How a hotel-turned-shelter can inform Pierce County’s new approach to affordable housing

It’s a prescription heard so often, in response to so many of our societal dilemmas, that you would think we would have figured it out by now: the regional approach.

What’s it going to take to make a dent in homelessness? A regional approach. How about creating livable communities and family wage jobs? Same thing. The list goes on and on, though execution rarely seems to follow. It’s almost as if this “regional approach” is a mythical creature, like a public policy Pegasus.

So you can perhaps forgive Pierce County residents who read The News Tribune’s recent coverage of the relatively new South Sound Housing Affordability Partners — which held its first meeting Oct. 18 — if they didn’t immediately jump for joy at the prospect of elected officials from across Pierce County joining together, under the authority of an intergovernmental agreement, and finally getting down to the business of solving the region’s affordable housing woes.

For many local residents, including members of The News Tribune Editorial Board, we’ve been in believe-it-when-we-see-it territory for some time now. When it comes to the issue of housing, talk is cheap. Action matters.

The good news? Action is precisely why we’re writing this.

Late last month, the purchase of a 94-bed hotel on South Hosmer Street in Tacoma provided a firm example of the power of working together. And if more of the same eventually comes out of the work of the South Sound Housing Affordability Partners — which includes Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, Puyallup Tribe council member Annette Bryan and representatives from 11 other local cities and towns — there will be legitimate reason to celebrate.

As The News Tribune’s Allison Needles reported, the hotel in question — a former Comfort Inn — was recently purchased by the Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute, which plans to turn the property into a shelter for people experiencing homelessness, including couples and those with pets. After two years, the goal is to transform the shelter into much needed permanent supportive housing. It’s exactly the kind of project we desperately need more of.

But here’s the kicker: The $8.8 million that the Low Income Housing Institute paid for the hotel was footed by Tacoma, Lakewood and Pierce County — collectively.

That’s right: Two cities and a county, all with a shared interest in creating more shelter space and housing, worked together, across jurisdictional lines, to fund a project that will do just that, for the common good.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a regional approach.

“Partnering with LIHI and other cities allows us to bring together the resources needed to make this possible and offers a model for the future,” Dammeier said in a press release touting the hotel’s purchase.

“Approaching homelessness from a regional perspective gives us access to expanded and innovative approaches like this one. … I hope this will be the first of many partnerships to address this important issue,” Woodards added.

Now, before we get carried away, there are some significant caveats to consider.

For starters, the recently closed hotel deal isn’t directly linked to the work of the South Sound Housing Affordability Partners, which dates back to a 2018 convening of local officials but only recently took on its final form. The newly formed body held its first meeting a few weeks ago; it hasn’t proved its worth yet. The hotel deal, on the other hand, has been in the works for months.

Moreover, as The News Tribune’s Josephine Peterson helped to illuminate this week, experts and lobbyists seem to agree that the new body has its work cut out for it. While it’s hopeful to see local jurisdictions banding together, the issues they aim to solve won’t fade away easily, and the potential for bureaucratic inertia with yet another governmental body with limited power is very real.

“If they’re genuine about their need or desire to solve the problem, this is an organization that can make some good strides,” Spencer Anderson, Washington Affordable Housing Association president, told Peterson. “If they’re not all really willing to listen and put up challenging solutions, it’s not gonna to work. Everyone’s gonna have to go outside of their comfort zone.”

That’s a long way of saying that it’s far too early to crack champagne and call the South Sound Affordability Partners a success. The group will be judged by what comes next, and by what it manages to accomplish. The hard work is ahead. But we already knew that.

What else do we already know?

During a meeting with the TNT editorial board last month, prior to the closing of the hotel sale, Woodards and Dammeier — who together helped to spearhead the creation of the South Sound Affordability Partners — described it as exactly the sort of thing they hope to accomplish more of in the future. The group has three main objectives, they said: increasing lobbying efforts in Olympia, pushing for more state funding and getting the ball rolling on at least three housing projects across the county this year.

Without a doubt, all of this sounds great.

So how should the public view the launch of the South Sound Affordability Partners?

Simple.

For years now, we’ve listened as elected leaders have said that addressing Pierce County’s affordable housing crisis will require all hands on deck. They’ve said it until their blue in the face.

Now, they have a chance to actually make it happen.

Here’s hoping they succeed.

This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.