Should Seattle penalize failing homeless shelters?

At the core of Seattle’s homeless shelter funding is whether they should be held to the same standards as businesses and nonprofits. The city set performance goals and promised to financially penalize those who didn’t meet them. Now that it’s time to do so, they’re a little hesitant.

According to a study by The Seattle Times, 61 of the 86 shelters and encampments did not meet the minimum requirements for placing the homeless into permanent housing.

“The questions is: Are they going to invoke these penalties that they threatened these organizations with?” asked KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney. “The first quarter they were just giving them a chance, and the second quarter they haven’t done any better.”

“If it’s not enough success, do you then penalize the very people who are trying to do their best because you’ve set this accountability issue?”

Related: Mayor wants to open City Hall to shelter homeless

When the city contributed $34 million to nonprofit agencies running shelters last November, the agreed upon plan was to nearly double the amount of those exiting homelessness to 7,400. Only 3,000 exits occurred in the first quarter, though financial penalties were waived in the first quarter to give time for adjustment.

“That’s an F. Halfway is an F,” joked KIRO Radio’s John Curley. “You going to give them a C, Tom? You’re an easy grader. They get half of them right and you give them a C.”

Do financial penalties hurt or help homeless shelters?

The shelters that missed the mark would be assessed a 3 percent reduction in funding. But the city has been hesitant to levy the cuts, and officials with the shelters believe the reduction will only hurt their ability to further succeed.

“Some of the people running these shelters are saying, ‘These benchmarks are unrealistic. We are doing a heck of a job. We are placing more and more people,” Tom said. “‘If you penalize us, how is that going to help the situation?'”

Still, Curley believes improvements will only be made if there are consequences to failing performance goals.

“How else do people respond? There has to be some sort of repercussions,” he said. “You’re not making it work. Fire your director. Get somebody else in. Or go talk to one of the other shelters down the street. Apparently there are 19 of them getting it right. Find out how they’re doing it.”

One of the reasons homeless may not be moving into permanent housing is that sometimes there isn’t any permanent housing available for them to move them into, according to shelter officials.

“So now you’re penalizing them for not moving people into places that don’t exist?” Tom said.

The mayor hasn’t yet commented on the numbers, and shelter officials have asked the city to reconsider their penalties.

“How are the penalties going to help?” asked Tom. “If we go after these 61 shelters and cut their funding by 3 percent, are they going to be doing a better job the third quarter?”

“They might,” Curley said.

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