$25K pilot program aims to address sanitation concerns at homeless camp in Tacoma
The city of Tacoma hopes to improve sanitation conditions at a homeless encampment downtown by placing portable toilets, hand-washing stations and trash bins nearby.
The city is spending $25,000 from the general fund to start a 30-day Hygiene Station Pilot Program on South 8th Street and Yakima Avenue that includes:
Portable toilet facilities
Hand-washing stations
Garbage bins and supplies for collecting trash
On-site evening security from 6 p.m.-6 a.m. daily
Routine daytime monitoring
The city partnered with a private property owner to establish the hygiene station, which will be in operation through April 7.
The city has seen encampments increasing across Tacoma, according to Allyson Griffith, assistant director for the Neighborhood and Community Services Department.
Griffith says that is in part due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which added additional barriers to employment and required social distancing that limited capacity in existing shelters across the city.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cities do not disperse encampments so as not to increase the potential for disease spread.
“The CDC recommendation to not disperse encampments means that the City must take measures to mitigate the health and safety concerns they create for people living in and around them,” Griffith said in a news release. “For this reason, the City is setting up a pilot program that will redirect funding from existing homeless services for a hygiene station pilot program.”
People experiencing homelessness on Tacoma’s streets previously have asked for better accessibility to resources like toilets and trash cans.
“My concern out here has always been a bathroom,” 30-year-old Levi Kvamme, who is currently experiencing homelessness, told The News Tribune. “Anytime I’ve had to use the restroom, I’ve either got to walk to Wright Park, and it’s only open certain hours, and of course in the middle of the night when you’ve got to use the bathroom — it’s the worst.”
City staff originally considered placing five hygiene stations across Tacoma near existing encampments. They scaled back to just one site after some City Council members expressed concerns some of the stations would be in close proximity to one another and grow the size of the camps.
Griffith said the city continues to invest in creating additional shelter capacity and has two operational micro shelters in the city, meant to serve more than 100 people. City workers are exploring options for locating a temporary transition site and other low-barrier shelter options.
“The Hygiene Station Pilot Program is intended to help address the health impacts of encampments to people living in and around them, while we pivot to address encampment during COVID-19 in a different way,” Griffith said.
Kevin Glackin-Coley, director of special projects for the Tacoma-Pierce County Homeless Coalition, said the coalition is pleased that the City is piloting station in a visible encampment and that hygiene stations were part of the coalition’s 2020 recommended uses for COVID-19 relief funding.
“We want to be certain the porta potties were properly set up and we’ve asked the City if they can adjust their service plan for the porta potties and garbage pick-up and do both more frequently if needed, and they’ve indicated they can do so. We are hopeful that moving forward every encampment will soon have appropriate hygiene facilities,” he said in an email.
