By Erica C. Barnett
YouthCare, which provides shelter, housing, and services to youth and young adults, informed employees this week that the organization will be closing two of its shelters and two housing programs and cutting staff as the result of “a strategic realignment to ensure long-term financial stability and enhance the effectiveness of our services.”
According to an FAQ document sent to staff, YouthCare will close down its Catalyst Transitional Living Program and Home of Hope Bridge Program on August 31, and the University District Youth Center and South Seattle Youth Center, which opened in 2020, will close at the end of this year.
Catalyst is a 12-bed transitional housing program that helps homeless young people from 18 to 21 move into employment and permanent housing; Home of Hope provides short-term transitional housing to young people in the University District. With the closure of the two shelters, the memo says, “Engagement & Shelter Services will be consolidated at the Orion Center,” which is located on Denny Way between downtown and Capitol Hill.
YouthCare did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday morning about the reasons for the cuts and the impact they will have on services for homeless youth and young adults.
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At least some Youthcare employees had already received layoff notices as of Tuesday.
“The current reductions are part of our plan to position YouthCare for a stronger financial future, stabilizing operations and creating a sustainable path forward,” the memo said.
According to the memo, the organization plans to lay off 24 percent of its program staff and 31 percent of its administrative staff; as of 2021, the last year for which YouthCare published detailed staffing information, the organization had around 200 employees.
Under the question, “Is YouthCare shutting down some youth services?,” the FAQ says, “No, we will continue to provide housing, case management, workforce training, and engagement opportunities. We are consolidating services to increase our impact and effectiveness.”
Statewide, youth homelessness dropped around 40 percent between 2016 and 2021 but rose in 2022, according to a recently released study from Away Home Washington. The King County Regional Homelessness Authority’s latest point-in-time count showed a drop in the number of homeless youth and young adults between 2022 and 2024.
YouthCare is still planning to open an “education and employment academy” for homeless youth as part of a Community Roots Housing project on Capitol Hill; the funding for that project is unrelated to the organization’s operating budget and could not be used to save staff jobs or preserve other programs.
What’s messed up is taking away those resources will hurt homeless youth in the long run by taking away from the pool of resources. The new constellations center supposedly isn’t even going to be ready by 2026 and that’s if it doesn’t get hella delayed like every other construction project in Seattle. Just cuz the percentages went down mean the problem is solved for good, there is a constant flow of youth. Helping one doesn’t take one away from the equation forever, sometimes they need help multiple times in their life and end up going in and out of the system.
ok
The board leadership that drove out the long serving and highly successful prior CEO then left the scene while making the job unattractive to comparable talent. A subsequent nationwide recruitment for a successor failed and the new board had to promote from within. Major philanthropic funders lost confidence and reduced support. Strategic errors during unionization and service reduction began a budget drain that has culminated with recent events.
As the prior CEO’s programs demonstrated, youth homelessness cannot be eliminated but can be reduced by interrupting the processes that cause runaways to remain alienated from their families. Success in this endeavor reduced the headcount. It will rise again as effort is reduced.
The critical mass of superior senior and mid-level management and the accumulating momentum of community support once associated with YouthCare seem irrecoverable. An era has passed.
More than heart breaking. A tragedy completely available with decent board and leadership. After long time leader left the board destroyed the agency because of lack of leadership. And now new director making over 50k more than previous director runs into the ground with no vision or commitment to the legacy of the agency it’s young people and the staff.
Is it heartbreaking? It looks like the cuts in staff are commensurate with a drop in youth homelessness. A 40% decrease between 2016 and 2021, an upward tick in 2022, and subsequent decrease from 2022 to 2024: that’s good news!
Yeah, it seems like they made progress against the issue and can now retrench and fortify for the next push. People like to complain that non-profits don’t want to solve the problem they address because they’ll have to lay off people and loose salaries. Well, that’s the bargain you make working non-profit. You might just fix stuff!
Heartbreaking 💔 😢