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00000181-fa79-da89-a38d-fb7f2b910000KUOW is joining forces with other Seattle media outlets to highlight the homeless crisis in the city and region on Wednesday, June 29, 2017.The effort was modeled after a collaboration by more than 70 San Francisco outlets to focus a day of news attention on the issue and possible solutions.Read more about the Seattle project and check out our coverage below. Follow the city's coverage by using #SeaHomeless.HighlightsThe Jungle: an ongoing coverage project going into the notorious homeless encampment under Interstate 5.Ask Seattle's Homeless Community: KUOW is launching a Facebook group where anyone may ask a question about homelessness, but only people who have experienced it may answer. This was inspired by a recent event KUOW co-presented with Seattle Public Library and Real Change, where residents of the Jungle answered audience questions. No End In Sight: an award-winning investigative project from KUOW about King County's 10-year plan to end homelessness.

Why Seattle Cops And Social Workers Walk The Beat Together

It’s early in the morning, and Capitol Hill’s homeless men and women are just waking up. 

Tanja Warner is curled up in her sleeping bag, sheltered under the roof overhang behind a business. It’s illegal to sleep here, a form of trespassing.

A police officer walks by on his daily beat. He’s with a social worker who approaches her. The social worker’s name is Jackie St. Louis, and he offers dry socks and snacks. 

“Tell me Tanya, what can we help you with?” St. Louis asks. She says that she was “out here trying to support a habit.” 

Seattle continues to struggle with homelessness. At the end of 10-year plan to end homelessness, there were more homeless on the streets. That has led social workers to try something new: They’re teaming up with cops. The program expanded this year with social workers employed by nonprofits.

After some questions, St. Louis discovers why she hasn’t moved into a shelter. It comes down to bags she doesn’t want to leave unattended. 

St. Louis offers to find storage for her stuff. He tells her that he or another social worker on his team will check in on Warner every day until Warner gets into a shelter.

That kind of work requires training police don’t get at the police academy. St. Louis is a licensed mental health professional with a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling; previously he worked in prisons.

[asset-images[{"caption": "A Seattle police officer stands back as two social workers hired by the Downtown Seattle Association attempt to connect someone with social services . ", "fid": "125176", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201603/joshuacopssw2__1_of_1_.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols"}]]

[asset-images[{"caption": "Bradly Smith walks several paces ahead of Police Officer Casey Sundin. Together, cops and social workers form a team, but they're not buddies.", "fid": "125033", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201603/walking_separately_2.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW Photo/Joshua McNichols"}]]

That kind of social work used to be considered government work. Today, Seattle hires the work out to nonprofits. St. Louis, for example, works for the Downtown Seattle Association. The partnership works because the police know the beat, and the social workers have tools the cops don’t have.

Seattle has experimented with diverting people to social services rather than arresting them. But this daily outreach — where social workers walk the police beat every day — takes intervention to a new level. The program began downtown and expanded recently to Capitol Hill.

“Seattle is really paving the way and a lot of cities are looking to us as a model," says Scott Lindsay, who works in the mayor’s office as special assistant on police reform and public safety. 

Lindsay says Seattle is changing how it considers low-level crimes that drag homeless people into a cycle of being arrested and released.

“The reason they’re committing shoplifting and disorder on the streets is because of an addiction issue,” he says. “They want to get help – and we can connect them with those services. That’s a fantastic resolution.”

[asset-images[{"caption": "Rachel Fyall, assistant professor of public policy and governance at the University of Washington Evans School. Fyall worries about the government's dependence on contract social workers.", "fid": "125174", "style": "placed_wide", "uri": "public://201603/Fyall_0.jpg", "attribution": "Credit Courtesy of Rachel Fyall"}]]

Especially, Lindsay says, since the Affordable Care Act pays for many of those services.

The cop-social worker program has its fans. But it also has critics.

Rachel Fyall teaches public policy and governance at the Evans School at the University of Washington. She says this partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association and the police may help people, but it fits into a riskier, larger trend that started in the 1980s.

“We call it a lot of things: 'The contracting regime,' or 'the shadow of bureaucracy.' 'The hollowing out of government,'” Fyall says.

The problem is that a government that doesn’t do social work forgets how to do it. And by farming out social work to contractors, we create an industry devoted to social work – an industry that’s less transparent and less accountable than public employees would be.

Fyall says the key is to pay close attention to results of programs like this – and to hold non-profits accountable.

As for Tonja Warner, the homeless woman on Capitol Hill, the program seems to be working. 

“They come out here and find you and really take your information and make sure and come back and find you. And they’re really tenacious about helping you," she says. "I’m really appreciative of them. They’re really cool.”

Not only is she appreciative, she sleeps better now, too. That repeated contact from Downtown Seattle Association’s social workers helped get Warner and her partner into a shelter.