Tacoma seeks site for low-barrier homeless shelter. This property is the front runner
A temporary low-barrier shelter serving people experiencing homelessness could be coming to a vacant property at South 69th Street and South Proctor Street.
City staff on Tuesday recommended the property to City Council for a potential mitigation and stabilization site after a search of nearly 700 publicly-owned properties.
After some debate, City Council also asked staff to look more closely at a parking lot on the Tacoma Public Utilities campus on South 35th Street.
The new shelter aims to serve low-barrier populations. Typically, “low-barrier” shelters provide people a bed despite sobriety, criminal backgrounds or lack of identification.
“This is really meeting folks where they are in their journey and just provide a more safe and hygienic spot for them to be as they determine what’s next for them,” Linda Stewart, director of Neighborhood and Community Services Department, said at Tuesday’s meeting.
The site would not be a micro shelter, or “tiny home” site, staff said — primarily because the city doesn’t have the funding available — but would have some form of management and services. Staff were not entirely clear as to what the shelter would look like, but could consist of tents.
Staff started with 694 general government and Tacoma Public Utilities properties across the county and narrowed the list down to 113 properties that had at least 15,000 square feet needed for operations of a shelter. From there, staff narrowed the list to 10 properties after reviewing community impact, how close they are to transportation and other services, and other operational concerns.
The 10 possible properties provided to Council were:
4716 N. Baltimore St.
South 35th Street and Pacific Avenue
2516 A St.
303 E. D St.
South 69th Street and South Proctor Street
7801 S. Sheridan Ave.
South 35th Street (in G-Lot of TPU parking complex)
2101 S. Alaska St.
121 S. 40th St.
33rd Street Northeast and 39th Avenue Northeast
Staff determined the 69th and Proctor site was the best available location.
“It is large, measuring roughly 94,000 square feet. For reference, that’s just over 2 acres and almost three times the size of our current stability site,” said Allyson Griffith, assistant director of the city’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department.
There are currently no uses on the property, added Griffith, making it easier for the city to work with, and transit services are available within a five minute walk.
Staff estimated the site could accommodate between 50 and 100 people.
Griffith cautioned that the city is very early in the planning process and is planning to conduct community engagement in the near future, including a listening session over Zoom within the next two weeks.
Currently, the city has a stability site located at 1421 Puyallup Ave. that opened in 2017, with a set up cost of $900,000, not including operating costs.
The city also has two micro shelter sites. One at 602 North Orchard Street serves up to 60 individuals and cost $615,000 to set up, with $1.9 million in operations from Dec. 2020 through June 2023. The second site near East 60th Street and McKinley Avenue serves up to 65 individuals and cost approximately $1 million for 2020 with anticipated operations costs for 2021 at around approximately $700,000.
The new site is intended to be the “lowest-barrier site” in the city.
“This is going to be different than the stabilization site in that this is going to be a very low-barrier site,” Mayor Victoria Woodards said at Tuesday’s study session. “It may include buildings but may just be tents.”
Council debates location
The recommended site is located in District 5, representing Tacoma’s South End.
Council member Chris Beale, who represents District 5, said Tuesday he sees the benefits of the location but is not entirely ready to endorse it.
Beale anticipates concern from the public about the site’s proximity to parks, schools and the community Star Center, located just to the north on South 66th Street.
“There are going to be a lot of questions about site location,” he said.
Beale added that District 5 currently has the micro shelter site on 60th and McKinley and has been home to other various high-impact sites.
Council member Robert Thoms, who represents District 2, said no site is going to be perfect.
“Every place here has its upshot and downside,” he said.
Council member Lillian Hunter said she’d like to see the property on South 35th Street considered, seeing as it’s not as near to residential neighborhoods and was noted on the city’s list as the “least impactful location.”
Woodards agreed with Hunter on exploring that property but cautioned against spending too much time on multiple locations. Staff added that the 35th Street site is smaller than the one on 69th Street due to the fact that it is still used as a parking lot.
Staff said they’d return to Council in April with a deeper comparison of the two properties.
Council member Conor McCarthy added he would like to see the property on South 35th Street and Pacific Avenue considered, with its proximity to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and because of an existing unsanctioned encampment there.
A majority of Council members disagreed and voted down the site.
“That is an area that for decades has been beleaguered with illegal dumping and homeless camps. They’re constantly in the challenge of trying to have some modicum of quality of life,” Council member Catherine Ushka said.
McCarthy added he can’t support the site unless the city can enforce transition of people off public rights of way and into the shelter, rather than allow them to refuse and remain where they are.
“If this site, wherever it is, is just another site, then I can’t support it,” McCarthy said.
Other Council members echoed the need to be able to move people off sidewalks and public rights of way.
“The goal, in my opinion, is to help people go from these various camps all over the place to one low-barrier location that they can start the pathway towards what their long-term stability looks like,” Thoms said.
The total number of Tacoma residents needing shelter grew from 641 in 2017 to 930 in 2020, according to numbers from Pierce County Housing Inventory Count, the Point in Time Count and projections of city staff. In 2017, there were 614 permanent, emergency and temporary shelter beds to serve those individuals, compared to 871 in 2020.
The city aims to open a low-barrier site some time this year.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
