Unable to find one itself, county to pay someone to locate new homeless shelter site

TACOMA – Pierce County is scrambling to find a location and service provider for a new stability site for the homeless before the funding is no longer available.

Pierce County’s 2024-2025 biennial budget appropriated $2.5 million from the COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Fund for establishing a low-barrier homeless stability site, but the federal ARPA dollars are only available through the end of 2024.

Pierce County Human Services has been working to find a location, but the department has reported complications. According to Human Services director Heather Moss, the county is pivoting to contract service providers to find a site, build the shelter and operate it.

The stability site, as stipulated by the Pierce County Council, must be low-barrier housing for those living outdoors in Pierce County, have hygiene services and infrastructure and be outside Tacoma.

The stability site was directed to be outside Tacoma because the city is home to the broad majority of homeless-shelter capacity in the county.

In April, Moss reported difficulties in finding a viable site.

After county staff examined surplus properties owned by the county, Moss told the County Council’s Select Committee on Homelessness that there were not many appropriate locations for a single stability site and that multiple sites might be necessary. Moss also said the county’s zoning code might prohibit a shelter that would exist longer than 90 days. Any permanent structures built on the site would also require permitting for safety purposes, according to county staff. That could slow down the process of activating the shelter.

During the June 12 Select Committee on Homelessness Meeting, Moss said a “single site is probably not likely,” but that multiple sites might be better to serve the full geographic distribution of those living unhoused in Pierce County.

A May 31 memo on the stability site’s progress reported that partnerships with cities were being explored as a way to bypass county zoning code requirements that could make the site difficult to establish.

It also suggested stability sites in a city would provide closer proximity to resources and transit.

“According to our recent conversations with local staff, Lakewood, Puyallup, University Place, and Fife are either not interested or not zoned for hosting additional emergency shelter in their communities,” the report states. “Other cities we could offer to partner with are Gig Harbor, Sumner, Auburn, Orting, and Bonney Lake.”

Moss told the News Tribune on Monday the county is “still reaching out and getting input” from cities that might be interested. She offered no details on what cities expressed interest or how committed they might be.

The May 31 report from Human Services included a list of nearly 20 properties that were considered for stability sites, but all of them included notes on why they might not be suitable.

On Monday, Moss told the News Tribune there was no list of current site options for either a single or multiple sites after the county ruled out a list of options.

During the meeting, Moss also mentioned difficulties finding service providers to manage the stability sites. She said there is some reluctance from service providers regarding the low-barrier requirement.

The King County Regional Homeless Authority defines a low-barrier shelter as “an emergency shelter that does not require any of the following for a client to stay at the shelter: criminal background checks; credit checks; income verification; program participation; sobriety or identification.”

The Human Services report on the stability site cited the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which identified the lack of accessible and low-barrier shelter options as a “significant contributing factor in the rise of unsheltered homelessness.”

“Other factors reducing barriers could be the ability (to) share space with a partner or pet, flexible intake processes, and appropriate accommodations for individuals with disabilities,” Human Services wrote in the report.

The report recommended the council revise the existing proviso for the stability site to provide the Human Services department with “greater flexibility.”

“This would enable the department to consider shelter options that can be more readily implemented within the timeframes prescribed by the American Rescue Plan Act,” the report read.

Moss expressed concern regarding the county’s need for additional shelter capacity provided by the stability site. According to her, family shelters and noncongregate shelters are in high demand with most at capacity and many more people waiting on a list to get in.

“We are six months from being able to contribute these dollars,” she told the committee on June 12. “We already can’t afford to keep all of our shelters running.”

In response to the report from Human Services on the progress of planning the stability site, County Council member Ryan Mello said this was not the timeline that was imagined for the stability site, as the deadline to use the ARPA funding nears.

He also expressed concern over having the stability site established to protect the unhoused before the cold weather this winter.

“I don’t think we can drag our feet anymore,” Mello said. “We need to have our money obligated, which means we need a contract.”

Following the June 12 committee meeting, Moss said the department will not select a site before moving forward with the process.

“Instead, we are working on an [Request For Provider] to find one or more providers who will find a site, build the shelter, and operate it,” Moss wrote in an email to The News Tribune on June 17.

Moss said the $2.5 million of federal ARPA funding is anticipated to cover start-up and operations for 12-14 months. After that, the service provider would have to compete for funds along with other shelter providers in the county.

She said ideally the department would have willing providers to establish stability sites by the end of 2024, when the ARPA funding is no longer available for the project.