The City of Seattle has taken
unprecedented measures to open up as many
shelter spaces as possible
during this COVID-19 outbreak.
The city is beginning to open 95 units
of new shelter capacity.
T.C. Spirit, tiny house village
in the Central District.
We expanded the number of tiny houses
that are available at Lake Union Village.
And also, Lakefront Community House.
It will be a 24/7 shelter, with services.
12 rooms on this floor
and this would be a typical room setup.
We have a commercial-grade kitchen.
We have, exam room
doctor’s office.
Lakefront Community House has the ability
to serve 50 people,
all aimed at helping people who are living
unsheltered, access permanent housing.
But we are also opening additional spaces
inside of community centers,
at Seattle Center, so that we can
de-intensify the number of people who are living in
congregate shelter spaces.
In order to combat the spread of COVID-19
we wanted to make more spaces available
so that we could de-intensify or re-distribute
those large populations to more spaces
so that people weren’t sleeping so close to one another.
We’re working with Salvation Army, who manages the
City Hall shelter. That’s an overnight shelter,
it serves 180 people every night.
We have both upstairs and downstairs at City Hall.
We took half of that population
and made use of Fisher Pavilion,
at Seattle Center, so that that population had more space.
It provides 24/7 care and we’re able to provide
meals here too, so, we make sure that the individuals
staying here have two solid meals per day.
I’m really proud of how the city
has responded to the COVID-19 outbreak.