Gates Foundation CEO wants biz to house homeless

The CEO of the world's largest charitable foundation on Friday urged Seattle business leaders to get involved in one of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's smallest initiatives.

"When you're considering what kind of action to take on homelessness, don't think of it in terms of charity," Jeff Raikes told the 127th annual meeting of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. "It's also a great investment in the future of our community."

The former Microsoft executive encouraged the hundreds of business people in the room to consider combatting homelessness as an economic opportunity.

He quoted a University of Washington study that found three-quarters of the adults whose families become homeless in the region have earned a high school diploma. As Raikes noted, that's an improvement over the graduation rate of Seattle Public Schools.

The adults in homeless families have skills and potential; what they need is a little help, Raikes said.

The foundation has focused its efforts to combat homelessness on families, investing first in transitional housing and now in "rapid rehousing" - putting families in permanent homes as fast as possible, while supplying the services they need to stabilize their lives.

Since 2000, the Gates Foundation has invested more than $50 million in programs that help homeless people, with most grants focusing on Washington state.

This year, the foundation announced a new strategy toward ending family homelessness in Washington state, with a focus on early intervention and prevention like short-term help paying rent, better coordinated access to services, rapid rehousing, custom programs to get families the services they need, and help getting jobs, education and training.

Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, Raikes noted, but most of the adults in these families are on the edge of contributing to the economy.

He encouraged the meeting attendees to advocate for affordable housing, contribute to the organizations building housing and providing services for homeless families, and make fighting homelessness a priority.