New Tomorrows – Transitional Housing

New Tomorrows , a housing program for homeless families, celebrated a five year anniversary recently. In partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Snohomish County Housing Authority and the Everett Housing Authority, annually, New Tomorrows gives section 8 housing opportunities to as many as 20 homeless families with children. The key component to this program is the approach – providing intensive one-on-one education and guidance for our client households. Case Manager, Kieth Bigham, assists the twenty families currently housed in two apartment complexes in the South Everett/Mill Creek area.

The Permanent Housing Program provides stable housing enviroments to households that do not otherwise meet the criterion for other more traditional programs. With funding provided by Snohomish County and the Salvation Army, this program requires that partipants agree to intensive case management and extensive life skills training. Specifically, participants must agree to certain ground rules regarding conduct and progress towards milestones toward reaching self sufficiency at the end of 12 months. In exchange, the program provides an initial rental subsidy that takes households either living on the street or in a car, gives them a place to keep warm and dry, after obtaining a stable living environment, those households work towards obtaining self-sufficiency.Because of the success of this program, currently headed up by Case Manager, Mick Croy, the Snohmish County further funded the program, increasing the number of households served from five to seven in 2009.

Permanent Housing Program – Transition from Chronic Homelessness

From the experience gained in the Permanent Housing Program for Households with Major Barriers to Housing, the Salvation Army started a program on October 1, 2008, to help individuals transition from chronic homelessness to permanent housing – in 12 months or less. With the support of Case Manager, Angel Johnson, participants in this program must meet the federal definition of “chronically homeless”: “either (1)an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who hwas been continuously homeless for a year or more, OR (2) and unaccompanied individual with a disabling condition who has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years.” Funded by Housing and Urban Development, Snohomish County, and the Salvation Army, this housing program takes individuals who would be otherwise living on the street or in a car and provides extremely intensive case management, life skills training and a rental subsidy to stabilize these individuals, so that they can work on specific goals to obtain self-sufficiency within 12 months. In exchange, individuals are required to agree to ground rules regarding conduct and must be making continuous progress towards agreed-upon milestones.

Permanent Housing Program – Households with Major Barriers to Housing