Supportive Housing

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 more than 1,400 units of supportive housing throughout Seattle.

DESC Supportive Housing is built upon the Housing First Philosophy.

Under construction

• Hobson Place, Phase 2
• Bitter Lake Supportive Housing

Building begins soon

• Green Lake Supportive Housing—groundbreaking TBA

On the drawing board

• Burien Supportive Housing—in design review with the city of Burien
• Woodland Supportive Housing—seeking funding for this project

Current Supportive Housing

• 1811 Eastlake
• Aurora House
• Canaday House
• Clement Place
• Cottage Grove Commons
• The Estelle
• Evans House
• Hobson Place, Phase 1
• Interbay Place
• Kerner-Scott House
• Keys to Home
• Lyon Building
• The Morrison
• Rainier House
• 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.

Prior to June 2016, DESC prioritized applicants for our Supportive Housing projects according to the DESC Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT) score. Since then, all housing referrals to DESC have been centralized through King County’s Coordinated Entry system as part of King County’s implementation of Coordinated Entry for All (CEA). The VI-SPDAT has been selected as the common assessment and triage tool, and housing placements will be allocated based on individual’s VI-SPDAT score.