Hundreds exit hospitals into homelessness. What is Pierce County doing about it?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County hospitals discharged 404 patients into homelessness in early 2025.
- A new 117-unit shelter with 51 medical respite beds may open in mid-2026.
- County seeks operator for interim medical respite site with $150,000 in funding.
This year hundreds of people have been discharged from Pierce County hospitals directly into homelessness.
While the county has identified the need for 50 medical respite beds to provide short-term medical care for people experiencing homelessness who are too unwell or vulnerable to recover from an illness or injury while living without stable housing, it currently has none.
Nativity House in Tacoma has about 12 medical respite beds, but the shelter requires clients to be able to use the restroom and bathe on their own — a standard not all clients in need of medical respite can meet.
During a Pierce County Council Health and Human Services Committee meeting on June 3, a social-work case manager for MultiCare Health System reported that 404 people were discharged from Tacoma General Hospital and Allemore Hospital into homelessness through the first five months of 2025.
Of those known to be unhoused at the time of their discharge, 176 were between the ages of 50-69 and 25 were over the age of 70. One person discharged from a Tacoma hospital into homelessness was over 90.
In January 2023, Pierce County awarded the Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) over $10 million to support a new shelter project, which would eventually become the acquisition of the Oasis Inn. The former hotel will be converted into 117 units of non-congregate emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing, with at least 51 of the units capable of providing medical-respite services.
It is unclear when the facility will be operational.
During a Pierce County Council study session on Aug. 25, Margo Burnison, behavioral health manager for Pierce County’s Human Services Department gave a presentation on the county’s efforts to increase medical-respite capacity.
Burnison said LIHI’s facility is scheduled to open in mid-2026. She reported LIHI has not secured funding for program operations, nor has it contracted an agency to provide medical care.
In the meantime, Pierce County opened a request for organizations looking to operate a medical-respite program in a county-owned building in Parkland. Burnison said the building was previously used as a behavioral-health crisis response center before closing in March 2024.
Burnison said the county is looking to offer a low-to-no lease agreement to an agency willing to operate a medical-respite facility there. Human Services is also asking the council to approve $150,000 in funding from the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Fund to assist the program.
The funding is intended to aid the chosen provider with start-up and staffing costs over the next two years. The provider would be expected to find its own funding to operate the program outside of the $150,000.
“We only have $150,000,” Burnison told the council members. “There is no room for negotiation.”
Of the five organizations that submitted a plan to operate the facility, the county identified three that were more feasible due to their ties to healthcare providers.
Huckeye Health Services pitched a budget of $7.3 million to operate the program, which included 24/7 registered nurses and trauma-informed staff as well as integrated behavioral health and housing navigation. Huckeye requested roughly $500,000 from the county to help operate the program, according to Burnison.
Valeo Vocation pitched a budget of $845,000 and is registered as a free clinic with the state Department of Health. Its medical-respite program plan included 24/7 trained shelter engagement specialists and planned to use Pacific Lutheran University nursing program volunteers for medical needs. It requested between $150,000 and $300,000 from the county to make it work, according to Burnison.
MultiCare Foundations pitched a budget of $2.1 million and did not ask the county for any additional funding outside of a low-to-no lease agreement to use the county’s building.
Burnison said the county would soon open a new application for providers to reapply before selecting an agency to operate the program.
She said her long-term vision for the facility is for clients to receive care and respite for up to 90 days before being referred to LIHI’s much larger medical-respite facility.
