On November 15, Congress released the final, compromise version of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 funding legislation, H.R. 2112, for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other related agencies.   Compared to FY 2011, the bill cuts $3.8 billion from HUD programs.  The legislation includes some good news and some not so good news, but given the magnitude of cuts facing many programs, those helping to prevent and end homelessness like McKinney-Vento were protected from cuts. The legislation includes:

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Emigdio Ramos is a walking miracle.

He survived life-threatening injuries during the Vietnam War and has a home today in the Pike Place Market’s low-income housing.

“I’m 70 years old, and I’ve never been old before,” Emigdio said with a laugh. “This is a first for me. There are a lot of things I used to do that I can’t do anymore.”

Emigdio is one of the 1,000 people who are served by the Downtown Food Bank every week.

“I get a lot of…

As the temperature drops and snow continues to fall, severe weather shelters in South and East King County are opening.

BELLEVUE

Dates open:
Monday, Jan. 10; Tuesday, Jan. 11

Location:
Crossroads Community Center
16000 NE 10th St.
Bellevue, WA 98008

Details:
Doors for the severe weather shelter will open at 8:30 p.m. Clients must register at the door. As with all shelters, rules for the health and safety of all clients and staff and the broader community…

“Token days are not the ebb and flow of life.  They ease our feelings of regret about the way things have to be for the remainder of the year.  They do not really change the way things are.”–Jonathan Kozol, “The Shame of the Nation”

Last Friday was Day of Caring, my 13th with United Way of King County.  I was among about 300 volunteers (there were over 10,500 total throughout the county) that spent the day at Qwest Field for the Community Resource Exchange.  In…

Vince Matulionis, our director of our ending homelessness work, recently sent this e-mail to United Way of King County staff.

By now I’m certain that most of you have probably heard about the recent shooting death of a homeless individual named John T. Williams.

If not, read the Seattle Times piece on the incident. Also a slightly different perspective on the incident from Real Change News.

In a manner of speaking it turns out that John Williams was one of our guys. …

As I struggle to wrap my brain around the tragic death of John T. Williams (I’m devastated, been staring at my computer for days…I’m sure work will love that), I’m also reminded of others.  Homelessness is deadly.  Sixteen other human beings have died on our streets in King County in the past six months:

Anna Moore, 42, Ballard, Drowned

James Dolan, 73, Seattle, Fall

Randy Leonard, 52, Seattle, Overdose

Matthew Crook, 41, Normandy Park, Suicide by drowning

Chad Venegas, 32, Auburn, Shot to death

Brandi Lambert, 35,…

Just thought it was time to share a few links with our readers:

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The first time I walked into Cyndy’s House of Pancakes up on Aurora Avenue and 105th, I pretty much knew what I was getting into.  Mediocre coffee, service that I couldn’t quite decide if it was gruff or motherly, and a delicious stack of blueberry hotcakes.  I’ve only been back a couple of times, and the fact that I have lived in the neighborhood for almost 5 years begs the question as to why that is.  I guess I thought it would always be there.…

Kenneth Wiley, a formerly homeless gentleman who shared his story with us last fall, recently checked in to share some great news. He graduated from FareStart on May 27 after attending classes there for several months every weekday throughout the spring. Along with his certificate of completion, Kenneth received the “Food Lover’s Companion” book and a set of professional knives.

FareStart is a culinary job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals. Over the past 18 years, it has provided opportunities…

Here’s another plug for one of my heroes.  I know I’ve written about Mark Horvath and his project, invisiblepeople.tv, previously on the blog, but can’t seem to find any of those links now.  If you don’t know Mark, you should get to know him, because he is doing incredible, heart-wrenching work with social media and raising awareness around homelessness.

I met Mark when he came to Seattle last year for a social media conference.  He’s been in the news a lot lately (google him,…