Snohomish County is taking a page from its neighbors by purchasing a hotel to help bring homeless people into shelter. The county plans to use American Rescue Plan money to buy the Days Inn by Everett Mall, which would open up 74 units with services on site.
Jim Dean, executive director of Interfaith Family Shelter, says they know it takes this type of shelter with a time limit to change people’s lives, and he says it starts with an advocate who can help them navigate, connect them with services and follow up. Dean says if they can get people into addiction or mental health treatment, “to get back on the meds they were on sometime prior in their life, or get themselves in with some kind of new counseling going on, their success rate accelerates hugely.”
Dean says most homeless people are clamoring to get into shelter, but even with this one increasing the county’s bed numbers by 10%, he says the resources available are about half of what the county needs, “but it’s that idea of saying ‘okay, you’re telling me I have to move to someplace else, but what do you have for me?,’” Dean says, “and there’s nothing there.” Dean says barriers often prevent people from seeking shelter, like people with animals or couples with no children who can’t get into family shelters or would have to split to go to a men’s or women’s shelter.
The Snohomish County Council will have to approve the hotel purchase.
