So far this year, the Helpline has given numerous families the security deposits needed to move into home. Quite often, the only obstacle standing between homelessness and having a home is coming up with the security deposit.
What is most unique about the Helpline, when compared to other larger social service agencies, is its ability to move quickly to meet the urgent needs of an emergency situation. Other larger agencies require a lengthy application process, which isn’t helpful when notice has been posted that the lights will be shut off in two days.
The Queen Anne Helpline provides people one-time emergency assistance. The emergency assistance might be to help people secure housing with the application deposits or to pay their utility bills. The Helpline helps senior citizens and lower income families to keep their lights on. Beyond dealing with crises, the Helpline also helps people to apply for ongoing subsidies and programs that will reduce their utility bills in the future. Other emergency assistance ensures people have adequate food and clothing. The Queen Anne Helpline has an adult clothing bank that is completely stocked with donations from the community. The Helpline provides emergency food services and actually delivers food to the elderly and sick “shut-ins” who are unable to go to food banks. Transportation is another emerging need. The Helpline provides people with Metro bus single ride tickets so they can get to work, job interviews and medical appointments.
Queen Anne Helpline is unusual in that it serves communities that appear to be made up of only high-net-worth individuals, at least on the surface. The reality in these neighborhoods is that the invisible poor are not so invisible. They hold jobs. Their children are going to the same neighborhood schools as the affluent. They are working. The big difference between them and the affluent is that they are the new working poor. They are made poor only because their salaries haven’t risen rapidly enough to meet the escalated cost of housing. By being responsive and efficient the Helpline has helped people stay in their homes. In the long run, there is less stress on the welfare system because it takes far more government funding to support someone who is homeless than it costs to help people stay in their homes.
Typically, gentrification forces out people who can’t earn enough to stay in the neighborhood. But it’s not always that easy to relocate. “It’s very expensive to move. Securing lower cost housing might mean moving far away from work,” Moore said. “Then there are transportation and commuting issues. Children have to be moved away from their schools. It is not always possible to move a family. As a result, there are people living out of their cars and in storage lockers attached to apartment buildings, or couch surfing. And sometimes it’s not only individuals, but entire families.”
The Helpline delivers food to children who do not have access to square meals over the weekend when they’re not in school. Every Friday, 294 meals are distributed to kids for the weekend. Extra meals are given to kids over school break, and a new summer meal program is being developed.
The lack of affordable housing is not a priority for government on a local or national level. For many years, the trend in Washington, D.C., has been to continue to cut benefits and to give tax breaks to the wealthier end of the spectrum. Legislation is in favor of corporations and there hasn’t been a political agenda to provide enough affordable housing. There are no tax incentives for affordable housing to be built alongside more affluent housing.
“In our service area there are more than 1,400 low-income housing units and eight shelters,” Moore noted. “Mixed in with the affluent, there are a lot of people here who are struggling to avoid becoming homeless.”
A state Commerce Department report released this past January found only 15 affordable housing units in Seattle and in King County were available for every 100 low-income households.