Safe Jobs, Secure Housing: A Shared Vision Labor Standards Enforcement, Housing Policy and Increased Funding for Social Services Must Be Assessed Together to Begin to Address the Root Causes of Homelessness Service Employees International Union 775, with: Fair Work Center Nicole Macri Puget Sound Sage LGBTQ Allyship Martin Luther King County Labor Council Working Washington

AUTHORS Lindsey Aitcheson, M.S., Research Analyst, SEIU 775 Lauren Leigh Craig, J.D., Research Manager, SEIU 775 Nicole Vallestero Keenan, M.S.W., Executive Director, Fair Work Center Laila Khalil, Esq., Research and Policy Analyst, SEIU 775 Nicole Macri, M.P.A., Homelessness and Housing Policy Expert and Advocate

SPONSORS Debbie Carlsen, Executive Director, LGBTQ Allyship Nicole Grant, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Martin Luther King County Labor Council Sejal Parikh, Executive Director, Working Washington Rebecca Saldaña, Executive Director, Puget Sound Sage

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Most importantly, we have endless gratitude for the men living without homes who were willing to spend their time with us and share their stories. We also humbly thank contributor-experts Andrew Beane, Alison Eisinger, Howard Greenwich, Benjamin Miksch, Mark Putnam, all bottomless wells of guidance and expertise. This paper has been slightly modified from the original.

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I. Introduction This paper spotlights the connection between economic policy, violation of labor standards, discrimination and homelessness, through 1) a literature review and 2) qualitative interviews of homeless individuals that receive services at Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC). The findings presented here support our assertion that progressive housing policy, increased funding for social services and the enforcement of labor standards laws are inextricably linked in the fight against homelessness. Thus, budget and policy decisions regarding all three should be assessed accordingly. Despite historic levels of economic growth in our region, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to grow at an extraordinary rate. There is much debate throughout the city about how to house and provide service to people who experience housing instability and homelessness. Local officials are currently spearheading innovative efforts to address both. Additionally, the City of Seattle recently passed a series of transformational laws designed to protect workers including paid sick leave, a minimum wage, a fair chance at employment despite criminal background in the hiring process, secure scheduling and recourse for wage theft. The authors believe that a truly fair and sustainable economy in Seattle and the region will require access to stable housing. To further prevent homelessness among low-wage workers and the economically insecure, policy and budget decisions must empower workers to pursue jobs with fair wages and where their legal rights are honored. It is intuitive that economic insecurity and housing instability are connected. Nonetheless, there is little literature demonstrating the ways labor standards violations compound issues of housing unaffordability and contribute to the rising number of people experiencing homelessness in the region. Every person who has experienced homelessness has a story to tell. Often, their stories include barriers to work – either they attempted to work but faced multiple barriers to achieving stable work, or they at one point had stable work but something happened that prevented them from continuing to work. As people who have been working to either improve economic standing for the people in our region or ameliorate the impacts of homelessness, we know that there is a strong relationship between job stability, structural racism, discrimination and homelessness.

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II. Homelessness and Housing Affordability in Seattle and King County According to a 2016 report by the All Home King County 10,688 people were counted as living without a home in Seattle and King County on a single night in January, including 4,505 unsheltered. This is an overall increase of 6% from 2015, with the most dramatic increase – 19% – among those living outside without shelter.1 The number for Washington State is almost twice as high as in Seattle and King County, with 19,419 people experiencing homelessness in 2015. This indicates an exponential increase in homelessness, which disproportionately impacts people of color, who account for over half of the homeless population in Seattle. African-Americans account for 40 percent of the population of homeless individuals in a city where they account for only 8 percent of the total population. Lastly, although between 6 and 11 percent of youth and young adults nationwide identify as LGBTQ, up to 22 percent of King County homeless people ages 12 to 25 identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning/queer, or LGBTQ.2 Despite the common myth, people are not moving to Seattle en masse to seek comprehensive social services. In fact, more than 85 percent of people seeking aid from homeless service providers listed a King County ZIP code as their last ZIP code of residence.3 In November 2015, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray declared a state of emergency on homelessness as “more than 45 people died on the streets of Seattle” in 2015.4 At the same time, our economy has boomed: mean family income has risen to $128,526 per year and unemployment in the region is down to 4 percent.5 Despite this boom, homelessness in Seattle has swelled.6 Moreover, Seattle is oft-cited as the fastest-growing city in America, and the most recent statistics from the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development indicate that between 2011 and 2016, the average monthly rent per unit and the average monthly rent per net rentable square foot increased as follows7:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

AllHome. King County One Night County: Summary of 2016 Data. Data tables. http://allhomekc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2016-KCONC-numbers.pdf. See table 8, p.6. Raghavendran, Beena. “High rate of homelessness among King County’s LGBTQ youth.” The Seattle Times, July 30, 2015. http://www.seattletimes. com/seattle-news/high-rate-of-homelessness-among-king-countys-lgbtq-youth/. Beekman, Daniel, and Justin Mayo. “Where Are the Homeless Coming From? They’re Mostly from Here, Service Providers Say.” The Seattle Times, March 12, 2016. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-countys-homeless-are-overwhelmingly-from-here-service-providers-say/. Beekman, Daniel, and Jack Broom. “Mayor, County Exec Declare ‘state of Emergency’ over Homelessness.” The Seattle Times, November 2, 2015. http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/mayor-county-exec-declare-state-of-emergency-over-homelessness/. U.S. Census Bureau. 2014 American Community Survey. City of Seattle: Income in the Past 12 Months. Accessed October 7, 2016. http://factfinder. census.gov/; see also U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economy at a Glance: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA. October 2016. http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag. wa_seattle_md.htm. Beekman, Daniel. “Seattle-area Count Finds ‘huge Spike’ in Homelessness.” The Seattle Times, January 19, 2016. http://www.seattletimes.com/ seattle-news/politics/count-of-seattle-king-county-homeless-finds-4505-people-sleeping-outside/. Dupre Scott Apartment Advisors. Apartment Vacancy Report, City of Seattle, Buildings with 20 Units or More. Report. Fall 2016. http://www. duprescott.com/publications/theApartmentVacancyReport.cfm.

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Average Monthly Rent Per Unit Increase 2011 -2016

Average Monthly Rent per Net Rentable Square Foot Increase 2011-2016

Studios: 32%

Studios: 36%

1 Bedroom: 37%

1 Bedroom: 35%

2 Bedroom/1 Bath 39%

2 Bedroom/1 Bath 38%

2 Bedroom/2 Bath 29%

2 Bedroom/2 Bath 35%

3 Bedroom/2 Bath 31%

3 Bedroom/2 Bath 27%

Our economic boom is leaving thousands upon thousands of people behind. There is much debate about how to house and provide services to the homeless, and the authors fully support current groundbreaking efforts by local officials to address both. Given this crisis, the City of Seattle is doing the right thing by investing significant resources to improve the everyday lives of people experiencing homelessness while simultaneously investing in the creation of affordable housing and homelessness prevention. Mayor Murray’s Pathways Home initiative, derived from two recently commissioned studies on homelessness in Seattle and modeled after recent efforts in Santa Clara County8, is a good start9. The Washington State budget in 2009 alone saw more than $23 million cut from mental health programs,10 though funding has increased in the last three years.11 However, dedicated funding alone is not enough to ensure social services are performing as intended; services must come with an understanding of the people it was meant to affect. A study by the Government Accountability Office found that mental health programs designed to assist those who face homelessness lacked agency coordination, creating a complex web of fragmented providers that made it difficult for people who experience serious mental health issues to access these critical services. The lack of oversight also led to overlap and duplication, making those funds less effective.12

8 9 10 11 12

Emmons, Mark. “Homeless in Santa Clara County: Report Puts Cost at $520 Million a Year.” The Mercury News. May 25, 2015. http://www.mercurynews.com/2015/05/25/homeless-in-santa-clara-county-report-puts-cost-at-520-million-a-year/. Murray, Ed. “Mayor Murray Statement on Pathways Home, Poppe Report.” Office of the Mayor. September 08, 2016. http://murray. seattle.gov/mayor-murray-statement-on-pathways-home-poppe-report/.

Sanders, Eli. “The Horrific Crime That Shows Just How Broken Our Nation’s Mental- Health System Is.” The Washington Post, February 13, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-one-crime-shows-the-terrible-cost-of-underfunding-our-nations-mental-healthsystem/2016/02/12/35324eac-cf6e-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html?utm_term=.1a7a828b5546. National Alliance on Mental Illness, State Mental Health Legislation 2015: Trends, Themes & Effective Practices. Report. December 2015. http:// www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Publications-Reports/Public-Policy-Reports/State-Mental-Health-Legislation-2015/NAMI-StateMentalHealthLegislati on2015.pdf. U.S. Government Accountability Office. Report to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives: HHS Leadership Needed to Coordinate Federal Efforts Related to Serious Mental Illness. December 2014. U.S. Government Accountability Office. Mental Health: HHS Leadership Needed to Coordinate Federal Efforts Related to Serious Mental Illness. December 2014. http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667644.pdf.

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Underfunding critical services, even for short periods of time, compounds housing and economic insecurity for marginalized people. According to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, state budgets nationwide slashed more than $4.3 billion from mental-health spending between 2009 and 2012.13 We must invest in critical local services that benefit people every day. As the problem grows, funding services alone is not enough. We must also need to look at every possible angle to prevent homelessness.

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Glover, Robert W., Joel E. Miller, and Stephanie R. Sadowski. “Proceedings on the State Budget Crisis and the Behavioral Health Treatment Gap: The Impact on Public Substance Abuse and Mental Health Treatment Systems.” Proceedings of National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, Washington, D.C. March 22, 2012. http://www.nasmhpd.org/sites/default/files/Summary-Congressional Briefing_March 22_Website(1). pdf.

Spotlight 1: Physical Harm and Health Problems Homeless men are more likely to have physically dangerous jobs, resulting injuries can result in barriers to stable jobs. Each man we spoke with at Downtown Emergency Services Center had the shared experience of performing manual labor, many of them across several different industries. They found work on Craigslist as ditch diggers or through temp agencies as loaders at the docks. Ali, a 58-year-old man, carried a folded resume in his wallet listing the manual labor he had performed going back to 1997. In the past 19 years he has worked in meat packing, fishing, and warehouses, all of which are dangerous lines of work. For example, meat packers are injured 2.5 times as often as the national average for all occupations/industries; this is not a surprise given their exposure to high noise levels, dangerous equipment, and hazardous chemicals.14 Chris, a 38-year-old, told us of his work cleaning barrels at a chemical plant in Ballard across from the tent city, a job he got through a temp agency. He had just gotten into a housing program after 3.5 years of living in a Seattle-area motel and was determined to make rent, despite the bad reputation of the employer for worker safety. “Everyone said not to take the job but I didn’t want to lose my housing,” Chris told us. He said the plant downgraded its safety equipment and standards, and he used a basic surgical mask rather than the legally required chemical safety mask while working with harsh chemicals. He also indicated that he didn’t have a safety jacket for a period of time when he first started the job, and when one was given to him it rapidly began breaking down. Chris said his direct supervisor was “nice but clueless about safety.” On his last week, the supervisor said to him, “I don’t know if anybody told you, but don’t stand on this grate, it’s not stable.” The grate had a 25-foot drop underneath it. Both the temp agency and the company itself have responsibilities for the safety of workers. In order to meet HAZCOM requirements set forth by OSHA, “the temporary agency employer is expected to provide generic hazard training and information concerning categories of chemicals employees may potentially encounter. Host employers would then be responsible for providing site-specific hazard training.”15 Yet, as Chris’s story illustrates, employers are not always in compliance and marginalized workers face few options for employment. Concerned for his safety, Chris has moved on to temp jobs on the loading dock. He has since developed a smoker’s cough and is concerned about the relationship between chemical exposure and leukemia. He likes his current living situation in which he has his own room and shares a kitchen, which he describes as being “low drama,” and hopes that his housing is not destabilized by unreliable work availability. Three of the men we talked to had experience traveling to Alaska to work on fishing boats. The 14 15

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Association. Safety and Health Topics: Meat Packing Industry. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/ meatpacking/. U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Association. Frequently Asked Questions: Hazard Communication (HAZCOM). https:// www.osha.gov/html/faq-hazcom.html.

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appeal is clear: the money can be very good. Anthony, age 55, was a lead and made about $20,000 for three months of work. The money isn’t always reliable, though, as minimum wage laws do not apply to crew member jobs in the fishing industry. Instead, they typically receive a percentage share of the adjusted gross catch.16 Meanwhile, the job-seeking mechanisms are typically informal; potential crew members travel to Alaska and, during harvest seasons, typically walk the fishing docks to meet with skippers about opportunities. This may be appealing to unstably-housed individuals who may lack formal job-seeking resources or often face rejection through typical routes of employment. The work itself is uncomfortable and often dangerous. All three men described working sixteenhour days, seven days per week, on rough seas. Ali, who carried his folded resume, talked of 40foot waves and backbreaking work operating hydraulic equipment, setting and pulling in nets, and stowing heavy catch. Anthony worked seasonally for 14 years, while a younger man (also named Ali) left after just two months. Commercial fishing comes at great physical risk to workers. As one of the most dangerous occupations in the country, commercial fishing has a fatality rate 39 times higher than the national average.17 Half of these fatalities result from vessel disasters in the frozen waters of the North Pacific Ocean. In the event of injury, which poses an ever-present risk, geographic isolation can quickly become deadly; according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, “getting to the nearest clinic or hospital is totally dependent on the weather and availability of special transportation. The wait can be hours, or even days.”18 As people struggle to find legitimate work, they sometimes move to the unregulated black market to make ends meet. Terrence, a 53-year-old chef, worked for three years as a bootleg cab driver in Chicago before moving to Seattle. He operated a for-hire, unlicensed taxi in a part of the city where other cabs and rideshares would not travel. Working late nights, Terrence made about $750 a week but felt he had to carry a gun for safety. The danger of the job did not concern him much more than that of other professions, he said, because his son Brandon had lost an arm in a manufacturing press. As many of the men we talked to have moved into middle or older age, they expressed the need to pursue less physically intensive work. Anthony, who worked on fishing boats through his 30s and 40s, is now looking for a job as a security guard. A prior DUI is getting in the way of his transition. Carlos, age 42, has spent his young years in commercial construction cleanup and cabinet transport. He says he hopes to find retail work, as heavy lifting has begun to take a toll on his back. Ali, with a wallet resume of manual labor dating back to the 1990s, has sought work in retail establishments like Whole Foods and Costco but has not gotten callbacks. He currently works as a vendor in the stadiums during games. At 58, he recently had to receive a “shot” in his knee due to continuous wear and tear from his prior work. Of course, homeless individuals often lack access to the kind of occupational or physical therapy that would enable them to recover from injuries sustained on the job. 16 17 18

Alaska. Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Preparing to Work On-board Fishing Vessels. http://jobs.alaska.gov/ seafood/prepare-fish-vessel.pdf. U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Commercial Fishing Safety. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/fishing/. Alaska. Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Preparing to Work On-board Fishing Vessels. http://jobs.alaska.gov/ seafood/prepare-fish-vessel.pdf.

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The disproportionate exposure to dangerous professions is especially concerning because threefifths of homeless people in Seattle report health conditions that require professional care; one-third have been hospitalized in the past year and one-third take regular medications.19 Further, homeless persons are disproportionately likely to experience a number of health conditions, including nutritional deficiencies, which increases the risk of injury on the job.20 Homeless individuals are also between two and 20 times more likely than domiciled individuals to experience tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, hypertension, seizures, and most other infectious and chronic illnesses.21 Moreover, according to the CDC, men who have sex with men represent about 4 percent of the male population in the United States, but account for 78 percent of new HIV infections among males. LGBTQ youth have reported not feeling safe in shelters or housing programs for youth, which discourages them from accessing health care services.22

19 20 21 22

Seattle Office of Housing. Seattle Homeless Needs Assessment 2009. Report. November 2009. http://www.seattle.gov/ homelessneeds/docs/Homeless_Needs_Assessment_Findings_November_2009.pdf. Lee, Barrett A., Kimberly A. Tyler, and James D. Wright. “The New Homelessness Revisited.” Annual Review of Sociology 36 (March 15, 2010): 501-21. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=sociologyfacpub Ibid. California Homeless Youth Project. HIV and Youth Homelessness: Housing as Health Care. Report. February 2014. http:// cahomelessyouth.library.ca.gov/docs/pdf/HIV&YouthHomelessnessFINAL.pdf.

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II. Economic Insecurity and Housing Instability Over the last decade, the federal government increased awareness of and funding for homeless services. Despite earnest efforts by Federal and local governments, the number of people requiring services only increased. The services provided much-needed living spaces for families and individuals forced to leave their homes, but did little to address the root causes that displaced people in the first place. Nationally, political leaders and think tanks have begun to connect wage stagnation and poverty with inflated housing prices to show how these combined social problems push working people into homelessness. For example, a study by the Conference of Mayors in 2015 asked politicians to give their thoughts on the causes of hunger and homelessness in the cities they represent. The leading answers to the underlying causes of hunger were low-wages, poverty and homelessness.23 When asked to identify the three main causes of homelessness among families with children, 85 percent cited lack of affordable housing, 55 percent cited poverty, and 35 percent also cited low-paying jobs.24 Housing prices are unaffordable for low and moderate earning workers in any state or municipality, according to a study done by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.25 This is particularly true for Seattle and King County renters who make an estimated hourly wage of $21.96, though the pay rate necessary to afford a two-bedroom in King County is $29.29.26 This information led researchers to conclude that higher wages as well as a greater supply of affordable rental housing are necessary to address the “affordability gap,” which is the difference between “the cost of rental housing and the wages of renters who do not earn enough to afford a decent and safe home without significant sacrifice” (emphasis added).27 All Home, a partnership of public and private King County organizations that created a 10-year plan designed to address homelessness, has dedicated funding to building permanent homes for people experiencing homelessness. Formerly known as the Coalition to End Homelessness, All Home has done a tremendous job of curbing the fall-out of the most vulnerable following the economic downturn. Committee leaders also acknowledge that the plan was narrow in that it did not have enough “focus on root causes” and the foresight to see that economic growth is “generating both wealth and poverty in large amounts.”28 Local leaders on homelessness point to the need to help people avoid homelessness, not just assist them once they lose their homes. Vince Matulionis, the former Director of Ending Homelessness with United WayKing County, rightly explained that “Seattle was the fastest-growing city in the country last year,” and the diverse group of people who arrive “get here and find that they struggle with the cost of living and the cost of housing.”29 The efforts of All Home should continue to be funded with understanding that additional social concerns must not be ignored as “we’re never going to be able to build enough housing if we don’t reduce the number of people becoming homeless.”30 We believe that when County and City officials make budgetary choices, funding to address homelessness should not deplete other equally important programs that will address the root causes of homelessness. 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

United States Conference of Mayors. Hunger and Homelessness Survey: A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America’s Cities. Report. December 2015. https://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2015/1221-report-hhreport.pdf. Ibid. National Low Income Housing Coalition. Out of Reach 2016: No Refuge for Low Income Renters. Report. May 2016. http://nlihc.org/sites/default/ files/oor/OOR_2016.pdf. Ibid. Ibid. Ryan, John, writer. “Amid Seattle’s Affluence, Homelessness Also Flourishes.” Transcript. In All Things Considered. NPR. April 7, 2015. http://www. npr.org/2015/04/07/398075834/amid-seattles-affluence-homelessness-also-flourishes. Ibid. Ibid.

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Spotlight 2: Unique Employment Risks and Barriers The temporary, unstable nature of homeless men’s housing and employment exposes them to unique risks. Many people experiencing homelessness spoke of having to frequently migrate between unstable housing and temporary employment prospects with hopes that more stable opportunities will arise. This cycle of instability diminishes opportunities for workers living without homes to find work through their established social connections. Carlos, a quiet 42-year-old, spoke of his decision to leave Seattle, where he was raised, in hopes of finding work and housing in Tennessee. He recently returned to Seattle again six months ago hoping that his previous connections here will land him housing and a job. Others spoke of moving through many cities to arrive here: Chris, the chemical plant worker with inadequate equipment, moved from Dallas to Oklahoma City to King County. Norman is 32 and has been homeless for 13 years in Phoenix and Portland before arriving in Seattle three months ago. One man, Abuzeinab, a polite and optimistic 43-year-old, moved from to Seattle from Sudan and has yet to establish firm connections with employers. Continuous migration leaves people experiencing homelessness with few work opportunities at all, and many opportunities that do arise force people to endure dangerous working conditions for a paycheck. Anthony explained that over the year he has moved between Las Vegas and Seattle, with intermediary stints on dangerous Alaskan fishing boats. Similarly, Ali immigrated to the Pacific Northwest from East Africa and found no opportunities beyond fishing boats. Chris, the chemical plant worker, endured daily severe safety risks because he did not want to destabilize his tenuous housing situation. Given the limited opportunities available to these workers, many have to disregard their personal safety in order to make money to survive. The temporary nature of work and housing opportunities has meant that people are perpetually looking for work, leaving most people living without a home vulnerable to predatory employment programs. When we asked people how they find work, many said that they had to take any shortterm opportunities they could find through temp agencies, Craigslist, or Monster.com. The jobs made available to them were almost always temporary, part-time jobs. The men we spoke with were so desperate for work that many were taken advantage of by unhelpful employment programs. Carlos, the soft-spoken construction worker looking for retail opportunities, recounted that he encountered advertisements from job placement programs that asked him to pay an upfront fee for their services. Many men find out that these programs are scams designed to take application fees from those who are unemployed or looking for more work. Carlos reported that some people lose up to $400 to these scams and have no means of hiring an attorney to recover the money. And even when the programs are helpful, their cut of the wages is enormous, forcing many to accept exceedingly low pay for the work they perform. According to Chris, workers who are placed by temp agencies at construction job sites have $5 to $6 per hour of their wages sent to the temp agency for their services. And even when these men do find work, they report little guarantee that they will be paid for the full hours they worked.

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Temporary housing solutions are structured in a way that makes them inaccessible for many lowwage workers. Carlos reported that he would be unable to move from the shelter he was living in because he did not meet the requirements for more permanent housing solutions. In order to move away from the shelter he was living in, Carlos was told that he had to report a job where he made more than $15 per hour. He was unable to find work that fit this requirement, and he cannot afford to pay the cost of move-in fees for non-subsidized housing opportunities. Other permanent housing programs bar him from accessing those services; they reserve bed space for folks living with mental illness or who face substance addiction or abuse. Many of the people we spoke with say that the uncertainty in housing placement perpetuates their unstable situation. Being on the housing waitlist for an indefinite period of time stagnates their housing and work situations. The precariousness of the situation makes it difficult for workers to know which opportunities are worth investing their time and efforts in. People living without a home also face unique workplace safety risks because they lack opportunities to get adequate rest. For those living in a shelter environment, strict evacuation times in the morning and tense environments make it difficult for people to get the sleep they need to feel safe on the job. According to Chris, “you can get some sleep but can’t really keep up.” One person we spoke with, Jerome, said that he prefers sleeping outside with others in tent city as the openness of the space makes him feel safer than living in the shelter. Jerome’s concerns about safety make sense given that many shelters are overcrowded with people seeking services. According to the 2015 Conference of Mayors survey, “to accommodate for an increase in demand, shelters have had to consistently have clients sleep on overflow cots, in chairs, in hallways, or other subpar sleeping arrangements” in Seattle.31 Carlos also mentioned that he would frequently lose his property both in shelters and outside because there is no safe place for people to store their belongings. Even if workers were able to sleep in their cars, it is likely that they do not get the rest they need to perform manual labor safely.

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United States Conference of Mayors. Hunger and Homelessness Survey: A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America’s Cities. Report. December 2015. https://www.usmayors.org/pressreleases/uploads/2015/1221-report-hhreport.pdf.

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III. Economic Policies Which Exacerbated Housing Instability Beginning in the late 1970’s, politicians and business leaders successfully pushed for limited regulation and oversight of worker safety and pay, leaving economists to call the movement “the legislative attack on American wages and labor standards.”32 This conservative standpoint espouses that labor protections like a federal minimum wage, overtime pay, adequate rest time, and federal oversight of workers health and safety threatens their idea of an efficient business market. This “trickle-down economics” theory advocates for uninhibited business growth and profit maximization so that there can be enough jobs to support working class Americans. Opponents advocated that that unfettered economic growth and limited labor protections produce the opposite of fairness and equality in opportunity, thereby decreasing economic security for not just the most marginalized Americans, but most Americans. Nonetheless, policy makers nationwide adopted the tenets of this theory, and governments began to deregulate employers, cut funding for standards enforcement, and make it harder to file discrimination claims alleging employer misconduct.33 However, economic policy think tanks, academics, and successful business executives have recently claimed that trickle-down economics alone, absent adequately funded social services, actually produces tremendous economic inequality. 34 We now know that legislation designed to protect workers in the years surrounding World War II did not evolve to protect workers in the modern economy, evidenced by three decades of rising income inequality, wage stagnation, erosion of basic worker protections and the fissured workplace. These laws were developed and implemented during an era of segregation, before deindustrialization and the rise of the service economy. They were never designed to protect undocumented workers and people of color, especially women. Economists have captured this inequality by assessing the “lopsided income growth” of workers over time. Between 1979 and 2007, when profit-driven legislation dramatically scaled back worker protections, the average income for the bottom 99 percent of families grew by less than 20 percent while the income of the top 1 percent of families grew by more than 200 percent. Essentially, the wealthiest families saw more than half of all income growth in those three decades nationwide. 35 In Washington State wage growth was even more disparate, as the top 1 percent of earners captured nearly sixty percent of all wage increases in the state over the same span of time.36 Those who justify low-wages say the pay matches the work, but wages have stayed the same over the past three decades despite dramatic increases in worker productivity. Between 1979 and 2014, productivity grew almost eight times faster than hourly compensation, with productivity growing 62.7 percent, while hourly compensation grew only 8 percent. Looking at wage growth evidence in tandem with productivity gains, the benefits of greater worker production benefitted the top 1 percent of earners almost exclusively.37 32 33 34 35 36 37

Lafer, Gordon. The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011-2012. Issue brief no. 364. Economic Policy Institute. Accessed October 31, 2013. http://www.epi.org/files/2013/EPI-Legislative-Attack-on-American-Wages-Labor-Standards-10-31-2013.pdf. Ibid. Bivens, Josh. America the Unequal: Origins and Impacts of a Policy Revolution. Report. Demos. 2015. http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/ publications/Bivens.pdf.; see also Beware, Fellow Plutocrats, the Pitchforks Are Coming. Nick Hanauer. TEDSalon. August 2014. https://www.ted. com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming?language=en Lafer, 2013. Ibid. Davis, Alyssa, and Elise Gould. Closing the Pay Gap and Beyond: A Comprehensive Strategy for Improving Economic Security for Women and Families. Issue brief no. 412. Economic Policy Institute. November 2015. http://www.epi.org/files/2015/closing-the-pay-gap.pdf.

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People of color face an income and wealth gap, largely due to over-representation in low-wage jobs. With lower wages and less income, people of color are more likely to be in poverty. In turn, this makes people of color more vulnerable to homelessness. If we can address low-wages and income security, we can also address homelessness. Though the U.S. has the largest economy in the world, it also has the highest proportion of low-wage workers of any rich country.38 Continuously low pay for minimum wage earners has greatly impacted the racial wealth gap between white workers, and African Americans and Hispanic/Latinx39 workers, who are far more likely to be in low-wage jobs. In the U.S., an African American worker has more than a one in two chance (53 percent) of working for less $15 an hour.40 The chances of working for less than $15 an hour are even higher for Hispanic/Latinx workers, as three out of five (60 percent) earn under $15 an hour. Despite having a fairer distribution of high wage pay among White workers, White workers also face a little more than a one in three (38 percent) chance of earning under that amount. Further, members of the LGBTQ community have disproportionately high rates of poverty.41 Pay disparity can be measured by comparing the household incomes of white workers and workers of color as well. According to 2015 Census data, the real median income of White households was $62,950, while Hispanic/Latinx households earned $45,148 (72 percent of White household income) and African American households saw median incomes of $36,898 (59 percent of White household income).42 For women who are African American or Hispanic/Latinx, the numbers are even more dramatic: almost a quarter of women of color are minimum wage workers (23 percent), despite being 16 percent of all workers.43 African American women are most likely to work for low pay, as they are overly represented in the lowest-paying occupations like service, health care support, and education and are the least likely group to work in higher-paying industries or managerial positions.44 Longstanding race and gender income disparities have interacted with other social issues to create dramatic inequality in many realms. Low pay works in tandem with race and class discrimination so that people of color are disproportionately in poverty. In 2014, one-third of local African Americans lived in poverty and were nearly 2.5 times as likely to live in poverty as other King County residents. Similarly, one-fourth of Hispanic/Latinx people in the county live in poverty. This group is also disproportionately represented in the population of people living in poverty, as Hispanic/Latinx people account for 18.8 percent of King County’s poverty population, though they account for only 9.2 percent of the County’s population. White people are far less likely to experience poverty in King County as 8.9 percent live in poverty and account for 52.2 percent of people living in poverty, though they make up more than 69 percent of the population.45 Labor standards, such as the $15 minimum wage and secure scheduling legislation, can reduce income 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

OECD. OECD Employment Outlook 2013. July 16, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/empl_outlook-2013-en.; and Mishel, Lawrence. “The United States Leads in Low-Wage Work and the Lowest Wages for Low-Wage Workers,” Working Economics Blog (blog), September 4, 2014, , http://www. epi.org/blog/united-states-leads-wage-work-lowest-wages/. The many data sources we consulted for this report use the terms “Hispanic,” “Latino/a,” and “Latinx” inconsistently. We chose to combine the terms “Hispanic” and “Latinx” to be as inclusive as possible of people who are likely to be represented by those data. Oxfam America & Economic Policy Institute. Few Rewards. Report. June 2016. https://www.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/Few_Rewards_ Report_2016_web.pdf. The Leadership Conference Education Fund, National Center for Transgender Equality, and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund. LGBT Workers and the Minimum Wage. Issue brief. April 2014. http://civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/minimumwage/lgbt-minimum-wage.pdf. U.S. Census Bureau. Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015. By Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica L. Semega, and Melissa A. Kollar. September 13, 2016. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.pdf. National Women’s Law Center. Fair Pay for Women Requires a Fair Minimum Wage. Issue brief. May 2015. https://nwlc.org/wp-content/ uploads/2015/08/fair_pay_for_women_requires_a_fair_minimum_wage_may_2015.pdf. National Women’s Law Center. Equal Pay for African American Women. Issue brief. August 2016. https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ NEW_Equal-Pay-for-African-American-Women.pdf.; see also U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers, 2015. April 2016. http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/pdf/home.pdf. U.S. Census Bureau. 2014 American Community Survey. King County: Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months. Accessed October 7, 2016. http:// factfinder.census.gov/; see also U.S. Census Bureau. 2014 American Community Survey. King County: Demographic and Housing Estimates. Accessed October 7, 2016. http://factfinder.census.gov/.

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inequality and racial disparities that contribute to homelessness and housing instability, but only if enforced. The myth of trickle-down economics holds that a strictly enforced minimum wage will lead to high rates of unemployment as businesses would be pushed to fire workers to cover the increased cost of paying their workers. But as Goldman Sachs analysts summarized recently, “the economic literature has typically found no effect on employment [of recent U.S. minimum-wage increases].”46 The National Employment Law Project further dispelled this myth in their report titled “Raise wages, kill jobs?” which concluded that unemployment actually decreased in years that followed 22 Congressionally passed federal minimum wage increases, leaving more people with jobs as a result of the uniform wage increase.47 And a survey of 1,000 business executives conducted by state chambers of commerce consultant Frank Luntz found that “80 percent of [business executives nationwide] said they supported raising their state’s minimum wage, while only eight (8 percent) opposed it.”48 Beginning in 2011, the City of Seattle passed a series of laws designed to protect low-wage workers given modern economic realities because, as stated by Mayor Ed Murray, “Everyone who works in Seattle should be able to afford to live in Seattle.”49 These ordinances represented a commitment to paid sick leave, a minimum wage, a fair chance at employment despite criminal background in the hiring process, and recourse for wage theft.50 Municipalities that have passed legislation to increase the minimum wage have shown early signs of a strong and fair economy: equitable growth for all that are invested. In SeaTac, where the minimum wage increase led to instant raises to $15 for workers, the nightmare scenario of high unemployment and business closures often touted by opponents never came true. In fact, the Washington Post reported that one hotel owner who predicted worker layoffs instead decided to expand. Seattle’s minimum wage increase meant workers and businesses made more money; the fear mongering ideas of high unemployment and small business failure never manifested.51 A study by the University of Washington assessed the short-term impacts of the new minimum wage for Seattle’s lowest earning workers: “The typical worker earning under $11/hour in Seattle when the City Council voted to raise the minimum wage in June 2014 (“low-wage workers”) earned $11.14 per hour by the end of 2015, an increase from $9.96/hour at the time of passage.”52 That’s an increase of more than $2400 yearly for full-time workers who previously made around $20,000 annually before taxes.53 Additionally, “the region’s unemployment rate hit an eight-year low of 3.6 percent in August 2015, significantly lower than the state unemployment rate of 5.3 percent, following the initial wage increase in April 2015.”54 Finally, like 46 47 48

49 50 51 52 53 54

Struyven, Daan, and Alec Phillips. “Minimum Wage Hikes and Wage Growth.” Goldman Sachs U.S. Daily, April 12, 2016. Sonn, Paul, and Yannet Lathrop. Raise Wages, Kill Jobs? Seven Decades of Historical Data Find No Correlation Between Minimum Wage Increases and Employment Levels. Data brief. National Employment Law Project. May 5, 2016. http://www.nelp.org/publication/raise-wages-kill-jobs-nocorrelation-minimum-wage-increases-employment-levels/. Luntz, Frank. “Survey of 1000 Business Executives.” Address, Council of State Chambers, January 2015. https://www.scribd.com/doc/306912486/ COSC-Presentation.; DePillis, Lydia. “Leaked Documents Show Strong Business Support for Raising the Minimum Wage.” The Washington Post, April 4, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/04/leaked-documents-show-strong-business-support-for-raising-theminimum-wage/. Murray, Edward B. “2015 State of the City.” Speech. February 17, 2015. http://murray.seattle.gov/mayor-murrays-state-of-the-city-speech-asprepared/. Seattle Office of Civil Rights. Office of Labor Standards. “Labor Standards Ordinances.” http://www.seattle.gov/laborstandards/ordinances. Milbank, Dana. “Raising Wages without Raising Havoc.” The Washington Post, September 7, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ dana-milbank-no-calamity-yet-as-seatac-wash-adjusts-to-15-minimum-wage/2014/09/05/d12ba922-3503-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story. html?utm_term=.35c680f20176. Report on the Impact of Seattle’s Minimum Wage Ordinance on Wages, Workers, Jobs, and Establishments Through 2015. Report. Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team. July 2016. https://evans.uw.edu/sites/default/files/MinWageReport-July2016_Final.pdf. Authors’ calculations for full-time employees working forty-hours a week, based on the information provided in the Report on the Impact of Seattle’s Minimum Wage Ordinance. National Employment Law Project. “New York State Agrees to $15 Minimum Wage Plan.” News release, March 31, 2016. http://www.nelp.org/

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Seattle’s neighboring city to the south, no “compelling evidence” was found that the minimum wage caused significant increases in business failure rates.55 Uncollected remedies for wage theft consistently takes place in both Seattle and Washington State. Since the City of Seattle Office of Labor Standards began implementing enforcement measures, 604 employees have been awarded monetary funds as recourse for labor standards violations. However, only one-half (50.7 percent) of the remedies owed to these employees has been recovered and restored. 56 Since 2009, nearly 20,000 wage theft complaints were filed with the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). In over half those cases, the state concluded that employees were owed some or all of the wages they claimed had been withheld. Of the meritorious cases, the Department collected only a little more than half the total wages workers were owed, leaving approximately $10 million in uncollected remedies that never reached victims of illegal activity.57 While the average number of claims has declined since 2009, King County now makes up a greater percentage of total claims.58 Wage theft pushes already marginalized low-wage earning families into poverty, forcing many to rely on social programs to avoid eviction, hunger, and severe health concerns. The numbers reflected in wage theft reports are tremendously understated, as wage theft dramatically goes undetected and unenforced. Studies have shown that “for every one complaint case” conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, “130 cases of employees paid in violation of overtime laws go undetected.”59 Despite numbers being underreported, some studies have linked the negative impact of wage theft. A study commissioned by the Department of Labor documenting the social and economic impacts of wage violations found that “there were an estimated 41,000 families in California and 26,000 families in New York below the poverty line due to minimum wage violations.”60 The study also delineated who was more likely to experience wage theft, showing that women were more likely to experience wage theft than men, and people of color were more likely to experience wage theft than White populations.61 Labor standards violations make the difficult lives of low-wage earners even more difficult when employers refuse to pay them, pay them for less hours than they actually worked, or refuse to pay for overtime, meals and breaks.

55 56 57 58 59 60 61

news-releases/new-york-state-agrees-to-15-minimum-wage-plan/. Seattle Minimum Wage Study Team. Seattle Office for Civil Rights. Office of Labor Standards. July 2016 Monthly Dashboard. Data Brief. October 2016. http://www.seattle.gov/ Documents/Departments/LaborStandards/OLS-Dashboard-July-2016.pdf. Abramo, Allegra, and Jason Alcorn. “Accountability: Stolen Wages.” InvestigateWest, August 27, 2014. http://invw.org/2014/08/27/stolenwages/. Sederbaum, Isaac M. “Wage Theft in Washington: An Examination of Labor & Industry Claims 2009-2013.” Master’s thesis, University of Washington, 2014. https://depts.washington.edu/pcls/documents/research/Sederbaum_Wage.pdf. Ichikawa, Diego Rondón, and Rebecca Smith. Delivering $15: Community-Centered Wage and Hour Enforcement in Seattle. Report. National Employment Law Project. October 2014. http://www.nelp.org/content/uploads/2015/03/Delivering-15-Community-Centered-Wage-and-HourEnforcement-Seattle.pdf. Eastern Research Group. The Social and Economic Effects of Wage Violations: Estimates for California and New York. Report prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor. December 2014. https://www.dol.gov/asp/evaluation/completed-studies/wageviolationsreportdecember2014.pdf. Ibid.

Spotlight 3: Discrimination More than other workers, homeless men are especially likely to experience discrimination on the basis of their race/religion, criminal record, or address.

Race or Religion Discrimination affected the job opportunities for many of the men we spoke with. The most marginalized workers spoke of discrimination operating intersectionally based on race, religion, ethnicity, and nation of origin.62 One worker described his experience with discrimination in job placement and retention as favoritism. While he worked in stadiums as a cashier, Ali noted that the best jobs, those who get to run the tills or work at the club level, were not available to him based on factors that he couldn’t control. When asked about whether race or religion was a factor in which jobs he was assigned to, he said he absolutely believes people discriminate against him based on those factors. Most of the club-level workers are White. He summarized his seemingly perpetual job hunt by saying “a lot of work is not what you know, it’s who you know.” In a survey of people experiencing homelessness in Seattle, “a greater proportion of working respondents were between the ages 26 and 49, White, and male compared to the whole survey group. There was a low rate of African Americans compared to the survey group as a whole. Workers had the highest rate of becoming homeless in another state (37 percent) and had the lowest rates of incarceration (31 percent) and mental health treatment (31 percent) than any other group described in this report.”63 People of color, people who had been incarcerated and people receiving mental health treatment are less able to secure a job while homeless. We also spoke with people who experience violence as a result of discrimination from the police. Ali described having ongoing interactions with police based on his incarceration record, and has a hard time securing a permanent job because of this record. Ali explained the targeting he felt from police made it much more difficult to find a job and place to live, as each encounter added to his record diminished his chances of finding legitimate employment. He is currently on probation and would welcome work as a means of staying busy and supporting himself.

Criminal record Formerly incarcerated people are overly represented amongst people living without homes in Seattle. In a 2009 survey, 42 percent of homeless people in Seattle had been recently incarcerated.64 Despite legislative efforts like “Ban the Box” to protect those seeking employment, many formerly incarcerated people living without a home report that their record makes it nearly impossible to obtain a job. Chris, the chemical plant worker, reported that the newly enacted provision has not landed him a stable job because there is no way that he could prove his potential employer broke the 62

63 64

Northwestern University. Kellogg School of Management. “Statistics That Hurt: Racial Discrimination Still Affects Minority Wages.” KelloggInsight. January 8, 2014. http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/statistics_that_hurt.; Trottman, Melanie. “Religious-Discrimination Claims on the Rise.” The Wall Street Journal (New York), October 27, 2013, Business sec. http://www. wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579153462921346076. Seattle Homeless Needs Assessment 2009.

Ibid.

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law by considering his criminal record. Many of the men report that a history of incarceration creates a cycle of stigmatization that is very hard to escape, even after finding work. Ken has been a chef for 25 years and currently works on the waterfront near the Ferris Wheel. He reported that his job may be in limbo because a background check recently came back with thefts on his record. Ali said the stigma means he has to work harder and more carefully at work: “Once you do one thing wrong it’s, like, stamped on your head. You have to be perfect and work twice as hard to show them.” Jerome seemed particularly demoralized by the barriers he faced having been formerly incarcerated. He felt that he was a “three-time loser” which meant that many of his employers didn’t care much “if I’m being good or strung out in an alley somewhere.” The last instance appearing on his record was in 2011 and he has spent six months looking for a job.

Address A number of interviewees reported experiencing discrimination from employers based on the address they listed on their job applications. Three of the men we spoke with say their job applications have been denied because of the address they listed, including places like Costco and Whole Foods. Chris reported that employers summarily deny applicants who list temporary or emergency housing shelters as their current address. Many of the men seemed aware of other addresses they could use that would allow them to list that address on job applications and receive any responses that were sent. We also spoke with a service provider about how common place it was for people seeking services to experience discrimination and they responded that they had seen drastic measures taken against workers. In one instance, an employee was fired the day after a boss saw their employee waiting in line to stay inside the shelter. The employee at the shelter said these instances were common, as there was nothing illegal about terminating an employee for seeking services. People of color are more likely to experience labor law violations and discrimination, making it harder for them to get off the streets and into a job with income stability. The demographics of people experiencing wage theft largely mirror those of people without homes. According to a 2008 survey of more than 4,000 workers in major American cities, people of color are the primary victims of labor violations. Among U.S.-born workers, for example, the minimum wage violation rate was three times higher for people of color as for Whites. Foreign-born workers had nearly double the rate of wage violations as native-born counterparts.65 Along with short job tenure, limited English proficiency, and lower levels of education, these factors all exposed workers to further risk of violations ranging from being forced to work off-the-clock to retaliation and unjustly-denied workers compensation. This country’s legacy of racism, both individual and institutional, forces a disproportionate amount of low-wage earning people of color to experience homelessness. African Americans are “significantly overrepresented in the homeless population,” making up more than 41 percent of people living in a shelter in King County, despite making up just under 7 percent (6.6 percent) of the 65

National Employment Law Project. Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities. Report. 2008. https://nelp.3cdn.net/1797b93dd1ccdf9e7d_sdm6bc50n.pdf.

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County’s residents.66 Surveys also show higher numbers of Hispanic/Latinx people making up the population in housing shelters than in the general population: they make up 11 percent of people living in shelters, though they represent just 9.3 percent of the population. The incredibly high likelihood that a person experiencing homelessness is a person of color reflects the negative impact institutional racism has had on marginalized communities. The impact of this systemic oppression affects low-wage earners across the board though the results are not as disproportionate: White people account for 45 percent of people living in shelters, and they account for 69 percent of the County’s general population.67

66 67

Committee to End Homelessness. Homelessness Facts for King County. Issue brief. 2015. http://www.tukwilawa.gov/ wp-content/uploads/HS-Homelessness-Facts-for-King-County.pdf AllHome King County. “The Problem.” 2016. http://allhomekc.org/the-problem/.

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IV. Labor Standards and Homelessness The nature of homelessness leaves people specifically vulnerable to labor exploitation. Those limited economic arrangements available to workers with the most barriers to employment are, not surprisingly, the most prone to abuse. Employers frequently manipulate the system of informal pay arrangements prevalent among the lowest-wage work. Half of workers paid non-hourly and in cash report experiencing minimum wage violations in the past week, four times the rate of those paid hourly and by check. This informal, non-hourly pay arrangement is common among day laborers, construction workers, and in tipped positions like food service and bartending. Frequently lacking resumes and credentials, homeless individuals often find work on Craigslist and through other informal means. They often complete this work up front, at which point the employer underpays or simply refuses payment. According to Stuart Ray, Executive Director of Guiding Light Missions in Grand Rapids, Michigan, “You have a [contractor] who has work to do, and says he will pay cash and at the end of the day, he won’t pay. At that point, the homeless person has no recourse.”68 In other cases, the contractor will provide the laborer with a check that turns out to be forged, putting him then at risk of legal repercussions. As noted in Spotlight 1, the manual labor performed in these informally-arranged jobs is often physically exhausting. Terrence, an interviewee aged 53, has been laying sod and top soil in Black Diamond during the day and sleeping in his truck at night; if an employer denies him the agreed payment, Terrence has no realistic legal remedy and nothing to show for days of backbreaking labor. It’s no wonder, then, that at various periods in his life he has worked as a bootleg cab driver, an exceedingly dangerous job but one in which the client pays before the work is performed. Others we interviewed spoke of these temporary and informal jobs as their only real opportunities to work, as their attempts to find permanent jobs through traditional hiring mechanisms were consistently unsuccessful. Carlos, age 42, has been searching for above-board retail work for months but job boards like Careerbuilder and Monster.com have produced frustratingly few possibilities. In the meantime he and others have fallen victim to scams that prey on the economically vulnerable by charging fake “application fees” for seemingly-legitimate jobs. For now, working construction through temp agencies that take a generous cut of his wages is his only option for a guaranteed paycheck of any amount. (See “Spotlight 2: Unique Employment Risks.”) Those industries in which homeless individuals work are particularly rife with violations. The majority of surveyed residential construction workers and restaurant staff reported off-the-clock, minimum wage, meal break, and overtime violations in the past week—the very types of jobs frequently held by low-income and homeless individuals. Every person we interviewed had worked in manual labor, food service, commercial fishing, or some combination of these. These industries are popular sources of work because of their low barriers to entry and frequent hiring. Norman, age 32, had an interview at Denny’s right after we spoke with him. He was specifically interested in being a cook because he lacked a GED and training. Food service jobs require no formal educational credentials or work experience, and the job outlook is growing about 40 percent faster than average in the United States. Industry growth and high turnover result in constant hiring by many restaurants.69 68 69

Roelofs, Ted. “How Scammers Keep Targeting Michigan’s Homeless.” The Grand Rapids Press, October 12, 2011. http://www.mlive.com/news/grandrapids/index.ssf/2011/10/how_scammers_keep_targeting_mi.html. U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Food and Beverage Serving and Related Workers. December 17, 2015. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/food-and-beverage-serving-and-related-workers.htm.

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Despite job availability, the low wages and workplace violations of these jobs may provide little chance of moving out of homelessness. Ken, for example, had been working as a chef for 25 years at the time of our interview but was still living on the streets. (See “Spotlight 3: Discrimination.”) Likewise, all of the men we spoke with who had worked on fishing boats in Alaska were still living without permanent shelter. Even Anthony, who had worked as a lead on these boats for over a decade, was unable to acquire stable housing. As homelessness leads to wage theft victimization, so can wage theft victimization lead to homelessness. For Esteban Romero, a baker in Los Angeles, injuries from a physically demanding job and the unlawful denial of $16,000 in overtime wages led him to lose his apartment. He now sells fruit out of his truck but barely earns enough to buy food.70 This is not an uncommon scenario; according to a report from the University of California – Santa Cruz, “loss of income due to wage theft can result in increased homelessness, overcrowding, hunger, decreased mobility, and/or difficulty accessing healthcare and paying medical bills.”71 Hunger and poor health can make it harder to begin and remain working, further intensifying the relationship between work and housing instability. Stuart Ray, Executive Director of the Guiding Light Mission in Michigan, describes this interaction in a local newspaper story. “They are pretty eager to go to work,” Ray said. “We all feel a little bit more empowered when we have coin in our pocket. Somehow the homeless population is fairly easy to spot.” He particularly notes the vulnerability of mentally ill individuals in these working arrangements.72 Last, Seatte organization LGBTQ Allyship reported while educating LGBTQ homeless youth about labor standards, that most of them had experienced multiple labor violations. Without a doubt, those from all underserved groups frequently experience the compounding challenges of homelessness and labor exploitation, which perpetuates both.

70 71 72

Foshay, Karen. “Wage Theft: Millions Stolen, Little Recovered within the Restaurant Industry.” KCRW, August 1, 2016. http://curious.kcrw. com/2016/08/wage-theft. Gleeson, Shannon, Ruth Silver Taube, and Charlotte Noss. Santa Clara County Wage Theft Report. Report. University of California, Santa Cruz. 2014. https://www.sccgov.org/sites/owp/Documents/pub/WageTheftReportFinal-2014.pdf. Roelofs, Ted.

V. Policy Recommendations The stories featured in spotlight sections 1-4 above - about real people living without a home in Seattle right now - demonstrate that the economy-housing-homelessness connection is axiomatic. Moreover, it is compounded by institutional racism and discrimination. Further research will need to be conducted to formulate the basis for additional legislative, budgetary and regulatory action at the city and county level, but the city of Seattle can take action now on the following. We propose that in addition to continuing to fulfill the commitment to passing progressive housing policy, the city adopt the following policies that can reduce wage theft and barriers to employment for homeless workers and workers on the verge of homelessness:

1. Increase funding for the Office of Labor Standards and worker outreach, so that OLS and community partners can: a. Help workers that are homeless and/or are in danger of becoming homeless challenge bad employment practices b. Investigate and discipline the worst actors who are taking advantage of the workers who are desperate for any kind of work c. Reach vulnerable workers to teach them about their rights under Seattle’s labor laws 2. Make the Office of Labor Standards a fee-supported department, which will ensure longterm funding while freeing up general fund revenues to go toward needed services. 3. Consider approaches that will end employment discrimination for homeless individuals.73

73

The original draft used the shorthand “protected class” which created confusion that the authors were calling for something broader than a solution for those who can’t find work due to lack of an address. The intent of this report is only to introduce labor policies that can help alleviate homelessness.

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