Puyallup will rent hotel rooms for homeless as part of East Pierce shelter program
The City of Puyallup has started work on East Pierce County’s first homeless shelter after years of contention surrounding homelessness.
The city will rent hotel rooms to serve as a 20-bed shelter that will be low-barrier, which provides folks a bed despite sobriety, criminal backgrounds or lack of identification.
The hotel has yet to be determined, city spokesperson Brenda Fritsvold said.
The city is looking for a service provider to run the program and intends to open a bidding process for service providers to apply the week of Nov. 30. Applicants are asked to have experience providing homeless services and case management.
The city stresses that is is not converting a hotel, but rather renting a limited number of hotel rooms to respond to the coronavirus pandemic for an initial six-month pilot program.
“To be clear, a hotel is not transformed into a homeless shelter simply because it chooses to rent rooms to people who happen to be homeless, and the City is not renting a hotel to serve as a homeless shelter,” Fritsvold said in an email.
The Shelter Grant program was intended to create longer-term shelters as part of a statewide effort to increase beds for those experiencing homelessness beyond the pandemic.
Pierce County’s manager of Community Services Division John Barbee said while Puyallup isn’t providing the expected 30-bed shelter for 30 months, he feels there needs to be flexibility right now.
“The ultimate goal is to be flexible and pivot if needed from a more traditional model,” he said. “This will just allow us to get the resources and get our foot in the door in East Pierce County.”
The program to build homeless shelters across Washington grants $40 million to counties and cities to increase the number of beds available rapidly. The state Department of Commerce is overseeing the program that Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law in April. The program asked jurisdictions to submit proposals by August and have beds available by the end of the year.
The city hopes to meet the state contracted agreement of the end of the year, but it’s entirely reliant on service providers, said Kirstin Hoffman, the city’s emergency management coordinator.
Puyallup volunteered to take the lead on the $1.5 million project the week of Nov. 23, Barbee said. Rather than find a new location for the shelter, using a hotel will save time.
“It’s a good option,” Barbee said. “It does provide that brick-and-mortar shelter, and that’s been a big barrier. They can flex the program to grow or shrink it as they get their feet wet in providing these services. ”
Pierce County, Tacoma, Puyallup, Lakewood and University Place submitted an application together and received $4.7 million for three homeless shelter projects.
The East Pierce County project was intended to hold 30 beds, but Puyallup said it will go with 20 beds. The state Department of Commerce, which is overseeing the program, said the award amount remains the same.
Puyallup sees the project as a “pilot program.” The city has committed to six months, but the state application and contract say the program is anticipated to run for 30 months.
“We aren’t looking past the next 6 months,” Fritsvold said. “We are optimistic, but it’s almost impossible to project what is going to happen.”
The two other projects are expected to open by mid-December, Pierce County’s Human Services director Heather Moss told The News Tribune on Nov. 30.
The Sixth Avenue and North Orchard Street micro shelter in Tacoma will serve no more than 60 people experiencing homelessness. About $2.5 million of the $4.7 million will be allocated for the 40 tiny homes.
The Tacoma Rescue Mission will receive $726,000 to cover operational costs over the next few years at its women’s shelter. The shelter, completed earlier this year, holds 36 beds but is anticipated to hold up to 70 a night with bunk beds.
Previously, the city of Puyallup told The News Tribune it was not interested in hosting a shelter for the homeless of East Pierce County.
“It stretches across borders, and for the city of Puyallup to just take on homelessness in East Pierce County is not an option,” city manager Steve Kirkelie said in October.
Asked about what changed, Fritsvold said. “This is something that we are going to attempt and see how it goes, and when (Kirkelie) said that it’s a regional problem, obviously Puyallup is part of Pierce County. We are all in this.”
Puyallup has a contentious past on homelessness issues, at one point having paid more in homelessness litigation than in community services for the homeless. The state forced the city to revise restrictive zoning measures for potential homeless shelters, and Puyallup repealed a law for operational requirements on a homeless resource center after the federal government opened an investigation.
Moss said Puyallup was backed into a corner when at least two dozen tents were set up along the Riverwalk Trail behind the Fred Meyer on River Road in March.
“They were forced to do something when that encampment came about,” Moss said.
The city responded by creating a temporary encampment in a parking lot of the Puyallup Recreation Center for two months, where people could park their cars or sleep in tents on wooden slats.
Once the site was closed, people who had been staying there were offered hotel rooms. The city has provided people hotel rooms at the Hometowne Suites on Meridian since June, Frisvold said. Puyallup has sheltered up to 20 people at a time in hotel rooms.
Pierce County said these projects are just a start to working together to create more services for the homeless.
“This is a great opportunity and we needed it,” Moss said. “This funds around 100 beds and we need many more than that. We are going to continue to identify funding sources and partners.”
