From Tacoma to Fife, homeless shelters are opening in Pierce County with more on way
In the next two months, Pierce County will create at least 119 more homeless shelter units after an unprecedented year of adding shelter space for those experiencing homelessness.
Pierce County Social Services supervisor Gerrit Nyland said there are about 3,300 people experiencing homelessness across the county.
Currently, there are about 1,000 shelter beds, he told the Pierce County Council in a Human Services subcommittee Tuesday. The county is pushing to multiply the existing shelters space in an effort to end street homelessness. Last month, Pierce County posted a proposal for services providers to create 2,300 shelter beds.
“We are designing plans around the need in the community in order to have enough shelter for everyone,” Nyland told the subcommittee.
Three projects are on the horizon.
On the corner of 82nd and Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, a sanctioned encampment of 25 tents for up to 35 individuals has been planned. The encampment is expected to launch in late December or early January and focuses on veterans, but non-veterans will be allowed, Nyland said.
A shelter at Tacoma’s Comfort Inn is set to launch next month, adding 94 units to house about 120 people, Nyland said.
A Washington State Department of Commerce grant for $1.5 million has been awarded for the Low Income Housing Institute’s Spanaway Project, which has no opening date yet, Nyland said. The proposal is for a tiny home village of 40 to 60 beds with full-time case managers. A site has yet to be chosen.
As the county finalizes its budget, one large project could provide much of the needed shelter space to meet the number of people experiencing homelessness.
The executive office’s proposed budget to Pierce County Council included $25 million for a village of microhomes and RVs to house those experiencing homelessness called “Community First Village.”
In a meeting with homelessness advocates, including the Tacoma-Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness, County Executive Bruce Dammeier has said the dollars would be spent to buy land, develop infrastructure, design and construct the space. He said the project will double the amount of available shelter beds in Pierce County.
If approved by the council, the units would be completed by July 2024, according to a presentation.
The county’s Human Services department has asked for $26 million to add shelter space and resources across the county in the upcoming biennial budget.
Within the last year, seven programs have launched across Pierce County:
Shiloh Baptist Church opened a congregate care center for 40 adult men in September.
Tacoma’s Tiny House Village moved and expanded for a total of 40 individuals at 69th and South Proctor in July.
Brotherhood RISE Center in Tacoma added 10 households in November.
St. Vincent DePaul added emergency motel vouchers for 1,000 nights to give to seven households in November.
The City of Fife is providing 10 tents for single adults in October.
Fife has sanctioned an encampment next to the police station in the 3700 block of Pacific Highway, with the intention to increase it by 10 or more units of transitional housing over the next six months. Initially, the encampment will use tents, but the city plans to eventually use shipping containers, Nyland said.
The City of Fife spent $16,421.57 on the sanctioned encampment, more than half of which was used to construct the tent village, city spokesperson Kelsey Geddes said. The city bought clothing for participants, uniforms for staff, other officer supplies and repairs with the remaining $7,316.
During inclement weather, Tacoma Rescue Mission’s 50 added beds for adult men and Catholic Community Services added between 40 and 80 congregate beds.The programs are expected to run from Nov. 1 through March 31.
Federal COVID-19 response dollars made six of the shelter expansions and increment-weather programs possible. The county has been allocated $175 million from the American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress in March to help local jurisdictions respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
For the shelter programs, Pierce County provided $60,000 to Brotherhood Rise, $304,215 to Catholic Community Services, $455,205 to Shiloh Baptist Church, $170,470 to the Rescue Mission, and $114,310 to St. Vincent de Paul.
