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Community Shelter Board seeks $5.4 million to stabilize winter shelters, buy hotels and expand non‑congregate shelter
Summary
Community Shelter Board requested $5,389,650 in general funds for street outreach, prevention, emergency shelter and rapid re‑housing, plus gap funding and $1.2 million for winter warming centers and hotel placements for unsheltered people.
The Community Shelter Board (CSB) told the committee it needs increased and stabilized funding to respond to rising homelessness and changing shelter needs, citing growing numbers of seniors, youth, families with longer stays and people living unsheltered.
CSB representative Steve Skavencie described a budget package including $5,389,650 for comprehensive system needs (street outreach, prevention, emergency shelter and rapid re‑housing), $4,658,089 in emergency‑shelter gap funding to prevent bed closures at the fiscal year end, and $1,200,000 to operate winter warming centers and non‑congregate hotel shelter runs.
Why it matters: Skavencie said that unsheltered homelessness and demand for non‑congregate options are rising and that the city’s warming centers and hotel placements have brought more than 300 people indoors who otherwise chose to remain outside. He said shelter clients increasingly enter with higher incomes and that the community is losing deeply affordable housing stock.
Program innovations: CSB described several strategies it is expanding: - Winter warming centers and hotel use to provide safe non‑congregate shelter for people with pets and couples, which CSB said helped move over 60 people with dogs and 20 people with cats into hotel rooms and brought more than 40 couples in from living outside. - Direct cash pilots for families (CSB said 80 families received cash to self‑resolve housing needs; an earlier YWCA pilot showed 18 of 20 families remained out of shelter nearly a year later). - A purchase pipeline for hotels and development of deeply affordable housing to create longer‑term housing options.
Council context: Committee members expressed concern about the local shortage of deeply affordable units; one member cited a national average comparison in which housing unit shortfalls were highlighted. CSB urged partners to coordinate funding across city, county, philanthropy and hospitals and said the scope of need likely will require joint action.
Ending: CSB said its CEO will present the full budget request to council and the organization urged immediate support to prevent emergency‑shelter bed closures and to continue non‑congregate shelter operations during winter months.
