COVID pandemic delays place strain on those ready for permanent housing

EVERETT, Wash. (KOMO) — Delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have put extra strain on families in homeless shelters who are waiting to be placed in permanent housing.

"The biggest thing is just having a safe place for our children to just grow and just be kids," said Matthew Mitchell, who, along with his wife Janet and their three young children, are waiting for permanent housing after they found themselves homeless in December.

"We can’t afford rent by him working for one job," Janet Mitchell said.

The Interfaith Family Shelter in Everett, Washington, took the family of five in, and Executive Director Jim Dean said his agency is seeing more families in need of help for this very reason.

"A situation where a roommate moves out, or rent gets raised up and the family can no longer make enough money with one income to pay for the rent that they have," Dean said.

Interfaith is considered an emergency shelter and it has a goal of placing families in permanent housing within 90 days.

"If we can move a family through in 60 days or 50 days or 30 days, that means that there's another family we can help," Dean said.

In 2021, Dean said 55 families were placed in permanent housing – or 178 people – which is a decrease in the 225 people the group helped the year before.

Available housing is limited and has been made worse by the pandemic. Construction is delayed due to a number of reasons, including supply chain issues.

"Our biggest challenge of moving more families and helping more families is not having enough places for them to move to," Dean said.

That's the hold-up with the Mitchells, who have signed paperwork and are ready to go, but their apartment is still under construction.