelter since 2016. Within 10 weeks of arriving at Oaks, housing was secured for her. When she was informed of this she was shocked and simply asked where we had been for the last 7 years!

Foundational Community Support

I am thrilled to share that Lake City Partners is now an authorized FCS (Foundational Community Support) provider agency. FCS is a program funded by the Washington State Health Care Authority. 

It was a long and technical process to obtain the qualification to become authorized for Medicaid billing, but we are grateful to be able to tap into this resource for our participants that helps offset operational costs and can provide direct financial benefits to those moving into housing. 

The ability to begin to access Medicaid funding to support interventions and programs for our clients is truly exciting and game-changing!

To learn more, or if your company, congregation or place of work promotes “giving days” leading up to the holiday season or provides tabling opportunities for local nonprofits, please contact chitra@lakecitypartners.org 

11-16-2023 Correction to first line to more correctly describe their services.