Domestic Violence Housing First: A Celebration of What We're Learning!
Seattle triples healthy food vouchers for low-income families
Seattle plans to expand a program that provides low-income families with vouchers to buy fruits and vegetables.
SEATTLE — Next year Seattle will triple the number of participants in its healthy foods program, allowing thousands more people to receive fruit and vegetable vouchers.
The Fresh Bucks expansion, which was announced Thursday, was made possible by $2 million in funding that was included in the 2020 budget. It’s paid for through the city’s sugary beverages tax.
“Overall, it might seem to some of us that it’s not a ton of money,” said Sharon Lerman, food policy and programs manager for the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment. “But for people struggling to make ends meet, that $40 a month can be the difference between them being able to eat fruits and vegetables and feed them to their kids and family or not. And we hear that again and again from customers.”
She believes the program expansion becomes even more important after the Trump administration announced it would tighten work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamps. This will cause thousands in Washington to lose their benefits.
Nearly 77,000 Seattle residents and 929,000 Washington residents benefit from the SNAP, according to the city.
The changes apply to adults between 18 and 49 years old who are not disabled and do not have children. States can currently waive the work requirements to help address areas with high unemployment, though these changes will make those waivers more limited.
Fresh Bucks do not come with a work requirement, Lerman said.
“We know that many working people in Seattle are struggling to make ends meet, so the idea of a work requirement is absolutely counter to everything we stand for as a city government,” she said.
Residents who make 80% or less of the area median income are eligible for Fresh Bucks. For a family of four, that’s $88,250 per year.
Eliza Guan of InterIm Community Development Association helped sign up seniors Thursday in the International District. Several hundred showed up.
“Not only does it provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the residents that live in Chinatown, but it also gives them the opportunity to come out of their apartment buildings, meet new friends and go to the store together, which is a great experience,” she said.
The story published in the King5 news channel.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/fresh-bucks-program-expansion/281-c139f537-7a44-4942-a062-84969037b6e8?fbclid=IwAR1C9zYi0KEwDedxKTgYLi8mdSsYNc7Lj4Bz6XbqUPkzBMGc5tRMo2EOXqU
InterIm’s Corner: Celebrating community with InterIm CDA
InterIm CDA hosted the second annual fall dinner ‘Connecting with Community’ on October 12th at Joyale Seafood restaurant.
The evening brought together 150 of InterIm CDA’s friends and supporters and we were honored to have the generation of activists who have dedicated their lives for decades fighting for justice and equity for the community, together with our young and upcoming activists who are engaged in fighting for the community.
The program began with a panel discussion titled ‘Continuing the Legacy of Activism’. A panel of three young activists in Seattle, Drag and Drop, owner Ryan Catabaya, Vanishing Seattle, founder Cynthia Brothers, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, civic engagement program manager, Joseph Lachman, and facilitator InterIm CDA, equitable development policy analyst, Derek Lum.
In another session, titled ‘Thriving through the activism’, the staff of InterIm CDA talked about their experiences while working for the community. The event was concluded with activ-ism stories shared by our long-time activists Francisco Irigon, Sharon Maeda, Matt Chan, Leslie Morishita, and State Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos.
The stories of heroic activism undertaken by the leaders present in the room together with stories shared by the younger generation of activists provided an opportunity to all present to be ener-gized, engaged and understand that activism lives on and that InterIm CDA will continue to carry on the legacy of our beloved Uncle Bob.
It was a great night of connecting with old and meeting new friends. InterIm CDA will be hosting the Connecting with Community Dinner on October 15th, 2020.We are excited to once again have the honor of bringing together the activists in the community to continue and advance our fight for justice and equality.
This content was sponosored by InterIm CDA.
InterIm’s Corner: A glimpse of work done by InterIm CDA in Chinatown/International District
This is a photo essay of some of the recent work done by InterIm CDA, including through their housing services programming, WILD programming and civic engagement programming. This content was sponsored by InterIm CDA.
InterIm’s Corner: InterIm CDA condemns new immigration rule, calls on lawmakers to oppose it too
Dear friends, family, and community,
Today, InterIm is expressing it’s opposition to the Department of Homeland Security’s changes to immigration law. The change in “public charge” law will go into effect on October 15, 2019. This rule will make attaining a green card or U.S. citizenship more difficult for legal immigrants if either themselves or family members rely on public benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Section 8 rental assistance vouchers. This rule is extremely harmful to low-income immigrants and refugees, is meant to discourage new immigrants from coming to the U.S and aims to discourage current immigrant residents from using the programs they are entitled to.
Nationally, about 1.1 million Asian immigrants live in families earning under 125% of the poverty line, and over 80% of Asians and Pacific Islanders who received their green cards in 2018 came through the family-based system. The International District is 53 percent Asian Pacific Islander, 58 percent foreign-born, and 53 percent non-citizens. 65 percent of us are below the federal poverty level. This rule could harm countless neighbors in our community, and we must do everything we can to oppose it.
That is why we are glad to see leaders in our community oppose this rule change. We have seen Attorney General Ferguson join a lawsuit against the administration on this rule and Senator Murray recently spoke out against the administration. We are also encouraged by congresspeople Larson, Smith, and Jayapal for their co-sponsorship of H.B. 3222, which seeks to prevent federal funds from being used to enforce this unjust rule. Every Washingtonian should contact their congressional representative and ask them to sign on to this legislation. Additionally, if anybody believes they might be subject to this rule, we urge you to consult a qualified immigration attorney. One non-profit with many qualified attorney’s is the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and you can call their Seattle office at 206.587.4009.
This content was sponsored by InterIm CDA.
InterIm’s Corner: Our homelessness prevention programs place the client’s needs at the center
ICDA believes that housing is just the first step. As a Housing and Urban Development certified housing service provider, ICDA helps approximately 4,000 unduplicated individuals each year to achieve their housing stabilization goals. As a housing provider, we have 25 secure units reserved for those at risk of homelessness. In many refugee and immigrant communities, information about services is spread by word of mouth. Because of our 50-year history working within the API and refugee and immigrant communities, ICDA is a trusted provider whose name is shared when families are in trouble. Without ICDA to fill this gap in human services, many at-risk refugee and immigrant individuals and families would not use these lifesaving services.
ICDA’s approach firmly places the client in the center. We provide holistic wrap-around services that include everything from accompanying clients to negotiate with landlords to helping parents sign their children up for school. Our extensive network of partner organizations allows our clients to address a host of needs from legal aid to job training in a linguistically and culturally responsive way. Our staff speak more than a dozen languages and come from the communities we serve, so they have a deep understanding of the challenges our clients face. Our client-centered approach has made us a requested partner to pilot innovative projects such as Housing First both with the city and county over the last 10 years.
Homeless Prevention
Research shows the quicker an individual or family moves out of homelessness, the better their long-term outcomes. We consequently prioritize permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness before attending to other needs. We believe that providing stable housing will give the most essential tool in empowering our clients.
Rapid Re-housing
Rapid rehousing helps individuals and families leave homelessness and find permanent housing through subsidies such as rental assistance and moving costs. Rapid rehousing assistance is offered without preconditions (such as employment, income, absence of a criminal record, or sobriety) and services are tailored to the unique needs of the household. Approximately 85% of ICDA’s Rapid Re-housing clients exit to permanent housing with a 0% return to homelessness.
Diversion
Diversion offers one-time flexible financial assistance to help families exit homelessness. We facilitate families to identify safe housing options based on their available resources. ICDA was one of the four agencies chosen to participate in the 2014-2016 Diversion Shelter Pilot Project. In those two years, we served almost 200 with over 100 diverted with only 2% returning to homelessness that we are aware of.
This content was sponsored by InterIm CDA.
Voters Registration Links
Vote registration URLs.
English language link - https://olvr.votewa.gov/?Org=ICDA
Spanish language link - https://olvr.votewa.gov/?Org=ICDA&language=es
Chinese language link - https://olvr.votewa.gov/?Org=ICDA&language=zh
Vietnamese language link - https://olvr.votewa.gov/?Org=ICDA&language=vi
Korean language link - https://olvr.votewa.gov/?Org=ICDA&language=ko
Click on the link for more information: Voter Registration Data Use Restrictions (1)
Housing and Client Services Partners
Contributors
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City of Seattle- Department of Human Services
City of Seattle- Office of Economic Development
Costco Wholesale
Gates Foundation
RealNetworks Foundation
United Way of King County
Individuals
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Bill Lee
Joan Hitchner
Sharyne Shiu Thornton
In-Kind Contributors
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ABODA
Facing the Future
In-Kind Individuals
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Ena Kyles
Sheryl Goong
Kirsten Senturia
Laura Skelton
Ivonne Waughman