Yesterday KUOW published a letter from a group of citizens concerned about the management and operations at Solid Ground’s Sand Point Housing campus. We responded immediately and want to tell you more about how we are moving forward at Sand Point.

Since the shooting of Charleena Lyles in June 2017, here are highlights of what we have done to stabilize the campus:

• We held a series of resident meetings, facilitated by Therapeutic Health Services (THS), to hear concerns and ideas for addressing issues raised by residents and staff.
• These sessions fueled the development of a resident-informed action plan that will be implemented in partnership with residents and THS.
• We increased summer children’s program staffing and added weekend children’s programming. This expanded staffing will continue throughout this year.
• We added staff to coordinate community engagement and deepen relationships with community partners.
• Please see the full Sand Point Housing Crisis-to-Recovery Timeline.

Moving forward, we are implementing the initial steps of the resident-informed action plan by:

• Launching onsite access to behavioral health services, including drop-in peer support
• Increasing the number of listening sessions with residents and Solid Ground senior management
• Supporting the creation of a resident-led Advisory Committee, which will be launched by April 2018, and will include trainings on Fair Housing, conflict resolution and more
• Offering trauma-informed parenting classes based on Positive Discipline model
• Starting twice-yearly satisfaction surveys for participants across all of our residential housing programs
• Conducting staff training towards improving support for residents

These efforts are on top of the stability we provide our residents through affordable housing in compliance with all fair housing and landlord-tenant laws.

“Solid Ground has a firm commitment to serve the people who come to us with compassion. Our mission is to end poverty and undo racism and other oppressions that are root causes of poverty. These are ambitious goals, and I know more work needs to be done,” said Gordon McHenry, Jr., President & CEO.

“We look forward to increased open dialogue with each and every one of our residents, the folks who brought these concerns forward, and other stakeholders – including the City of Seattle, King County and others – to achieve better outcomes for Sand Point Housing residents and all who struggle with homelessness and poverty throughout our community.”