Seattleking County Coalition on Homelessness

“The Coalition has two types of members: organizational members and individual members. Organizational Members consist of nonprofit organizations, public entitiess, tribal entities, or coalitions providing or advocating for the housing or service needs for low-income persons, people experiencing homelessness, or special needs populations. Individual members are people or other types of organizations or groups concerned with low-income housing and homelessness.”

“Organizational Members have the right to vote on the appointment and removal of directors, and to vote on any other issues submitted to them by the Board of Directors, and have no other voting rights. Individual Members have no voting rights. Each Organizational Member is entitled to vote with respect to the subject matter of an issue submitted to the members and shall be entitled to one vote upon each such issue.”

“A draft of the 990 document will be distributed to the governing body prior to the submission date for review and discussion.”

“Each year conflict of interest forms are filled out by board members. We review these annual disclosure forms to ensure that we are in compliance with our conflict of interest policy.”

“In setting the Executive Directors and other key staffs compensation, the Board of Directors or a Board committee followed the rebuttable presumption procedures set forth in Treas. Reg. Section 53.4958-6 to ensure that the compensation decision was at arms length and would not result in unreasonble compensation within the meaning of the excess benefit rules under Section 4958.”

“Upon request.”

“We serve our members through hosting several sets of meetings, including 1)monthly General Membership meetings (open to all, focused on service and housing providers); 2)bi-monthly Senior Leaders conversations for senior leaders at member agencies; 3) monthly South King County Forum on Homelessness meetings (open to all, focused on people who work in south King County communities); 4) Two workgroups for staff from member organizations focused on staff training and professional development and on policy and advocacy.We provide unique opportunities for direct service providers to learn about best practices and resources; develop and share skills; and receive specialized training related to working with people who are homeless or unstably housed. Coalition staff organize and host free, public trainings for case manager, social workers, staff at local public schools and other institutions, and volunteers on topics related to providing housing, shelter, health, and social services. We co-host additional learning opportunities and training with several partners, including the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.In 2024, we worked with attorneys, benefits navigators, paralegals, and other staff at partner organizations to present seven high-quality professional trainings to staff who provide housing, and work in homelessness and human services across King County. Trainings focused on helping people access, use, and maintain state and local public benefits and services such as Social Security and Social Security Disability; Working Families Tax Credit; McKinney-Vento Student Support Services, Medicare and Medicaid; SNAP, WIC, and state food benefits; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; WorkFirst, and state disability benefits for people who are Aged Blind and Disabled (ABD) or use Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) resources.In 2024, we hosted 11 General Membership Meetings. These informative sessions are intended to help staff learn about and discuss promising and best practices in housing, homelessness and human services; understand key sector-wide issues; ask hard questions and reflect on their work; have honest conversations about implementation challenges; and address common shared issues. On average staff from 27 unique organizations participated in each meeting.Meeting agendas on topics such as: Seattle Housing Authority sharing information on accessing their housing voucher waitlist; DSHS introducing their new Mobile Office; how people without housing can access state ID through the Department of Licensing; United Ways free tax preparation support for low income filers; regional crisis response resources available now and in future through Crisis Care Centers Levy implementation plan; helping students and families access summer EBT benefits; medication assisted treatment through the UW Medicines new Telebup Hotline and REACHs Treatment in Motion programs; information about and opportunities to participate in Seattle and King County annual budget process; understanding the King County Regional Homelessness Authoritys Ombuds program, healthcare services through the UW/Aurora Commons SHE clinics; understanding voting rights of people without traditional home addresses; information about legislative and budget priorities and how to participate in the 2024 WA State Legislative Session.Support for children, youth, and families who are homeless: In every school district in King County, hundreds of students try to learn while living through the upheaval and uncertainty of homelessness. The Coalition supports students who are homeless and their families by providing information and training for staff who work with school-aged children and youth and offers practical support (i.e. new backpacks, school and hygiene supplies, books) through our Project Cool for Back-to-School. Each year we host a workshop called Helping Homeless Students: McKinney-Vento 101 for staff who work directly with”