Under the leadership of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Sound Families Initiative has created a true private-public partnership. The program unites the vision and resources of the foundation with the expertise of the seven public jurisdiction partners from the Puget Sound area. The cities and counties of the region have nationally recognized skill in underwriting complex housing projects that are funded with local, state and federal funds. The public partners have further offered their capacity for ongoing asset management of the projects, ensuring that Sound Families-funded projects continue to operate well into the future.

As a result of this vision and public-private partnership, the Sound Families Steering Committee has created a program strategy map outlining the goals, outcomes, and key change strategies of the Sound Families Initiative. Please click here to view the strategic map.

Sound Families also seeks to be a catalyst for partnership between housing and service providers. Supportive housing for homeless families can only succeed when social services are fully integrated into an affordable housing project. Sound Families uses its unique funding structure to provide both a capital grant and a service grant to cement these critical partnerships between nonprofit housing development groups and family service providers within each housing project.

In addition, the Snohomish Housing Authority, Everett Housing, King County Housing Authority, Seattle Housing Authority, Renton Housing Authority, Pierce County Housing Authority and Tacoma Housing Authority have all entered into an agreement to use rental subsidy funds (Section 8) to provide a steady, reliable source of operating funds to Sound Families funded projects. These housing authorities have also agreed to provide an individual rental subsidy voucher to each family that graduates from the service program of each Sound Families’ sponsored project. This voucher ensures that Sound Families related projects serve as an ongoing resource to bring families out of homelessness into secure, affordable permanent housing.