Tonight’s Council committee hearing lasted for two and a half hours. At the end, a resolution was voted out of committee — barely — but the future of Mayor Durkan’s nomination to fill the position of Director of the Human Services Department is as murky as ever.
Continue readingTag: HSD
City Auditor criticizes aspects of city’s homeless response
Today the Seattle City Auditor released its review of aspects of the city’s homeless response related to early outreach, hygiene services, and rigorous evaluation. The report was critical of the city’s execution on all three issues.
Continue readingSawant introducing resolution to send HSD Director nomination back to Mayor
As promised, Council member Kshama Sawant will be formally introducing a resolution on Monday to send back Mayor Jenny Durkan’s nomination of Jason Johnson as Director of the Human Services Department.
Continue readingDurkan makes two more appointments
Today Mayor Durkan announced two more department head appointments: Jason Johnson as Director of the Human Services Department, and Mariko Lockhart as Director of the Office of Civil Rights.
Continue readingThe Human Services Department got the message
This afternoon the Human Services Department briefed the City Council on the performance of its homelessness response programs. It was the dawn of a new era in transparency and accountability for the department.
Continue readingHSD Director Catherine Lester resigns
Today Human Services Director Catherine Lester announced that she is resigning so that she can move to Toronto to be closer to her family.
Continue readingCity releases results of $34 million homelessness services RFP
This afternoon, Mayor Tim Burgess and Human Services Department Director Catherine Lester announced funding grants to human services providers as a result of the $34 million RFP published earlier this year.
Continue readingCity puts $30M of homeless response funding out to bid
For the first time in ten years, the City of Seattle is bidding out $30 million of homelessness funding through an open RFP process. It’s using the RFP as a chance to rewrite the rules for service providers — and more importantly to ratchet up the requirements placed upon them.
Continue readingFriday news roundup
Welcome to the weekend!
Continue readingHomeless needs assessment paints a detailed picture of the city’s homeless population
Late last summer the Mayor promised that the Human Services Department was working on an assessment of the needs of Seattle’s homeless population. Originally due out in November, it was finally released today. The report gives the most detailed view to-date of who our homeless neighbors are, how they became homeless, and the issues they are struggling with. Along the way, it debunks several persistent myths about the homeless population and suggests the services that the city could provide that would do the most to lift them out of homelessness.
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