Council receives homeless strategy update
The Tacoma City Council received an update on the city’s homeless strategy at the council’s March 18 study session. Caleb Carbone, principal community resources analyst for Neighborhood and Community Services, presented on current shelter operations, forthcoming timelines for some to be discontinued, and programs that will continue to move forward.
The Tacoma Rescue Mission’s men’s shelter expansion project is moving forward. City staff expects to have the contract for the council approval early next month to approve funding to support the expansion. The project was part of the city’s 2023/2024 adopted budget with general funds and also includes 2023 community project funding with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and both Pierce County and Washington State Commerce support for the entire project.
To expand access to vital healthcare, the city has executed its contact with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department on the implementation of a Street Medicine pilot project that was awarded from the state’s Health Care Authority. The HCA awarded the city $1 million to support this program through June 2025.
"Additionally, the city was awarded funding from the HCA to support opioid use treatments for people who are long-term injectors,” Carbone said. "The funding will provide services through June 2026.”
Additionally, the city’s Holistic Outreach Promoting Engagement (HOPE) van will continue to be out and about the city providing holistic, person-centered, recovery-oriented care to the community.
Tacoma is investing $2.24 million in permanent supportive housing services, providing stable housing and wraparound support for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. The funding to support housing services is revenue collected from the one-tenth of 1 cent sales tax in Tacoma that is supported by House Bill 1590.
The strategy looks to support existing shelter providers and their transition to housing projects. Three projects highlighted include the Shiloh New Life Apartments, the 15th and Tacoma senior housing which is supported by the Korean Women’s Association, and the Heron Apartments operated by the Low-Income Housing Institute. All three of these projects are funded by the state.
In the first quarter of this year, the city’s inclement weather response provided shelter and aid for 42 days for those who needed it, including a 40-day stretch during particularly poor weather.
"The inclement weather beds we activated 42 days so far this year mostly came from a single extended response that lasted from mid-January through late February,” Carbone said. "We’ve been establishing a task force to make sure recommendations will come out for the summer plans and future winter seasons.”
Two shelters are scheduled to come offline this year – the Shiloh Baptist Church men’s shelter this month and the shelter at Altheimer Memorial Church this June. Valeo Vocation has been working with current residents on their stability and housing plans during this transition into permanent housing or other temporary solutions. After March 31, Shiloh will continue to focus on providing housing services with their new Life Housing program.
Forging Path Community at 35th and Pacific will break ground for permanent housing this coming fall being led by Mercy Housing Northwest. It will have 81 units for people whose income is 60 percent of area median income or lower and will include an early learning center and designated space for services.
Carbone said that as the city developed its comprehensive strategy to address homelessness, one of the strategy’s main values is to support data-driven decisions. For example, Pierce County’s Point in Time Count continues to clarify an overall year to year trend of people who are experiencing homelessness, according to Carbone.
"The challenge of the Point In Time Count is a reminder that it is counted a bit differently year to year depending on the number of volunteers, the weather, and the volunteers’ abilities and approach but overall, the count is done in the coldest time of the year,” he said. "This system response changes drastically throughout each season.”
The most recent count happened on Jan. 30 and 31and its results are expected sometime in the second quarter of this year.
The city has a second tool available to help understand trends outside of the yearly count known as the Homeless Management Information System. It is currently accessed through Tacoma’s shelter providers, and it helps to monitor outcomes of people who enter the shelter system and the outcomes of those providers’ programs. The tracking is entered by all shelter providers to give a window of numbers of individuals experiencing homelessness while engaging with the city’s response systems.
Carbone said the measurement that has been emphasized as a preferred method to the strategy is the by-name list. This list shows all people experiencing homelessness in Tacoma and who are working currently with the city’s Homeless Engagement and Alternatives Liaison (HEAL) team.