Rocky times leave homelessness philanthropy a question mark

Last September, officials with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority announced that a much-touted program to end homelessness in Downtown Seattle was shutting down.

Big tech sector names – Gates, Ballmer, Amazon – had pledged $10 million to the effort. But within three years of its launch, “Partnership for Zero” was in shambles and former employees and leadership were pointing fingers about what went wrong.

The program’s downfall left those investors floundering and raised questions about the role of private philanthropy in fighting the homelessness crisis.

Seattle Times Project Homeless reporter Greg Kim has been reporting on this story.

He told Soundside host Libby Denkmann that Partnership for Zero was created in 2020 as an effort to end homelessness downtown first.

"They said, you know, let's focus on one geographic area first, create a blueprint for how to do it, and then we can reapply in other places," Kim said. "And that was a newer approach that excited a lot of groups, including in the philanthropic sector."

That excitement blossomed into an organization called "We Are In," which was meant to be a private sector counterpart to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

But in order to be a useful counterpart, We Are In needed to move quickly. which Kim said led to some unusual decisions.

"Instead of incorporating We Are In as a tax exempt 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that could handle its own finances, handle its own staffing, they took on what's called a fiscal sponsor," Kim said. "Basically they found another nonprofit to handle those aspects for them."

Because of that organizational structuring, when staff raised concerns about leadership, those complaints went to the fiscal sponsor, a group called "Building Changes."

Faced with conducting an investigation into We Are In leadership, Building Changes told the board it would be stepping down as fiscal sponsor.

The organization found a new sponsor, and began the process of transferring their funding over to that sponsor.

"But then in January, the new fiscal sponsor furloughed the remaining staff of We Are In, saying they didn't have enough money to pay them," Kim said.

Now, the big organizations that were funding We Are In are taking a step back to consider what they should do next. The funders on We Are In's board have resigned, and Kim said they're unsure if they'll fund We Are In through 2024.

But Kim also notes that many corporate sponsors are saying they're not backing away from the issue of homelessness.

"They say, you know, maybe we'll fund the service providers directly, maybe we'll fund the regional homeless authority directly," he said. "But they say they're not walking away."

They're just not entirely sure what they're going to do next, according to Kim.

Listen to the full conversation with Greg Kim by clicking the play button above.