Welcome back, Members!
As we approach crucial elections at the city, state, and federal levels, the Coalition introduces new faces and trusted approaches to working together in coalition to provide stable housing and essential services to those in our community who need our advocacy the most.
In September 2024’s General Membership Meeting we:
- Met two new key staff members at the King County Regional Homeless Authority (KCRHA)
- Learned about Aurora Commons and its SHE Clinic on Aurora
- Discussed the impact of the drug and prostitution banishment zones (SOAP/SODA) that passed Sept 17 in Seattle City Council
- Previewed upcoming trainings hosted by the Coalition including
- Public Benefits are Key, Medicare/Medicaid, Sept 26
- Serving McKinney-Vento Students, Oct 1
Meet two new KCRHA Chief staffers
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority has two new key staff members, Kelly Kinnison, joining the team as the Chief Executive Officer, and Irene Agustin, joining the team as the Chief Programs Officer.
Both are new to the region and have long professional histories in the field of health and human services.
Kelly Kinnison grew up in Ohio and spent time in Washington D.C. doing federal policy work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. One of her goals for her first year at KCRHA is to show how feedback is valuable and how it shapes the future of the organization.
Irene Agustin has worked in almost every aspect of the homelessness response system, from prevention to outreach, in many cities across the country. She is excited about bringing what she’s learned in her 15-year career to the cities of King County. She says, “the experience in different cities is different,” and it’s important to tailor responses to homelessness to our local community. As the KCRHA Chief Programs Officer, she’ll be taking a critical look at the organization’s homelessness response system and coordinated entry system to make necessary improvements and get people connected to housing as quickly as possible.
KCRHA sees its role as being the emergency response system, rather than doing any direct service. As Kelly said, the KCRHA’s ideal role is “bringing folks together to think about the system broadly” and executing in its lane, facilitating conversations with experts to identify gaps, and inviting other partners to the table.
The organization is working to earn the trust of its community and to make better, data-informed decisions. It’s also participating in listening sessions with staff, hiring senior leadership, and filling out the divisions around its core business. These include:
- Financial management and grant management system.
- Having data available to the system.
- Developing training and program guides that the community wants.
- Doing deep community engagement in an ongoing way.
The KCRHA is currently focused on listening, visiting, and learning from its community. If you need to know who to contact for different pieces of your work, the KCRHA is here to answer those questions.
Aurora Commons and the SHE Clinic
The Aurora Commons is a non-profit space on the corner of Auora Ave N and N 90th St. Aurora Commons calls itself a “neighborhood living room,” and its primary goal is to help people feel like they’re at home. It’s a place where people can just “be.”
Its mission is to cultivate community and belonging first, because that where health and healing start. Aurora Commons doesn’t prescribe someone’s journey for them, it simply provides a safe space to rest and relax. If someone is seeking services, there’s an advocacy team they can talk to.
Some of the basic services Aurora Commons provides are:
- Food
- Clothing
- Hygiene
- Wound care
- Place to have coffee
- Household supplies
- Sometimes sleeping bags/bags
The Commons serves about 20-30 people a day for advocacy and about 160-200 people a day for all services.
Advocacy is primarily on a first come/first serve basis, with a signup sheet that’s capped about an hour and a half after the Commons opens its doors in the morning. There is an advocacy team of five with three of the five specifically focused on gender-based violence.
Monday night at the Commons is “men’s” night, where people who identify as men have their own space from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday night is “women’s” night, where people who identify as women have the same type of private space from 6:00-9:00 p.m.
A part of Aurora Commons is the SHE Clinic, launched in 2018, which stands for Safe, Healthy, Empowered Clinic. This clinic is an opportunity for people who identify as female to access primary medical care on a drop-in/walk-in basis. Besides offering the full spectrum of primary care, SHE Clinic focuses on STD testing and treatment, wound care, hypertension, diabetes, and reproductive care.
In tandem with SHE Clinic, the Aurora Clinic focuses on trauma-informed, harm-reduction medical care for those otherwise unable to access it. The clinics prioritize seeing female-identifying folks on Wednesdays and Thursdays and serve male-identifying folks on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The clinics are closely related to Harborview Medical Center and the UW Primary Care Thorton Creek, which allows the patients of SHE and Aurora Clinics to benefit from the specialty care those two facilities offer. The SHE Clinic also has a relationship with the Harborview LTC Pharmacy, which means patients of the clinic can get medications delivered to the SHE Clinic rather than traveling to another location to pick up medication.
The Clinics generally operate from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The best way to receive care is to show up in person at the beginning of the day. Neither clinic currently takes referrals for care.
Banishment Orders Pass in Seattle
Two new pieces of legislation passed Seattle City Council on Tuesday, September 17. These new laws will create banishment zones around the city for people charged with certain drug- or prostitution-related crimes. One piece of legislation creates a new misdemeanor crime for “prostitution loitering” in the area north of 85th Street on or near Aurora. This means a police officer can arrest someone who looks like they are engaging in sex work without having to prove that the person sold sex, and that person can be charged with a misdemeanor.
Seattle used to have such a law, but it was thrown out after it was proved to disproportionately target trans women, cis women, and people of color.
The other piece of legislation creates six Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) zones where people can be excluded if they’re charged with misdemeanor drug crimes or other misdemeanor crimes “with a nexus to” drug activity. These zones include parts of the following Seattle neighborhoods:
- Downtown
- Belltown
- International District
- Pioneer Square
- University District
- Capitol Hill
Both the SOAP and SODA banishment laws are really broad pieces of legislation that will primarily target people who are experiencing poverty, people experiencing homelessness, and people of color. These laws will make it a lot harder for people to access the essential services they need, since people with a SOAP/SODA order will need a judge’s approval to visit these zones for housing and other services.
There was a strong force of community opposing these laws, including voices from the ACLU of Washington, MLK Labor, Evergreen Treatment Services/REACH, the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence and others. On Tuesday, September 17, the Seattle City Council chamber was packed with people giving public comment in opposition. Some of the integral players in voicing opposition include Strippers Are Workers and the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility.
The Coalition on Homelessness had more than 250 people contact their councilmembers and the mayor to voice their opposition. In total, we sent more than 930 messages. This level of participation helps demonstrate that our community knows these pieces of legislation are not the way forward.
Moving forward, Mayor Harrell will release his proposed budget on Tuesday, September 24. The Coalition will be watching very closely this budget season and will be calling upon the community to take action at the appropriate time. If you’re not already signed up for our Action Alerts, you can do so here. If you’re already signed up, help us increase our impact by sharing this link with a friend or community member.
Upcoming Coalition Trainings
The next important training coming up is the Serving McKinney-Vento Students training on October 1 from 10:00-12:00 p.m. This training is on the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal act that gives students and their families experiencing homelessness specific rights in the public school system. The McKinney-Vento Act applies to students in K-12 who are:
- Homeless
- Living in a shelter
- Living in a vehicle
- Living doubled up
If you are a case manager or social worker who deals with children experiencing homelessness, attending this training will help you understand what rights these children are eligible for in the public school system. To register, click here.
That’s all for September! In our October General Membership Meeting, we will go over Evergreen Treatment Services’ Treatment in Motion program, review general election initiative endorsements, and hear about the Coalition’s upcoming Advocacy Training Workshops. To register, click here.