Bellingham adding winter shelter beds for homeless, but critics say it’s still not enough
Bellingham is in a better position to shelter its homeless residents this fall and winter and avoid the protests and tent encampments that occurred last year, according to officials who briefed the City Council this week.
More shelter space is available, the city is crafting a long-term plan to help families, and Bellingham and Whatcom County have hired a public-relations firm to promote how they are addressing the homeless crisis.
“We are demonstrably in a better position than we were a year ago,” Mayor Seth Fleetwood told the council during a Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, Sept. 13.
More than 500 shelter beds will be available for winter, said Anne Deacon, human services manager for Whatcom County.
“That’s fairly impressive for a community our size,” Deacon told the council.
But Markis Stidham, a homeless advocate and former member of the Whatcom County Homeless Strategies Workgroup, told The Bellingham Herald that it’s not enough.
“I realize that it’s going to be up to our outreach to answer the emergency,” Stidham said.
Stidham also is affiliated with a group called Serenity Outreach Services, whose members bring food, water, clothing and other necessities to people living on the streets who aren’t connected with social services.
Even though this year’s annual Point In Time nationwide count showed that 859 people were homeless in Whatcom county, Stidham thinks the number might be twice that.
In Monday’s committee meeting, Deacon and Tara Sundin, economic development manager for the city of Bellingham, discussed several new shelter options for this winter:
▪ Christ the King Church will operate a low-barrier shelter with 40 beds at the former drop-in center on Holly Street during the cold-weather months of October through March. Sundin said that Lighthouse Mission Ministries, which operates the Base Camp shelter, will be working with Christ the King. That shelter, called the 1013 Building for its address on West Holly Street, will be available on an as-needed basis during severe weather, a Lighthouse spokesman said.
▪ A new shelter operated by Northwest Youth Services with 16 beds for young adults. A site is being sought. “This program will — as well — help relieve capacity at Base Camp,” Sundun said.
▪ Gardenview Village, the enclave of 36 8-foot by 12-foot dwellings, will offer housing for 30 to 50 people at Lakeway Drive and Woburn Street, near the city’s Community Garden and the Parks and Recreation Department offices.
▪ Five more shelter beds at the YWCA.
▪ Motel rooms for 70 families with children, along with extra case managers and rental aid to help move them to permanent housing. A plan for a new shelter facility for homeless families is nearing completion, using federal funds that have become available during the new coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve got multiple strategies focused on families with children,” Sundin said. “We’re seeing this as the highest community need that we should be focused on.”
She said the plans, which would be announced soon, would be “big and bold.”
Council President Hannah Stone summarized the committee discussion during the full City Council meeting Monday night.
“Great strides with capacity. But we acknowledge there’s also work to be done,” Stone said. “But we’re chipping away at it.”
Officials said they were hoping to avoid the unrest that accompanied protest encampments in late 2020 and early 2021, aimed at forcing the city to add shelter space or allow a tent camp.
“It was quite a fraught time, as we all know,” Fleetwood said.
About 100 people pitched a tent encampment on the lawns of Bellingham City Hall and the Public Library from early November 2020 to the end of January 2021, protesting what they said was inadequate shelter service.
That protest site was dismantled on Jan. 28 during a tense standoff between protesters and dozens of police in riot gear, and several arrests were made.
Homeless campers and their advocates moved to other city parks over the next two months, but were removed and dispersed each time.
Meanwhile, Bellingham and Whatcom County officials are discussing how to address an influx of homeless residents from surrounding counties.
This year’s Point In Time count, a nationwide annual assessment of homelessness, showed that 30% of Whatcom County’s homeless residents had recently arrived from outside the area.
“That’s not new but it’s fairly high — it used to be 10%,” Deacon said.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
