'Challenge and opportunity,' Washington officials get first-hand view of youth homelessness

Washington Sen. Patty Murray says she’ll introduce a bill this fall to create new grant programs for homeless shelters that serve teens and young adults. Housing advocates in Seattle say the money is needed to prevent service cuts.

On Tuesday morning, Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine walked through ROOTS Young Adult Shelter in Seattle’s U-District.

The two got a tour of the bunk beds, laundry space, and hangout room for the roughly 35 young people who call the shelter home.

ROOTS is inside what once was a UW fraternity house along the university’s “Greek Row.” The nonprofit purchased the building in 2019 after the frat closed.

Jerred Clouse, ROOTS’ executive director, says ROOTS is an essential safety net for the many teens and young adults in the area who do not have stable housing.

“The only reason for youth homelessness,” Clouse said, “is they don't have a safety net.”

Clouse met with Murray and Constantine Tuesday to discuss ways to prevent young people from becoming homeless.

Also at the roundtable were local housing advocates including Loria Yeadon from the YMCA of Greater Seattle and Degale Cooper of YouthCare.

Yeadon told Murray and Constantine that these groups have a successful track record of helping young people out of homelessness, but money is tight. Last year, Yeadon said, the YMCA had to operate with a budget deficit to not cut services.

“Everything starts with the resources,” Yeadon said. “We have to make the investment. We can't just look at the situation and hope.”

Murray said she would help make that investment by announcing a bill she’ll introduce to the Senate this fall. The Preventing Youth Homelessness Demonstration Act will create two new grant programs, Murray said, to help shelters pay for things like resource helplines and case managers.

The federal money will also go to researching strategies that keep young people from becoming homeless in the first place, Murray said.

This bill would build on the Preventing Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program that Murray helped create in 2016. The program provides grants to youth shelters from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Yeadon said she hopes to see more money for mental and behavioral health services included in the grants.

Job training programs for young people are also critically important, Yeadon said, and one area where she’s seeing more cuts recently.

“A youth who's making progress, who has stable housing, but then can't get a job — you are increasing the likelihood that they will remain in a homeless situation,” she said, “or were to return to homelessness. That's not fair.”

King County officials estimate there are roughly 1,500 teens and young adults without stable housing. Many live in vehicles with their families or in hotels or have found temporary housing like at ROOTS.

Maiya Rivas, 22, shared her story of experiencing homelessness with Murray and Constantine on Tuesday. Rivas said she used to be a student at UW until the pandemic hit.

When dorms closed, Rivas said she was forced to sleep on the street and seek shelter at bus stops.

While waiting to get into a youth shelter, Rivas said she was verbally attacked by an older woman at a women’s shelter and had difficulty getting case managers and information on the phone. At one point, she said, she considered suicide.

Murray told Rivas that young people like her with lived experience will be part of the conversation and process as the bill comes together this fall.

Yeadon said it might not be easy for a divided Congress to pass Murray’s legislation, but the bill is going in the right direction.

“We'll do what we can from here,” Yeadon said, “but everybody needs to come together and realize this is our challenge and opportunity.”