ITFH PRINCIPLES
1. Because housing is a basic human right, being homeless (and/or unsheltered) is not criminal, and its continuing existence is an offense to what is moral in a civil society.
2. Homelessness for those unsheltered and for those in interim housing is a major barrier to achieving social and economic justice and is harmful to the well-being of those so afflicted.
3. Embedded in the sacred scriptures of all the world's religions is the moral mandate to act individually and in partnership with others to end homelessness.
4. Homelessness can and must be ended through a range of efforts that provide either Housing Tonight or a safe permanent place to live, accompanied by programs of sustained support and as necessary pathways that promote work and foster self-sufficiency.
Primary Work
1. Organizing and Direct Service
2. Build partnerships throughout King County for direct service, prioritizing vehicle responses and hosting, tent encampments, drop-in centers, winter shelters, overnight shelters, rotating congregational shelters (C4H, ARISE, REACH, HOME). For organizing, by area, prioritizing sequence à East King proximate to Lake WA, University District, Ballard, Lake City, North King County, South King County, REACH, and others that develop.
3. Advance all Vehicle Residency Work Groups; support the Seattle Vehicle Residency Outreach team under University Heights Center.
4. Sustain partnership with Path With Art, now formerly as a Program Advisory Board to address trauma, end homelessness, and foster exits from homelessness.
5. Advance legal harm reduction efforts, in partnership with private sector attorneys, Columbia Legal, the Northweat Justice Project, ACLU, and others. Prepare with partners to join legal efforts via the Courts.
6. Educate and advance for initiation Faith-Based Safe Parking in King County congregations.
Education
1. Maintain a current and an educationally interactive website; Use ITFH media from prior PW events; Engage media in conversations toward building the political will to end homelessness; Maintain Facebook page; include Glossary on web page; support education efforts covering root issues, to include wealth inequality and revenue needs.
2. Advance use of curriculums by congregations; expand Companionship Training efforts; Affirming Charity, Compassion, and Justice classes. Toolkit development for legal issues facing vehicle residents.
3. Sustain the weekly ITFH E-Update.
Advocacy
1. Participate at the regional level as the King County Regional Homelessness Authority develops and expands its oversight of homelessness and Continuum of Care issues
2. Alert and educate ITFH partners about key legislative issues in government, to include state, federal, and municipal issues. Include advocacy as part of the “organizing effort.” Renew effort to pass Statewide legislation on faith uses (RLUIPA); separately, pursue legislation on amending payment for tabs under the RCW.
3. Advocate for adequate permanent housing and supportive services, to include Housing Tonight, existing and new shelters, daily winter seasonal shelters, peer-based provider models, vehicle camps, and other efforts to provide safety for the unsheltered by region countywide.
4. Provide training and tools to members and other partners to initiate and improve advocacy skills.
5. Participate in regional and statewide efforts. Support the work of the Seattle Displacement Coalition regarding upzones, displacement, and other related issues that remove low-income affordable housing.
2020 Work Plan
Work with us to alleviate the harm of unsheltered homelessness
CONTACT US TODAY
425-442-5418
Formed in 2001 under St. Mark's Cathedral Seattle, we've been subsequently hosted by The Church Council of Greater Seattle, and since 2009 by St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Bellevue WA. It is via St. Luke's that we are able to operate as a 501(c)3, aligned as it is with the Northwest WA Synod, ELCA. We thus work and appreciate being a ministry of St. Luke's and are "in residence at St. Luke's" as an expression of their outreach. Our accounting and banking are all done by St. Luke's.
DONATE
to help us do our work
All gifts are tax-deductible
Mail checks made out to "ITFH" to
ITFH,
3030 Bellevue Way NE,
Bellevue WA 98004
or
Phone/write Bill
for other ways to make
a gift to the ITFH,
phone 425-442-5418
email itfh@comcast.net
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Along the way,
we've gotten
Awards
In 2013 the Seattle Human Services Coalition awarded the Scofflaw Mitigation Project with its Innovative Program Award. The SMP included at that time Jean Darsie and Bill Kirlin-Hackett.
In 2009 the Seattle Human Services Coalition awarded the Excellence in Advocacy Award to the ITFH Director, The Rev. Bill Kirlin-Hackett.