Compass Housing Alliance

Corruption, Lies, and Embezzlement, that's a great narrative for a Netflix special and unfortunately could be the credo of Compass Housing Alliance. So its not hard imagine what its like to work for or even worse, depend on this organization for help. As a client I can say its not as bad a county jail, but its obvious that changes are needed. Shelter staff were often referred to as Counselors, though I have personally witnessed staff habitually tear down clients to the point tears, just before banning them. It is an antagonistic relationship that was eerily similar to the Stanford Prison Experiment. I went there out of necessity, staff are there by choice and compensated. It speaks volumes about individual staff members that engaged in this behavior and the good ones who often looked away in guilty complicity. I hope Compass can begin to truly care enough to train and hire staff that wont habitually behave worse than the clients, wont sleep on the job while acting as security, wont steal, wont engage in drug or alcohol use while at work but I guess that's a bit too much to ask.

Compass Housing Alliance is a fabulous organization that is doing wonderful work in the Puget Sound region. I have been a volunteer with Compass for years and last year made the transition to Board Member. I am constantly amazing by the dedication and compassion of the staff and the amazing work that they are doing. The Puget Sound region is lucky to have such an organization striving to make a difference in people's lives.

What can be said of a charity with 23 million dollars in net assets? With it's 262 employees, the Compass Housing Alliance is good at providing jobs for social workers, not helping the homeless. Compass raises a little over 2 million dollars from the public, but spends over 400 thousand on fundraising in order to do it. The rest of their income comes from the government. Compass pays out nearly 5 million dollars in wages. The organization carries almost 2 million dollars in savings and cash investments. At a time when so many are turned away from services, it seems odd a charity would keep 2 million dollars on hand. What is most disturbing is the over 2 million dollars Compass charges the homeless in program and rental fees. Conclusions: the Compass Housing Alliance- good for the economy, no friend of the homeless.