Tacoma, Pierce County are working on solution to homelessness. Spoiler alert: It’s you

If we had to choose just one thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season, it’s the legion of South Sound volunteers who, year after year, recognize community needs and do something about them.

Tacoma Rescue Mission and Catholic Community Services’ Nativity House report a stream of volunteers willing to lend a hand at the two downtown nonprofits over the holidays. Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, loaded with food, blankets, coats, hygiene kits and goodwill for people experiencing homelessness.

That generous spirit is needed year-round because the number of desperate people is big and unprecedented, says Gerrit Nyland, president of Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness.

Approximately 6,000 people are without shelter, far oustripping the 770 temporary beds available in the city and county, 405 of which are only for cold weather months – November through March.

When Tacoma and Pierce County public officials declared homelessness a crisis, they were spot on. But governments will never be able to end it on their own.

Thankfully, local officials are getting wise to the idea that harnessing the region’s compassion well beyond the holiday season is the only way forward.

Yes, churches, they’re looking at you.

Until now, altruism has been an underused resource because at the intersection where government and the nonprofit sector meet, coordination has been weak.

In a hopeful turn, Tacoma and Pierce County officials have recently stepped up efforts to get these two sectors talking and problem solving.

Tacoma tasked Linda Stewart, director of Neighborhood & Community Services, to lead meetings with area stakeholders, hosted by the Metropolitan Development Council (MDC). The city wants to hear from folks who understand homelessness and the resources needed to stem the tide. Stewart says the city will use the information to prepare for upcoming budgets.

Stewart says MDC will assess the “will and skill” of churches and other nonprofit partners and help them through the bureaucracy of opening temporary shelters. MDC will also train volunteers to staff shelters.

Already, the meetings have yielded success. Tacoma’s Bethlehem Baptist Church is permitted to provide 40 temporary shelter beds, and another church is awaiting permits to offer 30-plus beds.

Such efforts should get easier after the City Council recently loosened rules on churches and nonprofits. Tacoma will now allow up to 150 shelter residents per police sector, rather than one shelter per sector.

Meantime, Pierce County Council member Connie Ladenburg recently sponsored creation of a Task Force on Housing for the Homeless. It, too, aims to better align government and nonprofit efforts.

In the 2020-21 county budget approved last week, the council added $210,000 to programs to help people experiencing homelessness. It’s a sum that Ladenburg agreed is equivalent to couch cushion change, given the overall $2.4 billion budget.

In what appears to be a pat-on-the head move, the county allocated $10,000 for emergency shelter during inclement weather. Ladenburg was unclear which agency or agencies will receive that funding and how it will be disbursed.

Coordinated leadership could clearly use some improvement, which is why County Council member Pam Roach helped secure $50,000 for a homeless services coordinator.

Roach and Ladenburg are political adversaries who’ve been known to clash, so their common purpose in addressing homelessness speaks volumes. More local officials will have to bridge divisions to garner community support.

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described strong leadership as “the ability to use talent, skills and emotional intelligence to mobilize people to a common purpose. And that common purpose should make a positive difference in people’s lives.”

We know many elected officials already put sweat equity into the community; we’ve seen the photo ops on social media. But since this is also the season of wish lists, we wish for more servant leadership, more feet-on-the-street action.

As the good people at Nativity House and the Rescue Mission can attest, policymaking is only part of the solution.