Homeless Outreach & Housing Support Services

The Homeless Outreach and Housing Support Services are part of AYR’s comprehensive effort to reduce the number of runaway and homeless young people (14-24) in South King County. This wide-ranging initiative provides a continuum of care that prevents runaways, locates and makes contact with homeless young people, provides shelter for homeless youth, and provides permanent and transitional housing for young adults.

Homeless Street Outreach Services

The AYR Street Outreach Team provides mobile street outreach services designed to locate and make contact with homeless youth and young adults in South King County. These outreach services are provided in the cities of Auburn and Kent and along the Highway 99 Corridor through the cities of Federal Way, Des Moines, SeaTac, Tukwila and unincorporated King County. This corridor has been identified as a high-risk area for homeless and sexually exploited youth. The goal of the program is to provide assistance and referrals in an attempt to transition runaway and homeless young people off the streets and into safe and stable housing. Our most basic services are focused toward meeting the emergent needs of the homeless with the distribution of emergency survival food packs, hygiene packs and winter clothing. The outreach team also provides referral services and transportation for homeless young people seeking food, medical services, mental health services, educational and vocational needs, substance abuse services as well as shelter and permanent housing.

Pro Youth Case Management Services

In 1994, AYR became an inaugural member of the Pro Youth Consortium through the City of Seattle. Through the years AYR has been a partner in the Pro Youth Coalition committed to helping hard to serve homeless young people make the transition to safe, permanent housing. Homeless young people engaged in case management services work with our staff to complete a comprehensive needs assessment and develop goals for service. The Case Manager also ensures they are connected to mainstream services they qualify for and assists them in building a strategy toward permanent housing.  Our goals for case management services are to connect with and establish strong relationships with homeless young people, assist them in stabilizing their lives and utilize their strengths in finding safe and stable housing. AYR’s Pro Youth Case Managers can provide immediate shelter services for runaway and homeless youth below 18 in AYR’s South King County Youth Shelter and are a conduit to another 37 scattered site housing units for homeless young people through the Coming Up Program and the Severson Program.

The Coming Up Program

In 2009, AYR partnered with Valley Cities Counseling and Consultation (VCCC) and Kent Youth & Family Services (KYFS) to create the Coming Up Program. This unique collaboration provides a 30-unit scattered site housing program for homeless young adults (18-24) living in South King County.  The program combines AYR’s outreach and housing case management services with VCCC’s housing services and KYFS’ mental health and substance abuse services.

The Severson Program

The Severson Program is a seven-unit, transitional, scattered site housing program located in Auburn, WA. The program is designed to help homeless young adults’ ages 18-24 make the transition from experiencing homelessness on the streets to permanent housing. The Severson Program blends scattered site housing, case management, and independent living skills to assist young adult’s transition to independent living. The focus of the program is for young adults to develop educational, life and job skills to help them become responsible, productive, and independent adults.

Enumclaw Family Housing Complex

The Enumclaw Family Housing Complex is a 16-unit housing program serving low-income families in Enumclaw and the Plateau. Four of the units are dedicated to transitional living services for formerly homeless young families. Housing services are coupled with intensive case management services that focus on life skills training, parenting skills training and job readiness.