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Supportive Housing

New studio apartment with light-colored wood cabinets, white stove and refrigerator, white and gray checkerboard flooring and a bed with red and white wavy stripe bedding.

To DESC, supportive housing means much more than a building with services. The design of the facility, staffing patterns, program values and ways of interacting with residents all combine to create a program that helps people succeed over the long term.

Most DESC housing residents live with challenges that would seem overwhelming or insurmountable to the average person: mental illness, substance use disorders, physical or developmental disabilities and extreme poverty. In order to increase their opportunities for success, residents in each of our housing sites have consistent access to supportive services such as:

  • State-licensed mental health and substance use disorder treatment
  • Onsite health care services
  • Daily meals and weekly outings to food banks
  • Case management and payee services
  • Medication monitoring
  • Weekly community-building activities

Learn more about Housing First here.

Projects in Development

DESC entered the supportive housing arena in 1994 with the opening of The Union, a 52-unit building located in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of Seattle. This project marked the expansion of our mission from managing homelessness to actually ending the homelessness of our community’s most vulnerable people. Today, DESC owns and manages 1,347 units of supportive housing throughout Seattle, and provides permanent supportive housing services to another 150 apartments in Keys to Home.

DESC Supportive Housing is built upon the Housing First Philosophy.

Under construction

On the drawing board

Current Supportive Housing

  1. 1811 Eastlake
  2. Aurora House
  3. Canaday House
  4. Clement Place
  5. Cottage Grove Commons
  6. The Estelle
  7. Evans House
  8. Hobson Place, Phase 1
  9. Hobson Place, Phase 2
  10. Interbay Place
  11. Kerner-Scott House
  12. Keys to Home
  13. Lyon Building
  14. The Morrison
  15. The North Star
  16. Rainier House
  17. Scattered sites
  18. The Union Hotel

Scattered Site Housing: Our case managers use DESC housing subsidies to place their clients into rental properties throughout Seattle. What makes this model work is the integration of DESC’s case management services to provide the necessary support for people to succeed and stabilize.

Housing placement

Coordinated Entry for All (CEA)

DESC Permanent Supportive Housing units are managed through Coordinated Entry for All, administered by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). This system uses an assessment tool called the “Housing Triage Tool” or VI-SPDAT to prioritize and match homeless households to vacant units. Read more about the process here→.