We activate our mission to end homelessness by building relationships with the people we serve.
By providing Outreach, Day Center, and Enhanced Shelter services we engage with people wherever they are along the pathway to housing and begin the process of being in relationship with them, creating a history of trusting acceptance and becoming a partner they can work with. Our Client Services team builds on those relationships to support people in accessing immediate needs, shelter, and housing.
Shelter Services
Our GLA Day Center has been serving the Lake City neighborhood for over 10 years and provides showers, laundry, a public kitchen facility, food bank, personal storage, phones, mail services, and Coffee. Lots of Coffee. In a custom built facility with a homelike coffee shop and kitchen feel we have morning and afternoon sessions that typically serve over 50 individuals each day. GLA (God’s Li’l Acre) is located at 12521 33rd Ave NE and is a place for folks to just “be” in a safe and secure place. Over the years our Day Center has been deeply involved with volunteer groups and the Lake City Task Force on Homelessness. We also work with other providers who offer services such as healthcare access/medicaid sign-up, vehicle residency outreach, etc., and participate with Seattle University’s school of nursing program for practicums and on-site training. For 300-400 individuals who regularly share space with us each month, our GLA Day Center is a thriving example of how a community can collaborate and combine service delivery to create meaningful impact and solutions. For many, our ability to engage and build trusted relationships becomes the basis upon which their pathways to housing begin.
GLA is Open Monday through Friday 9 am – 12 pm & 1 pm – 4 pm.
The North King County Aurora Oaks Enhanced Shelter is a 60 bed continuous stay shelter located in a former nursing home that serves unhoused single adults and couples in private rooms and is a leading example of the preferred shelter model of non-congregate SRO style enhanced shelter. Located at 16357 Aurora Ave N, the Aurora Oaks is funded through the King County Regional Homelessness Authority with additional support from King County and the Cities of Shoreline, Kenmore, Bothell, Seattle (and others) as well many local community, faith-based, and philanthropic organizations.
Access to the Aurora Oaks is by referral only. Click Here to learn more about Aurora Oaks and access referral information.
Our Community Outreach team was added in May 2018 as an effort by King County to support outreach programs outside of the City of Seattle.
Today, our Community Outreach work engages directly with our unhoused neighbors to begin participating in ongoing relationships. For many of our clients, this is where our work together starts as we support people on the path to shelter and housing. In 2023 our North King County Outreach team served over 550 individuals.
For example, in our partnership with the City of Shoreline, our team conducts street outreach and responds to city requests with the primary purpose of helping unhoused residents connect with pathways to shelter and housing. We also build trusted relationships that support engagement with other essential needs such as access to physical and behavioral healthcare, criminal justice support, and employment. Our specialist works closely with the City of Shoreline’s Police, Fire Parks and other departments to co-respond and help resource the needs of people experiencing homelessness and the city staff who are responding to those needs. They visit Shoreline City facilities, meal programs, bus stops, and outdoor locations to engage people and build relationships with other service providers. We also support the local ‘community court’ and associated resource center program, interventions that continue to offer compelling outcomes and impact for the City of Shoreline and their residents. The team also works closely with municipal departments like Police and Community/Human Services to help triage and support their engagement and interventions. Similar to a co-responder mental health model, our Outreach team offers informed engagement and outreach resources, referrals, case management, etc., and is highly effective for local cities like Kenmore and Shoreline who are working to bring services to their unhoused residents.
Client Services
Our Client Services Program builds on the relationships created by our Shelter Services program to bring the reality of shelter and housing to our clients. It’s hard to overstate how relational this work is. Every person we place into shelter or housing is facing a system that is tremendously oversubscribed and overwhelmed. There are far more people who need housing and shelter than there are available resources. Also, the work of gaining access to these resources can be very technical. We routinely help people complete 50 page application packets for access to Permanent Supportive Housing units. The systems in place to access shelter and housing are complex and our client services team works with clients, often for many months at a time, to help stabilize and become ready to engage with that system so that they can ultimately become housed in a way that is resilient and sustainable.
Experience has clearly demonstrated that providing access to experienced, professional client services staff in an on-going relationship is a key driving of successful outcomes in getting people into shelter, and then getting them into housing.
By integrating our Client Services work directly into our shelter services and outreach programs we are able to hold-center on the primary task of securing a pathway to housing as our clients work through their individual barriers to accessing housing. This work, in collaboration with dozens of other partner organizations, provides access to a broad range of supports including healthcare (physical & behavioral), personal stabilization resources (ID, DSHS, criminal justice, etc.), social security & disability entitlement programs, housing vouchers, life skills, and workforce/education access that help people rebuild their lives and access housing with the resources and resiliency needed to remain housed and move forward with their lives. We do not accept self referrals. As an FCS Provider (Foundational Community Supports) we are linked into the Medicaid system that offers both direct homelessness services resources as well and ensures clients are ready to access other behavioral and physical health services (e.g. SUD treatment, Mental Health, etc.).
By working closely with community partners and other agencies, our Client Services team helps move dozens of people each month along the pathway to shelter and housing. For someone who is currently homeless on the streets being able to shower and do laundry is good, but getting into shelter is great. For someone who is sheltered, rested, safe, warm, and fed, being off the streets is good, but becoming housed is priceless.