Landmark $20 Million Public-Private Partnership Brings Expanded Housing Capacity For Young People Experiencing Homelessness To King County
September 21, 2026
Commitments from King County and the Schultz Family Foundation will create and sustain nearly 100 beds in the Seattle region
SEATTLE, — The Schultz Family Foundation and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay announced a new $20 million public-private partnership today to dramatically expand housing and shelter capacity for homeless young people in King County. This partnership is among the region’s most significant expansions of youth homelessness resources in years, reflecting a shared commitment to ensure unhoused young people can access safe shelter and support to move toward stable housing.
The partnership involves $10 million commitments from King County and the Schultz Family Foundation to increase and sustain the region’s capacity to offer emergency shelter to youth and young adults experiencing homelessness by nearly 50 percent to over 250 beds.
“For too long, there simply have not been enough safe places for young people in our community to go when they are in crisis,” said Sheri Kersch Schultz, co-founder and chair of the Schultz Family Foundation, which has spent more than three decades providing aid to vulnerable youth, building clearer pathways to opportunity and partnering with local philanthropies and foundations in the Seattle area. “This partnership changes that in a meaningful way. By bringing together the strengths of some of the most committed local and national institutions, we have an opportunity not only to put nearly 100 beds back into service, but to build a more connected system that helps young people move from crisis toward stability, opportunity and a future they can believe in.”
The expansion comes amid both significant progress and continued need. Washington reduced youth homelessness by 40 percent between 2016 and 2022, yet according to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, more than 1,000 youth and young adults in King County remain unsheltered on any given night. Without a safe place to stay, young people face heightened risks of violence, exploitation, disrupted education, and disconnection from employment.
The partnership will support 92 units of youth-designated shelter and transitional housing. Eighty of the units are net new shelter beds, and the remaining 12 are transitional housing units at risk of closing without this funding.
“This is what it looks like when a community decides that young people experiencing homelessness cannot wait,” said King County Executive Girmay Zahilay. “By bringing together public resources, philanthropy, trusted local organizations and one of the country’s leading youth homelessness providers, we can dramatically expand the number of young people who have a safe place to sleep and a real path forward. This is the kind of partnership King County needs more of.”
This announcement is part of a broader regional effort to reduce youth and young adult homelessness by shifting from crisis response toward prevention, rapid intervention and better use of data. That work includes Built for Zero, creating a more real-time and coordinated understanding of youth homelessness; the Housing Prevention and Diversion Fund, launched through a public-private partnership with the City of Seattle to help young people avoid or quickly resolve a housing crisis; and the Washington Acceleration Fund, led by the Schultz Family Foundation, Raikes Foundation and Campion Foundation to align philanthropic resources behind promising strategies. Together, these efforts are building a more coordinated system that prevents homelessness when possible and helps young people who experience it move more quickly toward stability
