Can Tacoma, Pierce County work together to combat homelessness? Rare meeting sets stage
For the first time in recent memory, the Tacoma City Council and the Pierce County Council met together Tuesday afternoon, setting the groundwork for future collaboration in the fight against homelessness.
Government leaders listened to presentations about the city’s and county’s strategies to address homelessness, as well as learned about how much both governments are spending on related programs and resources.
Although some council members differed on what next steps officials should take, all agreed there was an urgent need for a unified approach and to do so sooner rather than later.
Presentations from Allyson Griffith, the city of Tacoma neighborhood and community services director, and Heather Moss, the county director of human services, spelled out initiatives in place to address homelessness and where that funding comes from. Both cited a need for a unified regional approach, as outlined in the Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness, adopted by the county last March.
A presentation from an outside consultant, Social Change Partners, also suggested a unified regional approach to ending homelessness in Pierce County was necessary, said Reed Connell, a managing partner at the organization.
According to its research, which included extensive focus groups and stakeholder interviews, the “current impacts of the [homelessness] crisis are obscured by fragmentation” within the government agencies. Social Change Partners also found “there are existing community capacities that can be better leveraged and aligned” to create a more unified approach and doing so would reduce administrative costs significantly, according to the presentation.
Moving forward, the City Council and County Council could choose to establish inter-local agreements or sign a memorandum of understanding with specific, time-limited objectives and commitments to address homelessness, according to Social Change Partners’ recommendation.
Officials declined to take any official steps, but Mayor Victoria Woodards said she would ask several council members to join the Pierce County Council’s newly formed select committee on homelessness, which meets twice a month.
Woodards said the issue of homelessness is complex and affects all jurisdictions nationwide, with no easy solution.
Council members divided on next steps
Although all council members agreed there is urgency to the issue, they seemed divided on implementation. Some pushed for immediate action, as well as trying new and innovative ways to address homelessness.
County Council member Marty Campbell said bureaucracy threatens to slow the work. Reflecting on how much was accomplished during the global shutdown of the pandemic, Campbell said officials need to bring the same urgency to the homelessness crisis.
“Frankly, we’ve taken too long to get to this point. And we can’t take this much longer to get to the next step,” Campbell said, referencing a public memorial that was held Sunday to remember people who died while experiencing homelessness. “It’s dangerous out there on our streets. A lot of people died. Let us not, by not moving quick enough, be the reason that there are more.”
Others, like City Council member John Hines, urged caution, saying there is a lot of trust building between local municipalities and constituents, as well as concrete planning that needs to happen first.
“I think we’re doing great here, but this is the first time the County Council and city has met as a collective group in anyone’s recent memory. There are also many other cities in our county that have a very different view about homelessness than we do here in the city of Tacoma,” he said. “Are we going to make sure that everybody’s taking on their piece of the burden? Is everybody getting their piece in return?”
County Council member Paul Herrera said when agencies operate in silos they aren’t efficient in addressing community needs or communicating, which residents’ confidence “in what we are doing individually and collectively.”
Given that a disproportionate number of people experiencing homelessness are people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, City Council member Olgy Diaz said officials should consider bringing folks with these experiences into future conversations.
County Council chair Ryan Mello said the city of Tacoma “has felt like they’ve been rowing alone and bearing the brunt of the service delivery and funding in this area,” but as of late the county has stepped up its responsibility to pass two sales taxes that created funds for behavioral health services and housing and related services, as well as support transitional housing partnerships and safe parking sites in Pierce County.
“We know why there’s reticence and lack of trust,” he said. “I really hope that those [efforts] are demonstrations by Pierce County about how seriously we are taking this and how far we still need to go.”
At the end of the meeting, Woodards said it’s been six years since the city of Tacoma declared a state of emergency around homelessness, “and we still haven’t solved it. Let me be clear: it’s not for lack of trying.”
To do that, it’s going to take trust, risk-taking and time — “the one thing we don’t have,” she said.
“I talked about this being a monumental moment when we first started, the fact that we’re all sitting here together,” Woodards said. “Just this conversion alone, being able to be open and honest with one another in a respectful way, has shown so much growth in our county and city relationships – I’m just going to put it out there and be really honest about it. And that’s so important. That’s where we come from, and if we can get here we can get even so much further than this.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
