How a new grant will help Whatcom County expand permanent supportive housing
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- Whatcom County secured a $3.6M Trueblood grant to build 37 supportive units.
- Eleven units will reserve housing for Trueblood class members, per plan.
- PSH expansion targets low-income and chronically mentally ill unhoused residents.
Construction of a planned permanent supportive housing project in Whatcom County can soon begin thanks to a recently announced $3.6 million grant from Washington state.
The funds, awarded by the Trueblood Diversion Program, will go to Lake Whatcom Center’s new Lincoln Street redevelopment. The project will add 37 new supportive housing units for individuals dealing with mental illness and substance abuse.
Lake Whatcom Center Executive Director Jenny Billings said the project has been underway for almost two years, and most of the pre-construction work has already been completed. They just needed the last bit of their $10 million goal to be able to really start breaking ground.
If all goes according to plan, Billings said she hopes the new housing units will be ready in a year.
Malora Christensen, manager of Whatcom County Health and Community Services’ Response Systems Division, said the Trueblood grant was an “exceptional opportunity” for Lake Whatcom Center.
Lake Whatcom Center is an integrated community provider, Christensen said, and already had this project underway using other local and state funds.
“It’s a huge win for our community,” Christensen said.
What is the grant?
What is the Trueblood grant? The grant funding comes from a 2018 settlement agreement following a lawsuit filed against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services four years prior. The lawsuit challenged unconstitutional delays in competency evaluation and restoration services for people in jail.
A person must be found competent — meaning they are capable of understanding the charges against them and assisting in their own defense — to proceed to trial. Delays in these services meant that people were spending more time waiting in jail.
The Trueblood Diversion Program was created out of the lawsuit to award grants to programs that helped divert class members from the criminal justice system — in this case, by providing stable housing.
Eleven of the new housing units built by Lake Whatcom Center with the grant funding will be reserved for Trueblood class members. The rest of the units will be focused on low-income, unhoused people with chronic mental illness, Billings said.
Oftentimes, people dealing with mental health issues have trouble finding and keeping housing, Billings said. This could be due to stigma, affordability, mental illness symptoms or other barriers — ones which regular contact with case managers by organizations like Lake Whatcom Center help mitigate.
This type of housing is called permanent supportive housing (PSH), an approach that combines stable housing with other supportive services to address homelessness. There are 10 agencies in the county that manage PSH programs, and tenants are allowed to stay indefinitely as long as they meet requirements.
From 2019 to 2024, Whatcom County PSH programs served 649 people, according to a recent report. Most were in a homeless, institutional or temporary housing situation prior to entering the program.