Puyallup will send homeless people to a shelter in Tacoma for another year
Homeless people picked up by Puyallup police will continue to be driven to Tacoma for shelter rooms for another year.
The Puyallup City Council voted unanimously on July 21 to extend its contract with the Tacoma Salvation Army for 14 beds.
The one-year agreement will cost the city $68,232 for male and female rooms, two hot meals and a sack lunch a day, hygiene supplies and case management.
According to Salvation Army data collected during the first year of the program, which ran from June 2019 to now, 46 clients were served — 28 women and 18 men.
Eight women and six men transitioned out of homelessness during that time.
Half of the 90-day program participants returned to Puyallup, either to housing or on the streets, the Salvation Army data said. Police Chief Scott Engle said it is unclear where the other 50 percent went.
Engle said the program has been a success and is a valuable tool.
“From the Police Department side, the program has been very valuable to our officers on the street when we do encounter homeless, and we are able to provide an option for shelter emergency housing,” he told the City Council on July 21.
Engle estimated the rooms were at capacity about 50 to 60 percent of the time before the pandemic. Since COVID-19 hit Washington, they have been full, he said.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards said Puyallup needs to keep better data on where those brought into her city end up.
“If they are going to bring some of their homeless population into Tacoma, they have to take accountability,” she said in an interview with The News Tribune.
Woodards said she understands many homeless services are in Tacoma and there needs to be a regional approach, but that requires more of Pierce County to provide resources. She would like to see more homeless services in other Pierce County cities.
Woodards said there is an understanding that Puyallup will start to discuss providing its own homeless services.
“This is a partnership, but it has to be realized,” Woodards said.
Puyallup Deputy Mayor John Palmer recommended during the July 21 meeting that the council have a study session to consider options surrounding homeless services. Other council members, including Ned Witting and Jim Kastama, agreed that a conversation needed to be had. There was no date set.
The Salvation Army program began last June as an option to provide shelter for those living homeless in Puyallup. Officers ask those experiencing homelessness if they want to get shelter and be enrolled in the 90-day program. If the person agreed, an officer drives them to the Salvation Army at 1501 6th Ave. in Tacoma.
Engle said the organization lost its case manager two months into the contract. He hopes this year there will be more case management.
