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Housing


1811 Eastlake Project
1811 Eastlake Avenue

1811 Eastlake: First Year Preliminary Findings
2007 Maxwell Award for Excellence winner!

1811 Eastlake opened its doors in December 2005.  The project provides supportive housing for 75 formerly homeless men and women living with chronic alcohol addiction.  Residents benefit from 24-hour, seven day a week supportive services including:
  • State-licensed mental health and chemical dependency treatment
  • On-site health care services
  • Daily meals and weekly outings to food banks
  • Case management and payee services
  • Medication monitoring
  • Weekly community building activities
1811 Eastlake aims to improve the lives of its residents through reduced alcohol consumption, better heath care, and increased stability. It will also reduce residents' use of the community's crisis response system, reduce public nuisances and encourage residents to undertake and follow through with alcohol treatment.

In January 2008, 1811 Eastlake won the prestigious Maxwell Award for Excellence in Housing Chronically Homeless Individuals.  “Downtown Emergency Service Center has greatly improved the lives of chronically homeless individuals through its ability to provide appropriate supportive services and permanent housing for its tenants. They are a wonderful example of an organization committed to ending homelessness in their communities,” said Bob Hohler, executive director of the Melville Charitable Trust and executive committee chairman of the Partnership to End Long Term Homelessness.

"1811 Eastlake represents a new, effective and compassionate direction for helping the chronically homeless.  It's called putting housing first.  Providing housing for these individuals will benefit the community.  It's effective, it makes financial sense and most importantly, it's the humane thing to do."  
- Greg Nickels, Seattle Mayor

"Our best hope for helping chronic alcoholics is to move them off the streets and into safe and stable housing, with immediate access to treatment services.  1811 Eastlake will house 75 chronically homeless people, reducing a costly cycle through emergency and criminal justice services and improving both public health and public safety in the downtown area."    - Ron Sims, King County Executive


1811 Eastlake is the first housing program of its kind in Washington to use this innovative housing model for addressing the needs of chronic homeless alcoholics.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the project, DESC is collaborating with Drs. G. Alan Marlatt and Mary Larimer, nationally recognized experts in substance abuse research, and their team at the Addictive Behaviors Research Center of the University of Washington. A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding an evaluation on the first three years of operation. This study will have a far-reaching impact on the conventional thinking regarding housing this population. It will examine the relationship between residing in permanent supportive housing in two salient domains: variables related to quality of life and the suppressed use of crisis services.  

The most similar projects are Anishinabe Wakiagun and The Glenwood, both in Minneapolis. Hennepin County, MN, conducted analyzes of these projects. They found significant decreases in detox and emergency room admissions for the residents. Some of the Anishinabe Wakigun analysis is described by the National Alliance to End Homelessness


Project Team
Developing Partner: Low Income Housing Institute
Architect: SMR Architects PLLC
Contractor: Walsh Construction

Made possible by the following public funders:

City of Seattle
King County
Federal Home Loan Bank - Seattle
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington State Housing Finance Commission
State of Washington, Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development
 
We would also like to thank the following friends for their generous
and steadfast support of the project:

The Downtown Seattle Association
Enterprise Community Investment
The Enterprise Foundation
Graham and Dunn PC
The Hanley Foundation
HomeStreet Bank
Impact Capital
Kantor Taylor McCarthy PC
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Seattle City Council
Seattle Housing Authority
The University of Washington - Addictive Behaviors Research Center

1811 Eastlake in the News:

This project has received broad media coverage. Following are links to some of the articles and reports that have appeared. DESC provides these links as a service to its web site visitors. By providing a link, DESC is not endorsing any of these reports.

Study Demonstrates Effectiveness of Housing First - National Alliance to End Homelessness Online News (January 15, 2008)

Housing First Model Saves City Millions of Dollars - KUOW radio (January 10, 2008)

Mayor's Press Conference: Housing First 2 Year Impact - Seattle Channel (January 9, 2008)

Mayor: Seattle's 'Housing First" for addicts saves money - KING5 TV [including video] (January 9, 2008)

Chronic alcoholic program reports progress - Seattle Times (January 9, 2008)

Housing homeless saves money - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (January 9, 2008)

Seattle P-I Editorial - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (January 9, 2008) 

Seattle saved $3.2 million by housing most difficult homeless - Associated Press (January 9, 2008)

This Land: On the Bottle, Off the Streets, Halfway There - New York Times (November 11, 2007)

"Apartments welcome homeless alcoholics: Experimental apartment building in Seattle welcomes homeless alcoholics; project saves money" - ABC via the Associated Press (June 18, 2007)

"Housing Alcoholics" - multimedia presentation - Associated Press (June 18, 2007)

"New National Approach Focuses on Chronically Homeless: An experiment in Seattle"  - NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, PBS (April 27, 2007)

"Is letting them drink working?: Residents, neighbors and experts say results are promising, but full study awaits" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (April 25, 2007)

"Fight crime, addiction with housing" - Opinion - Seattle Times (February 15, 2007)

"Best of Seattle 2006: Best Social Experiment" (1811 Eastlake) - Seattle Weekly (August 2, 2006) - SCROLL DOWN

"Homelessness in America: Homeless Alcoholics in Seattle Find a Home" - Morning Edition [National Public Radio] (July 19, 2006)

"Homeless Alcoholics Receive a Permanent Place to Live, and Drink" - New York Times (July 5, 2006) [free registration required to view]

"Innovative Initiatives: King County and the City of Seattle aim for a humane and economically responsible solution to chronic inebriates" - United States Interagency Council on Homelessness e-newsletter (June 8, 2006)

"Readers react to housing chronic drunks" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (March 31, 2006)

"Latest 'solution' for public drunks is not all wet" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (March 27, 2006)

"Sobered By The Stupidity Of It All" - Ken Schram Editorial, KOMO-TV 4 (March 23, 2006)

"Alcoholics' apartments generate many aid calls" Seattle Times (March 23, 2006)

"Apartments provide safe haven for street alcoholics" KING TV-5 (March 23, 2006)

"Housing program for chronic alcoholics allows drinking in rooms" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (December 15, 2005)

"75 hard-core alcoholics to be offered apartments" Seattle Times (December 15, 2005)

Media Release: DESC celebrates opening of new housing for homeless alcoholics (December 13, 2005)

"Editorial: Time to abandon the 'wet' apartments" Seattle Times (March 15, 2004)

"Lawsuit delay jeopardizes housing plan for alcoholics" Seattle Times (March 12, 2004)

Media Release: Housing for homeless chronic alcoholics upheld by state's highest court (March 11, 2004)

"Inebriate center has some big foes" Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce (February 4, 2004) [pdf of article]

"Editorial: The wrong haven for city's drunks" Seattle Times (January 16, 2004)

"Street alcoholics home awaits ruling" Seattle Times (January 13, 2004)

"Too Bad Stupidity is Legal" - Ken Schram Editorial, KOMO-TV 4 (October 7, 2003)

"Appellate court OKs building of apartments" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (October 7, 2003)

"Plans Underway for Street Alcoholic Housing" - KUOW – 94.9 FM (December 18, 2002)

"Give them a home? - Up Front with Robert Mak" - KING TV-5 (December 1, 2002) [Video clip requires RealPlayer.]

"Wintonia has proved a good neighbor" - Seattle Times (November 25, 2002)

"Opinion: Off street corners, but not off the alcohol" - Seattle Post- Intelligencer (November 22, 2002)

"Housing for alcoholics OK'd" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (November 21, 2002)

"Plan to build housing for homeless alcoholics is OK'd" - Seattle Times (November 21, 2002)

City of Seattle Hearing Examiner Decision - November 20, 2002

"A local view: Humane care of alcoholics makes sense" - The Columbian (Vancouver, WA - November 14, 2002)

"No Biggie - "Wet" housing saves money and lives" - Real Change News (October 31, 2002)

"Street Talk - Local reaction to housing for homeless alcoholics" - Real Change News (October 31, 2002)

"Opinion: Seattle says bottoms up to alcoholics" - The Columbian (Vancouver, WA - October 24, 2002)

"Downtown Seattle Association Supports Housing for Homeless Alcoholics" - DSA Press Release (October 17, 2002)

"Seattle Housing Project Targets Alcohol-Related Street Homelessness" - National Alliance to End Homelessness, Alliance Online News (October 18, 2002)

"Wrong time, place for alcoholic house" - Seattle Times Editorial (October 21, 2002)

"Housing for Street Drunks - The Conversation with Ross Reynolds" - KUOW – 94.9 FM (October 17, 2002)

"Eastlake Avenue housing for street alcoholics meets opposition" - Seattle Times (October 17, 2002)

"'Dumb', And 'REALLY Dumb'" - Ken Schram Editorial, KOMO-TV 4 (October 15, 2002)

"Room, Board, And Booze?" - KOMO-TV 4 (October 14, 2002)

"Apartments Being Built for Homeless Alcoholics" - KIRO-TV 7 (October 14, 2002)

"Street alcoholics will have government housing in Seattle" - KING-TV 5 (October 14, 2002)

"Seattle to build housing for street drunks" - Seattle Times (October 14, 2002)

"Sobriety won't be rule at new shelter" - Seattle Post-Intelligencer (March 26, 2002)