Whatcom Homeless Strategies Workgroup disbanded, leaving these suggestions for shelters
Homeless services for next winter will focus on families with children, preventing evictions and providing housing instead of more shelter space, according to social workers, government officials and others at recent public meetings and in interviews with The Bellingham Herald.
Base Camp, a 190-bed shelter run by Lighthouse Mission Ministries, will continue as the primary overnight housing provider.
And further purchases of “tiny homes” — 8 x 8 or 10 x 10 enclosures with a bed, electricity, heat and windows — are being discouraged in part because they barely qualify as shelter under criteria set by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Separate presentations to the Whatcom County Council and the Bellingham City Council in May outlined the available shelters and strategies being used by the Whatcom County Health Department and their partners, such as the Opportunity Council, the Lighthouse Mission and Homes Now, which operates two tiny home villages.
Those officials are talking to people without permanent housing to learn what will help them most — especially for next winter, said Anne Deacon, the county Health Department’s human services manager.
“We need to make sure we really understand who is living unsheltered and what needs must be met in order to get them sheltered,” Deacon told the Whatcom County Council in a May 4 presentation.
“Don’t jump to invest any more (in tiny homes) until we’ve done our homework,” Deacon told the County Council.
Bellingham, Whatcom leaders briefed
Both the Bellingham and Whatcom councils were briefed because most homeless services, shelters and encampments are in the city, and the two governments collaborate on funding and planning.
In addition to base camp and tiny homes, there are shelters for families with children, victims of domestic violence, people suffering mental illness and others offering up to 516 total beds, according to the two recent presentations.
Jed Holmes, spokesman for Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu, told The Herald in an email that he hopes Whatcom County residents understand the broad range of services that are offered.
“We’re pleased to see higher usage of Base Camp, which recently installed new beds with personal lockers,” Holmes said. “It’s good to see more people come off the streets, so that they can get connected to services, start down a path to addressing the underlying issues and find permanent solutions.”
How many are homeless?
In a May 24 presentation to the Bellingham City Council, Deacon discussed the 2021 “point in time” count of homeless people conducted in January.
It found 862 people who were homeless in Whatcom County, up from 707 people in 2020.
That includes 551 people in emergency shelters and 93 in transitional housing.
But 218 people were living outside, many of them in dozens of tents and makeshift structures at the Camp 210 protest site that encompassed the lawns of the Bellingham Public Library and City Hall.
And there were 75 vacant shelter beds during the count, she said.
Protest encampments
Camp 210 started in early November amid allegations from a group called Bellingham Occupied Protest and others that the city wasn’t providing enough shelter space.
That encampment was moved Jan. 28 during a standoff between protesters and police as volunteer homeless advocates used rented trucks and private cars to move the campers to Geri Fields, where a second encampment lasted until mid-March.
Campers finally moved to Laurel Park, where they were ousted two weeks later as city officials began strictly enforcing a ban on camping in city parks.
Homeless people have since dispersed to small encampments around the city, or returned to Base Camp, which is now seeing occupancy rates above 80%, according to its website.
Markis Stidham, a homeless advocate and a member of the county’s former Homeless Strategies Workgroup, told The Herald in several interviews that he was seeking support for another tiny home village to serve homeless people who for various reasons can’t or won’t go to Base Camp.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group called Serenity Outreach Services has continued to collect donations and assist people living outside.
Members of the protest group called BOP Mutual Aid have repeatedly refused to speak to The Herald and have never responded to messages left on their social media pages.
Deacon told the Bellingham and Whatcom councils that an estimated 80 to 90 small encampments remain, most of them at locations around Bellingham.
Tiny homes
Bellingham City Councilman Michael Lilliquist said at the May 24 meeting that he thinks tiny home villages deserve continued support, because they provide safety and privacy for residents, as well as a sense of community for those who live there.
“Tiny homes are proving themselves,” Lilliquist told the council. “In particular I’m impressed with the fact that tiny homes, even without the level of service I’d like to see, gives (their residents) something that is powerful.”
Bellingham is building a third tiny home village for 35 people near the corner of Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street, where organizations Road2Home and the Low Income Housing Institute will manage daily operations and provide outreach services.
Deacon emphasized the need to examine the types of shelter that are needed, and how they are working, before more tiny homes are bought.
“In terms of tiny homes, I just wanted to say that our goal right now is to make sure that our investments in the future are going to be the most appropriate to the needs,” Deacon told the Bellingham council.
“We know that tiny homes are the trend right now but like I said before that the 200-bed shelter was the trend, and I didn’t want us getting stuck in what everybody wants today but to really look at what’s going to be the best return on our investment, what is really going to meet the needs of our community and to do that we need to be much more immersed in the information of what people need.”
Base Camp ‘misinformation’
Lighthouse Mission Ministries moved its emergency Drop-In Center for the homeless to Bellingham High School in March 2020 to meet social distancing guidelines necessary during the COVID-19 outbreak
Those residents moved to the newly named Base Camp in July 2020 in a former grocery store at 1530 Cornwall Ave., allowing the nonprofit religious group time to raise money to build a larger shelter near property it owns on West Holly Street in Old Town.
The city of Bellingham and Whatcom County contributed a total of $1.5 million toward leasing and improvements, while the Lighthouse Mission will pay that much in operating costs during its three years of operation in that space, with a possibility for a fourth year.
Bellingham Councilwoman Pinky Vargas expressed frustration at opposition to Base Camp.
“One of the hardest things for me this year in managing public conversation is an average of 75 beds that weren’t being used this year,” Vargas said May 24. “Whereas the public being very adamant that we’re not helping people and not offering services and there’s no availability.”
Such criticism came from people who had good intentions but were misinformed, Deacon said, and it made the work of the Homeless Outreach Team and other social workers more difficult.
“(Their clients) were safe at the mission,” Deacon said. “It isn’t the end goal, but at least they were making their appointments and getting their medications,” Deacon told The Herald.
“Base Camp was fully utilized — was at capacity — until the (Camp 210) protest,” Deacon told the Bellingham council. “And then there was a purposeful effort to discourage people from it and that was based on some misinformation and vitriol.”
More homeless families
“We aren‘t exactly sure — and certainly weren’t prepared — for the mass exodus into homelessness for families with children. It was incredibly troubling to us,” Deacon told the Bellingham City Council on Monday, May 24.
Many were staying motels with vouchers provided through state and federal funding.
“We were not expecting that many. And for us it has risen to the very top in terms of making sure that we get families with children out of shelters and into permanent living situations,” she said.
Tara Sundin, Bellingham’s community and economic development manager, said possible solutions include a building where homeless families could live.
“Nobody ever wanted a motel stay to be the solution for families with children. But we do know that a motel stay is certainly better than sleeping in a vehicle,” Sundin said.
Homeless workgroup disbanded
Meanwhile, the Homeless Strategies Workgroup, which the County Council established in 2017 to address immediate critical needs, was dissolved and its duties were transferred to the county’s Housing Advisory Committee.
The Workgroup, composed of elected officials, social workers, homeless advocates and residents, was intended to be temporary and sent its final report to the Council April 16, Deacon said.
“We’ve had the final recommendations of the Homeless Strategies Workgroup and I think the Housing Advisory Committee is the right one to then take and move the ball forward,” Councilman Rud Browne said May 4.
County Council members disbanded the Workgroup on a 5-1 vote May 4, with Councilman Todd Donovan dissenting and Councilman Tyler Byrd absent.
Disbanding criticized
Several area residents objected to that move, including Doug Gustafson of Homes Now, which operates two tiny home villages in Bellingham, and Stidham and Melissa Weisener of Serenity Outreach Services.
“I think it would be a mistake to disband it,” Gustafson told the County Council on May 4. “It’s done a lot to help things happen.”
Stidham, who was an appointed member of the Workgroup, asked Bellingham officials to stop removing encampments in public parks and other places until the Health Department has finished collecting data on current needs.
He also criticized the decision to disband the Workgroup.
“How could anyone think that we’re done with our work there? The work there is just beginning,” Stidham said.
Weisner said the persistent homeless camp “sweeps” are expensive and pointless.
“How much money, how much of our tax dollars are they wasting weekly?” she asked the County Council.
County Councilman Todd Donovan said he thinks the Workgroup added value to the discussion of homelessness.
“I don’t see a need to stop having that additional voice and perspective,” he said May 4.
Workgroup recommendations
Both the Bellingham and Whatcom councils voted unanimously to accept the Workgroup’s recommendations at their meetings in May.
In her briefings to the city and county, Deacon said the Workgroup’s final recommendation include:
▪ Provide motel stays for families with children.
▪ Establish an overflow winter shelter for when Base Camp is full and expand it to operate November through March.
▪ Plan for 30 additional spots, possibly for special populations such as people suffering mental illness.
▪ Establish severe-weather shelters for people living outdoors during extremely cold times when Base Camp and overflow winter shelter capacity has been reached, and recruit volunteer organizations to run them.
▪ Establish a data-collection process to assist in ongoing analysis and planning, focusing initially on night-by-night shelters .
▪ Consider needs of most vulnerable populations, including families with children, youth ages 18–24-years, elders, people with serious mental illness, LGBTQ and people of color.
▪ Support the Homeless Outreach Team and review their qualitative data on the needs of the people they are serving.
▪ Support continuation of current specialty shelters, such as those for people fleeing domestic violence.
▪ Continue the two current Tiny Home Villages as well as a pending one, but don’t add more tiny homes without a needs assessment and ensuring that the current encampments meet federal criteria as “shelter.”
▪ Review other options for singles and couples that provide in-unit access to plumbing, heat, and meal preparation
▪ Encourage local elected officials to work with Skagit and Island counties to increase shelter capacity for their residents.
