By Erica C. Barnett
Last week, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority gathered the members of its Continuum of Care (CoC) membership to vote on new members and a new charter for the Continuum of Care Board, a volunteer committee that, among other duties, oversees the KCRHA’s annual application for tens of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The online-only “convening,” whose public portion lasted less than 30 minutes, came on the heels of an explosive meeting earlier this year at which one of the CoC Board’s co-chairs, Shanéé Colston, yelled at another member, Kristina Sawyckyj, who objected to the appointment of a sex offender to the board. Sawyckyj, who said the nominee had also touched her inappropriately, went silent and left the meeting after Colston and another board member told her that her comments were out of order.
“We have no right to out anyone in this space,” Colston said. “I’m telling you that you cannot talk like that in this meeting. I will not have that here! If anyone wants to talk like that you will be muted and removed from this meeting.”
“This is about equity. And everyone—everyone— deserves housing. I don’t care if they’re a sex offender!” Colston continued. “This is an inclusive space, and we are equitable to all.” Another board member, Kristi Hamilton, defended the nominee and told Sawyckyj she should go to the police if she had a crime to report but that it wasn’t appropriate for her to raise those concerns in a public board meeting.
Colston told PubliCola she received death threats from around the world after the story about her comments went viral. She said she regrets “falling into the trap, and… that I was not prepared and I responded in reaction to [Sawyckyj’s comments] and not in thought.”
PubliCola reported on the meeting in May. Over the next few weeks, our story was picked up (and distorted) by right-wing media worldwide, spreading from local FOX affiliates to the New York Post to the Daily Mail. A Change.org petition, which falsely stated that the board approved the sex offender’s nomination—in reality, he withdrew his application—called for Colston’s removal “from all leadership positions” at the authority. Many of the articles about the incident used racist language to portray Colston as a stereotypical angry Black woman lashing out at a meek white colleague (described by the Daily Mail as a “wheelchair-bound mother”) on behalf of a “child rapist.”
Colston told PubliCola she received death threats from around the world after the story about her comments went viral. She said she regrets “falling into the trap, and… that I was not prepared and I responded in reaction to [Sawyckyj’s comments] and not in thought.”
At the height of the uproar, KCHRA chief program officer Peter Lynn sent Colston a letter demanding she resign, which she refused to do. Last week’s election accomplished the same result by prematurely terminating Colston’s three-year term.
According to Colston, she and other board members were not aware that Crowfoot was a sex offender “until it was announced (by Sawyckyj) that day,” and said that the committee that reviewed board applications before bringing them to the full board rejected several applicants because of their past behavior—including drinking on the job and using housing vouchers “to manipulate women,” according to Colston.
“I asked for her to be muted on her mic as it’s not the responsibility of a victim to have to be vulnerable and publicly announce their trauma to the world,” Colston said, “and it was breaking the rules” of the board. “I don’t agree he or others should have a seat of power on this CoC Board,” she continued, “but the voices of their experience with being homeless have to be heard, listened to, and some form of plan implemented to end homelessness [for them] as well.
“I don’t agree [the sex offender] or others should have a seat of power on this CoC Board, but the voices of their experience with being homeless have to be heard, listened to, and some form of plan implemented to end homelessness [for them] as well.
When she said that everyone, including sex offenders, deserve to be housed, Colston said she was identifying a well-known problem—sex offenders, as well as convicted arsonists, are systematically denied access to shelter and affordable housing, forcing many into unsheltered homelessness.
“When I stated that I was glad that he was there, it means that arsonists and sex offenders are a very vulnerable population” Colston said. “If KCRHA is really centering the Theory of Change and listening to those with lived experience to end homelessness for all, as radical as it may be, those populations of vulnerable individuals are included in housing all people.”
During Friday’s meeting, interim KCRHA CEO Helen Howell read a statement apologizing for “any distress or discomfort caused by the incident” at the CoC Board meeting, “and we want to assure you that we take this matter seriously [and] are actively working to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.”
In addition to replacing Colston and electing eight new board members, Continuum of Care members voted Friday to adopt a new charter for the board that relegates “lived experience” to just one of many qualifications for board seats and significantly reduces the board’s authority.
Quoting @Return to Sanity’s post ” I do believe KCHRA would benefit greatly by the sorely needed structure & support and credibility of becoming a county agency. The agency, courts, county & city councils, executives, police, mental health all need to be talking to each other and working together on the same plan.”
Are people understanding that KCHRA is an administrative government body created by King County and City of Seattle under Washington state code? Is the idea that there is one municipality that is responsible and accountable with the other local municipal governments in King County.being some sort of responsible stakeholder? It’s good to see Renton added to being a named partner on the “exec board” but it then stands out who in the county is not there that should be. It’s a real shame that the toxic workplace within the staff of 100 is fueling sky high attrition. HR was even posting grants coordinator jobs with unlimited leave. Those of us who work in the regulatory sectors know unlimited leave is a vestige of abuse and those of us who perform our jobs by parsing out policy/code look this stuff up. Unless RCW changed recently this year, the administrative code of WA has not adopted “unlimited leave” as a way to accrue leave benefits for sick time or vacation time for public government employees in WA. An agency that has the contempt of humans to abuse its workers will absolutely do the same to the vulnerable populations it purportedly repots it serves. Area government has a vicious cycle of waste, fraud and abuse to taxpayers, employees and ‘customer” populations.
“That is factually incorrect.” No, are you kidding? What I said sounds correct from the numbers you provided.
First, you have proven yourself wrong: “the biggest driver of homelessness: addiction.” I think you should look at your numbers again and keep looking at them until you can figure it out. Hopefully that doesn’t take you too long. Second, you simply cherry picked my words to respond to. I didn’t say the high cost of housing alone was the main cause of homelessness, I said “high cost of housing combined with low wages and its bedfellow precarity.” Looking at what you quoted, that is exactly correct (or maybe losing a job which makes you homeless is not precarity, but actually means “drug addiction” to you? I still can only wonder if your comment is joke.)
Well thank you for confirming what was pointed out in Real Change:
https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2022/11/09/myth-busting-five-misconceptions-about-homelessness-we-need-retire
“it’s not the responsibility of a victim to have to be vulnerable and publicly announce their trauma to the world…” Dear Pot, I have a Kettle I’d like to introduce you to. Sincerely, Glad KCRHA is Getting on the Right Track
KCHRA has been one administrative horror story after the other. It needs more than a change in leadership. It does not have the basic infrastructure to do the business of the day, and needs a complete overhaul.
The need for a regional homelessness authority is clear. However, it needs the authority, accountability and weight of a government agency.
It wasn’t just right-wing media that picked up the story, it was most media. With good reason. And a good outcome that you can add to your resume, Erica. By reporting on this, it brought much-need light to the disfunction of the CoC Board and also to the ongoing structural problems with KCRHA. As tacomee and others have pointed out, the prioritization of “lived experience” and other performative nonsense is not solving the problem of homelessness, any more than models such as “Housing First” are addressing the biggest driver of homelessness: addiction.
Addiction isn’t the biggest driver of homelessness, it’s the high cost of housing combined with low wages and its bedfellow precarity. People who want to solve the homeless crisis in our city have to look at the facts of the matter, not simplistic cant spewed by ironfisted ideologues, who don’t want to solve it, just criminalize it.
That is factually incorrect. The last one-night count, which involves interviewing people who are homeless, ask such questions as to how people came to be homeless. The high cost of housing is not even on the list:
“Self-Reported Reasons for Homelessness
Losing a job is the most cited reason for homelessness (16%). Alcohol or drug use is the second
most cited reason for homelessness (11%). Unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness
cite alcohol and drug use as the reason for their homelessness at twice the rate (14%) as
sheltered individuals experiencing homelessness (7%). Mental health issues (8%) and the
inability to afford rent (8%) are the next most cited reasons for homelessness across the overall
homeless population.”
Source: https://kcrha.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Count-Us-In-2020-Final_7.29.2020-1.pdf
I believe the reason Seattle makes no headway against homelessness is the billions spent on crap other than providing service… starting with the KCRSHA. Shanéé Colston isn’t providing housing nor drug treatment for anybody…. she’s the problem not the solution. The C of C board are just grifters.
So Seattle needs to opt out of the KCRSHA, put together a volunteer board of professionals and absolutely do not fund any organization that isn’t providing shelter directly to the homeless. It’s housing first! bureaucracy never! If you’re not directly providing housing or drug treatment, you’re absolutely not solving the problem. Zero referrals! No more jerking people around with this million dollar maze of social workers.
Homelessness has many different causes & looks to it. The resources vary accordingly.
There has been a long standing investment in providing stable long term housing to low income families.
There are three housing authorities in King County serving a total of over 50,000 families (and single adults) monthly with stable long term federally subsidized housing. For these families the lack of affordable housing was the primary issue. These are however, not emergency housing resources & there are conditions which would exclude some. The families receiving these services are invisible in the community. They could be and are our neighbors.
So much of the media, political, and public focus today is on visible homelessness, crime, drug use, and encampments. Many of the people living on the streets have multiple needs/challenges which led and contribute to their inability to secure & maintain stable housing. “Affordability” is/ may be a part of the problem…but only part. “Affordability is not going to solve this problem.
Visible homelessness has been a long standing but mostly out of sight & out of media problem in Seattle since the 90’s. In the 90’s there was a large encampment on Beacon Hill simply known as the “Jungle.” Every few years the police would clear it out. It would be in the news for a few days. People would disperse and return not long after.
During the Nickels administration (2002-2010) visiblemhomelessness started to gain a bit more attention when a very visible tent city sprung up and declared itself Nickelsville. Encampments continued to spread and pop up in different parts of Seattle. In 2015 Ed Murray declared homelessness a state of emergency. There were two housing levies passed during his administration, but the problem continued to grow. I believe it was during Murray’s administration “All Home” was formed as the mayor’s response to address the rapidly growing problem. All Home from the start had its work cut out trying to gather data, develop strategies, but had (to the best of my memory) no housing resources of their own.
Meanwhile the population living on the streets grew. Outreach agencies & their resources were overwhelmed. Overnight shelters were at capacity & turning people away.
All Home continued through the Durkan administration and by that time the courts, city council, and the mayor’s office couldn’t agree on the time of day, and the public was running out of patience.
KCHRA and a regional multi system approach are what is needed to address a quality of life problem for Seattle/King County. The agency’s management problems have been well documented. I do believe KCHRA would benefit greatly by the sorely needed structure & support and credibility of becoming a county agency. The agency, courts, county & city councils, executives, police, mental health all need to be talking to each other and working together on the same plan.
see above for my response.
I think Seattle’s homeless crisis deserves a level of professionalism sorely lacking from the KCRHA. It’s time to call out all that “Theory of Change” and “lived experience” crap and pay for more treatment beds, transitional housing and most of all, low income housing. I think the whole Continuum of Care Board needs to just go away. If you’re actively providing drug treatment or housing, the County doesn’t need to give you a dime.