King County, the county in the state of Washington that includes Seattle, has been implementing different measures and programs in the past few years to help end homelessness in downtown Seattle and the Seattle Chinatown area. The King County Regional Homeless Authority created a program named Partnership for Zero, which hired workers who had previously or currently dealt with homelessness. The authority recently announced that all of these employees would be laid off, claiming that the Partnership for Zero was a pilot program. Employees stated that they were never informed that it was a pilot program and that their positions were temporary, and the news of layoffs came as a shock. Workers are unsure and afraid of what their future will look like, as they no longer have the income to pay for rent, and currently do not have access to housing vouchers. The program offered individuals the choice between housing vouchers and the jobs, as being employed makes them ineligible for housing vouchers.
See "Partnership for Zero, an initiation to end homelessness in Seattle and employ individuals who have dealt with homelessness, abruptly canceled", Greg Kim, Seattle Times, October 13, 2023