By Erica C. Barnett
This week’s special guest on Seattle Nice, Purpose Dignity Action’s Director of Outreach and Special Initiatives Nichole Alexander, spoke with Sandeep and me about the work PDA’s CoLEAD program is doing with drug users at a longtime “hot spot” in the Chinatown International District.
Centered on 12th and Jackson, the area has been a frequent target for police operations, encampment removals, and city-led outreach efforts over the past decade.
The PDA’s CoLEAD program, formed during the pandemic to relocate people from encampments on state highway rights-of-way into hotel-based lodging with intensive case management, saw results—according to Alexander, 95 percent of people they worked with moved into hotel-based shelters funded by the state, and 70 percent ended up in permanent housing. That program, known as the Encampment Resolution Program, lost state funding, and now CoLEAD is focusing its much more limited resources helping people around 12th and Jackson by offering them a safe, private place to stay—something Alexander says is a prerequisite for longer-term stability.
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Unlike the city’s Unified Care Team, which moves people from place to place while offering shelter referrals to some, CoLEAD spends weeks getting to know people individually and listen to their needs before moving them inside.
“I hear a lot of people say folks don’t want to come inside, and that is not what we find,” Alexander told us. “We find 95% of folks really do want to come inside. They just want something that’s going to be safe for them. They want to be able to close the door, use a toilet safely, have case management that cares—and have that long-term care, not just a quick answer.”
We also talked to Alexander about her personal story, the debate over whether jail and involuntary treatment lead to lasting recovery, and the misconception that low-barrier shelter or housing is inherently chaotic and destabilizing.
David was out this week, but we’ll all be back together next week for a special election episode!
I really appreciated hearing from Nichole about the work of PDA and CoLead. Thanks for painting the picture. This is crucial, difficult work. We need it. Thank you.