‘We’re here’: Whatcom service providers share ideas for aiding unhoused in encampments
During a meeting Monday night, for the first time homeless service providers across Bellingham and Whatcom County came together to share ideas and resources for how to best serve local unhoused individuals.
The meeting was organized by Hanah Warthan, who launched the local nonprofit organization Mission for Missy to help address the fentanyl crisis locally and support people experiencing homelessness. She frequently provides food, clothes, Narcan and other resources to people living in encampments.
“I want to know what each resource is that I can share with these encampments while I’m out there doing this work. So that’s why this meeting is really important to me, and I’m really proud of everybody here,” Warthan said at the meeting.
More than 15 representatives from several local organizations were in attendance, including Christ the King Community Church, the Recovery Café, Northwest Youth Services, Operation Water Drop, Bridge 2 Services, and Misfits MADE.
Warthan said she held the meeting in response to the November sweep of Bellingham’s largest and most well-known encampment behind Walmart on E. Stuart Road, where she and other service providers have done significant outreach.
Warthan has spoken out publicly against the city’s clearing of encampments without providing a safe alternative place for the unhoused to go. She said now was an important time to pool resources for medical care, hygiene supplies, treatment centers and housing resources after so many individuals were displaced.
“We don’t know what the answer is. I don’t think anybody really does. We’re just trying to do something,” Warthan said.
All encampment residents appeared to have left the encampment behind Walmart before the clearing began last month. Service providers at the Monday meeting said most of them relocated to the growing encampment on W. Bakerview Road and Northwest Drive, which the city of Bellingham has flagged for “escalating public health and safety concerns and a growing list of criminal activity allegations.”
“I do all my work there now that Walmart is no longer. The Bakerview encampment’s reputation is bad but we’re here to help this encampment — this one in particular,” Warthan said. “I can say from experience that it’s a fentanyl encampment. We know that this drug is very powerful. It’s very addicting. It’s got them trapped.”
Many service providers at the meeting echoed similar desires to get encampment residents clean, sober and housed. But they said sweeping encampments is counterproductive and ineffective.
“It’s only a matter of time before they sweep this one. They’re not fixing anything. They’re just kicking the can down the road,” said Jeff Holmes of the organization Misfits MADE. “I would help get them out if there was somewhere better for them to go.”
Representatives of the organizations shared some of the successes they’ve had so far along with their upcoming plans for 2025, such as working together with city and county leaders to reduce the impact of encampments and solve the problem of homelessness.
“What I want to get across to the city leaders and the mayor is that they can call upon us too,” Warthan said at the meeting. “They can tell the community that we’re here. We’re trying to do what we can to get these people out of this place too. We’re just doing it in a different way than getting them all out or arresting them,” Warthan said.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
