City of Burien gives more than $500K to human services programs in 2023

BURIEN, Wash. — An array of programs and agencies received part of Burien’s $508,000 funding for human services in 2023. The money went to city council-approved priority areas. 

“Everything you do really impacts all the issues we’ve been dealing with on the council, from homelessness to crime. It all gets started at a root cause you’re trying to address,” Councilmember Hugo Garcia said to the two-person team that runs the Human Services Division at Monday’s council meeting.

The Human Services Division gave the following breakdown of how the money helped people in Burien.

Councilmember Sarah Moore noted that around half of the money went to help people with rental or utility assistance, which keeps them off the streets.

“It’s no surprise to us that given the rising rents occurring here in Burien, that people are struggling to make ends meet,” Colleen Brandt-Schluter, Burien’s Human Service Manager, said in response to Moore’s observation.

The struggle some face in Burien is more obvious than others. For more than a year, Burien City leaders have struggled with how to address the crisis on its streets: a small but highly visible unhoused population.

Burien and the King County Sheriff’s Office are currently in a legal battle over the city’s recently expanded camping ban. Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall filed a complaint earlier this month. She wants a judge to determine the constitutionality of the ban.

As that case, and another lawsuit against the ban, works its way through the court system, Mayor Kevin Schilling said the city is still focused on leading with services to the unhoused.

“The City of Burien just approved a partnership between Mary’s Place and Mercy Housing to fund 200 shelter beds and 90 permanent supportive housing (units,)” Schilling said. This was made possible, according to him, by Amazon giving $6 million dollars for the partnership to happen. Schilling believes it helps hammer home the point he continues to make on the topic of homelessness; local cities can’t address it alone.

“As a community, our economy is not set up to match the need in place right now,” Schilling said. “It will require the federal government and state government to really step up because resource strapped communities aren’t going to be able to solve the problem for everybody.”

Organizations that would like to apply for funding from Burien’s Human Services Division for next year have to apply by April 8.

Below is the list of agencies and programs that were awarded money.