COMP NEWS – The state of Washington is struggling to retain service workers suffering from low pay, burnout, and the difficulties of operating through the COVID-19 pandemic. To retain its staff, the state plans to give $4,000 in stipend assistance to homeless-service workers.

The homeless-services sector struggled with low pay, burnout and turnover long before the pandemic. But industry leaders say the pandemic cranked the challenges of the work to 11, leading to a crisis-level shortage of frontline workers.

In recognition of that crisis and the need to stanch the outflow of social-service providers, the Washington state Legislature earmarked $55 million in federal COVID-19 grants in the 2022 budget to pay for two rounds of $2,000 stipends for people doing direct homeless assistance in the state. The money also pays for a study that will look at long-term solutions to stabilize the industry. Applications for the stipend program opened Sept. 29.

The stipends are available to anybody employed full- or part-time with an organization that works on-site with people experiencing homelessness or residents of a permanent supportive housing program. That includes emergency shelter and transitional housing staff, street outreach workers, caseworkers, peer advisors, reception and admin support staff and maintenance and custodial staff.

The stipends are available for Washington service workers through June 2023. In order to encourage worker retention, applicants will qualify for a second round of stipends if they remain at the same organization for six months after receiving the first round.

The program will distribute the stipends through June 2, 2023. As an incentive for people to stay in their jobs, applicants who qualify for a first-round stipend are eligible for another payment of up to $2,000 six months later if they remain employed at the same organization. Because the program ends in June 2023, applicants must apply for their first stipend by Dec. 9 to qualify in time for the second stipend.

The state’s Department of Commerce is using $500,000 of the earmarked federal dollars to pay for a study of current working conditions in the homeless-services industry and ways to improve retention.

While the Seattle city council has attempted to increase social-service contract wages to the rate of inflation, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s budget proposal for 2022 would cap that increase at 4%. With inflation sitting at over 8%, social-service workers will effectively receive a pay cut. In an industry that remains poorly paid, that financial hardship will be strongly felt by workers.

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously in 2019 to peg social-service contracts to the real rate of inflation in recognition of lagging wages and rising costs. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s 2022 budget proposal would cap service-provider wage increases at 4%. At less than half the current 8.25% inflation rate, that increase would amount to a pay cut.

Homeless-service work has always been poorly paid, said Andrea Carnes, Plymouth Housing’s chief operating officer. But as the cost of living has increased, the gap between wages and expenses has become insurmountable for some

To read about Washington’s stipend program for homeless-service workers, click here.

For more Comp News, see our recent posts.