Homeless people in King County will soon be housed at the Inn at Queen Anne Hotel, located at 505 1st Ave. N. in Seattle. | Adobe Stock
Homeless people in King County will soon be housed at the Inn at Queen Anne Hotel, located at 505 1st Ave. N. in Seattle. | Adobe Stock
King County Executive Dow Constantine recently announced that the county is purchasing a hotel to provide permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
The Inn at Queen Anne will be the first hotel purchased through King County's "Health Through Housing" program, a $400 million initiative to provide housing and services for thousands of homeless Seattle residents in an effort to get them off the streets and into safe homes.
"I'm pleased to announce that King County is purchasing our first #HealthThroughHousing hotel in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood," Constantine wrote in a May 11 Twitter post. "We will have several more properties to announce in the coming weeks, bringing supportive housing to 1,600 of our unhoused neighbors this year and next."
Dow Constantine
| DowConstantine.com
The program is funded by a .1% sales tax increase. The county will use the funds to purchase existing hotels, motels and nursing homes and convert them into affordable, supportive housing for people who have struggled to access and maintain housing, according to a King County news release.
"#HealthThroughHousing will permanently house more than one-third of today’s chronically homeless residents," Constantine continued in a second Twitter post. "And following the Council’s vote and approval, we’ll bring at least 500 more people inside through the expansion of enhanced shelter and other emergency housing."
During the pandemic, King County relocated homeless people out of crowded shelters and into the Quality Inn Sea-Tac in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 among the vulnerable homeless population, King 5 News reported.
"Collectively, these actions will be the largest — and most transformative — investments in addressing homelessness in the history of King County," Constantine said in a third Twitter post. "This is my charge to King County employees and my hope for our entire county: Do not let up as we put this pandemic behind us."
According to data from the Homeless Management Information Service, approximately 4,500 King County residents are considered chronically homeless. The program is predicted to create space for up to 2,000 individuals.
The Inn at Queen Anne hotel was built in 1928 and is located across from the Seattle Center, near the Key Arena and the Space Needle.
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