Post by Logan on Feb 9, 2016 3:53:52 GMT -6
Johnnie Barnes said he and his school-age daughter have slept in their car, in a homeless shelter with mentally ill people and in subsidized housing infested with bedbugs.
Then at the end of 2014, he got a call that a two-bedroom unit was available in a new, subsidized Renton town house in the Sunset neighborhood.
“It was like winning the Lotto. It was the best possible Christmas present,” said Barnes, a former heavy-equipment operator who beat a crack addiction so he could keep custody of his daughter and give her a stable life. He pays a third of his income toward the rent.
Barnes joined King County Executive Dow Constantine and other regional leaders and homeless advocates Monday to announce $17 million in county funding for new, affordable housing units and emergency shelter in the county, some of it aimed specifically at South and East King County.
Read more: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/king-county-steps-up-effort-to-ease-rise-in-homelessness/
Then at the end of 2014, he got a call that a two-bedroom unit was available in a new, subsidized Renton town house in the Sunset neighborhood.
“It was like winning the Lotto. It was the best possible Christmas present,” said Barnes, a former heavy-equipment operator who beat a crack addiction so he could keep custody of his daughter and give her a stable life. He pays a third of his income toward the rent.
Barnes joined King County Executive Dow Constantine and other regional leaders and homeless advocates Monday to announce $17 million in county funding for new, affordable housing units and emergency shelter in the county, some of it aimed specifically at South and East King County.
Read more: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/king-county-steps-up-effort-to-ease-rise-in-homelessness/