Microsoft



Homeless Shelter SummitMon, 12/21 10:00amSUMMARY KEYWORDSencampments, request, homelessness, tacoma, coalition, community, pierce county, commits, shelter, commitment, housing, experiencing, county, mayor, homeless, safe, city, rental assistanceSPEAKERSJackson, Councilmember Derek Young, Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker, Gerrit Nyland, Kevin Glackin-Coley, Carlos Castanon, Juanita Contreras, County Executive Bruce Dammeier, Nawiishtunmi Nightgun, Troy Christensen, Sean Harrison, Haili Crow-Cyr, Theresa Power-Drutis, Novus-Khan Binyaamem, Maureen Howard, Kim Zacher, Alina Flores, Reverend Boyce, Janet Runbeck, Mayor Victoria Woodards, Joy StanfordCarlos Castanon morning, everyone. My name is Carlos Castanon and I'm the beacon new shelter counselor with comprehensive life resources, I'll be moderating our summit today. Thank you all for joining us. Today is National Homeless Persons Memorial Day, we're gathering to remember those members of our unhoused community who have passed away this winter and to recommit ourselves to providing safe shelter for all the need. The purpose of today's safe shelter summit is to present requests and commitments for solutions for safe shelter this winter. We will follow up in about three weeks with another summit, and an opportunity for the community to respond with commitments, a few housekeeping items. This summit is a tightly scripted one hour event. Real Time transcription is available just follow the otter AI link in the upper left corner of your screen. During the meeting everyone but the speaker is muted, please use the chat for all questions and comments including additional requests and commitments. This chat will inform our future actions. If the summit is zoom-bomed we'll pause the meeting and resume once the disruption is handled. As you may know the Tacoma Pierce County coalition to end homelessness is a loose network of individuals nonprofit organizations government agencies and community businesses working together to serve people experiencing homelessness. Most of us are direct service providers, and you'll see that represented in our speakers today. I was a member of this coalition at it's rebirth in 2017, a response that had to come at City Council's emergency declaration. But we have evolved into what you see today. As I reflect on the circumstances of three and a half years ago it occurs to me that the gap between then and now is too small. We as a community and as a society must do more to address the needs of the homeless community in Pierce County. However, being witnessed to the people attending the summit today I'm hopeful for the future. We have gathered to make positive change in our community and, to use the words of Maureen Howard, we have answered the clarion call of those who are suffering, our end goal is to help folks establish and keep housing. We also work to address many of the factors that drive homelessness, 50 to 60 of us meet every Friday morning at 9am, with some 500 recipients on our listserv. All are welcome. This summit is a joint project of the Tacoma Pierce County coalition to end homelessness, and city of Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards. Mayor Woodards, thank you so much for your support of this work and for being here today.Mayor Victoria Woodards Thank you, Carlos. And thanks to everyone who has joined us today. I want to be honest, I really am just partnering with you all Maureen Howard called me, just a week ago, maybe a little bit longer than a week ago and said she'd been up all night and she had this idea. I asked her to give me a day or so and let's see if we could make it happen and so I'm really grateful that we are here today, having this conversation, but I really do want to express my sincerest gratitude to Maureen for all of her work. And for pulling this off in a very short period of time and Gerrit and Kevin thank you for joining her and helping make this happen and then to everybody who made today's summit possible grateful to all of you and those of you who wake up every day thinking about those who are homeless in our community and working towards finding them healthy, housing, but the most important thing is finding permanent housing for our in house music community. Today marks the 30th annual National Homeless Persons Memorial Day, a recognition that happens each year on the longest night of each year to remember those who have died while homeless in the past year. The weight of those losses is heavy. But I'm encouraged to see so many people gathered on a Monday morning it was 161 of you at this moment, who are gathered to hear ideas and, and to discuss community wide approaches to addressing the health and well-being of those experiencing homelessness throughout Pierce County. While there's an urgency to address this issue of health and well being. Homelessness is a difficult and complex issue as you all know, this is highlighted by being by being by the by this being the 30th anniversary of homeless persons Memorial Day. No city in the nation has identified the ideal solution. And it takes many dedicated minds and hands to make progress on an issue like this. While Tacoma is just one jurisdiction involved in this regional work. I'm honored to be here today to hear about all of your innovative solutions to addressing homelessness and recognizing the complexity of the crisis. I want to thank Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker for being here today as well. Deputy Mayor has had a key leadership role in addressing this issue for the council. He has been heavily invested in advocating for policy to support individuals experiencing homelessness in our community. And he's been an advocate because he's experienced being homeless himself. I also want to thank our neighborhood and Community Services staff. While we have neighbors that remain unhoused and vulnerable. We must remain committed to seeking solutions. They had a goal beginning 2020 to create 100 new shelter beds, this year. And while working through the many challenges and adaptations of COVID. We've also managed to exceed the goal by creating 169 new shelter beds in Tacoma so far. But we know this is not enough. We know that there is much more work to do. And that not only should we have shelter for every homeless resident in our community, but we should be able to find them a home. So today I'm here to listen. Your work to collect discuss and vet possible solutions is absolutely timely. In addition to this, not being work that at any one government can do alone. We need and want your input. In the spirit of partnership NCS staff will be presenting our homeless strategy to the coalition early in the new year. And we'll, we will be speaking feedback and participation from members of the coalition who want to assist in the development and implementation of this strategy which will include some of the things that are shared here today. While city funds are limited, due to the impact of COVID, and with lives hanging in the balance, we know that it is more important now more than ever to not take a piecemeal haphazard approach, but to really look at solutions and bringing all our resources to bear to address this issue, and the impacts it has on our vulnerable neighbors families and friends who currently live without home. I hope we can continue to work together I know I want to continue to work with all of you, in partnership to make sure that we reach that day when no one in our community will be homeless.Our staff continues to make themselves available to meet with the coalition, as a whole or individually and I make my office myself. And please the rest of our council, appreciate you all for being here today, appreciate being a part of this I look forward to hearing from all of you and thank you to all of you for what you do every day. On behalf of those who live in our communities. Thank you.Carlos Castanon Thank you, Mayor Woodards both for your commitment to continue working with the coalition and just your words in general, we really appreciate you. Next I'd like to introduce County Councilman and Incoming Chair of the community Human Services Committee Derek Young. Councilmember Young, thank you for taking time to join us today.Councilmember Derek Young Thank you, that I appreciate the invitation. You know, I really appreciate all the work that's already been done to date but seeing so many faces here that both that I know, and those that I don't know that are committed on this issue. I just want to express my deep gratitude for your work. As Mayor Woodard said you know this is not a Tacoma problem, it's not an any neighborhood problem. It's an everywhere problem, and the County needs to be a key player in finding solutions to that throughout Pierce County. And frankly, our state partners as well. I did want to recognize one of my future colleagues is here, who I know cares deeply about housing issues Councilmember or Councilmember elect I should say Hitchens Jani Hitchen, she will be replacing Doug Richardson on the council, and I have a suspicion, you will be hearing lots from her. I also want to acknowledge the hard work of folks like director Moss and Sean Denerlein who are two that I happen to spot in the audience - they're from our Human Services staff who work on this, these issues, day in and day out. They have some things that I think we're in a little bit interrupted by COVID and had to scramble to respond to that crisis. Unfortunately, just because some of these issues got put on the back burner, for COVID response or in many cases were exasperated by them, doesn't mean that they've gone away, and we'll be needing to deal with those in the next year. I promise you, and commit to you that you will hear from the county council in the next term on these issues, and we look forward to working with all of you. I've had a chance to look through some of your policies and and commitment requests, and I see very little in there that I can't see us addressing over the next year or at least trying to find a way to address so I'll look forward to talking with you on that. But I just want to continue by saying, I deeply appreciate your work on this. You know, we hear often from folks that represent those that have lots of power. It's rare that we hear from representatives of those that have little power or no power. And that's what you're all doing, and that's really important because without that voice, it's hard to push things forward and so thank you for your commitment to this and I'll look forward to hearing more from you.Carlos Castanon Thank you Councilmember Young, I appreciate that the County is making addressing homelessness a priority and thank you for your words. Next I'd like to introduce Kevin Glackin-Coley, director of special projects with the Tacoma Pierce County coalition on homelessness, with some opening remarks.Kevin Glackin-Coley Thank you, Carlos and thank you Councilmember Young and Mayor Moodards for joining us today. We knew going into this winter shelter season that it was going to be difficult, a system that has struggled in the past to find enough safe housing options for people experiencing homelessness was also facing the restrictions brought about by the COVID pandemic. A lot of the normal options for being able to respond on inclement weather nights weren't feasible. Due to safe distancing and other requirements. Yet, we set ourselves as a coalition the lofty goal of not having anyone in our community experiencing homelessness die. This winter season, sadly, in November alone, four people died in their cars or on the street, and there have been other deaths in December. And I would say sadly to that end of that this is the 30th anniversary of the national homeless persons day. And in my younger days I thought by now we would have solved this. The solutions are there, the resources are available. It's the commitment that we need to make together to enact those solutions. I'm very heartened to have representatives of local and state government here with us today as well as service providers, as has been indicated by Mayor woodards and Councilmember young. It's a community effort, and it's going to require public and private partnerships, it's going to require outside of the box thinking. We, as a coalition, though we are loosely organized we stand ready to work with our partners in the philanthropic community and in local and state and federal government to find solutions implement solutions and to make it possible for all those seeking a safe warm place to stay. To find that quickly, and then to be able to move into more permanent housing as it goes forward. My hope is that this summit is a beginning of the next step that we will hear today from a lot of our partners about the commitments, they can make or committed, we would like others to make, and we will follow up in the coming weeks and months to implement those decisions so that all those in need of shelter have access to it. As soon and as quickly as possible. Thank you all for being here and I look forward to hearing what we have to share.Carlos Castanon Thank you, Kevin, and we are now going to hear the requests for immediate action to keep people experiencing homelessness in our community safe. We recognize that our homeless neighbors need at least three things to be safe access to health care, a physical space to exist and services that enable them to transition from homelessness, to speak about health care needs of the homeless community Allow me to introduce Jan Runbeck, who has many public health roles in the community, including serving people experiencing homelessness as a member of the Medical Reserve Corps.Janet Runbeck Thank you. People who are homeless have higher rates of illness and die, an average of 12 years sooner than the general US population, simply being without a home is a dangerous health condition, no amount of health care can substitute for stable housing. COVID-19 has exacerbated the health issues of people experiencing homelessness. At a time when key prevention measure is to stay home. Our unsheltered community members have no home to stay in. We have two direct service providers who will be reading the coalition's request around health. The first is Alina Flores, an integration specialist with a Sea Mar Community Health Action Team, providing intensive case management and care coordination to the chronically ill individuals experiencing homelessness. Alina.Alina Flores Thank you Miss Runbeck for that beautiful introduction.We request that every jurisdiction across Pierce County commits to following the Centers for Disease Control guidelines for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, either permanent or portable hygiene centers with showers, toilets, hand washing stations, laundry and trash pickups are set in high use encampment areas across the country. We request that each hospital commits to no discharges to the streets, or to the shelters. Every discharge must be an identifiable safe address and must include transportation and verification that the person is inside the housing unit. We request some same day access to treatment for all those who request it with hotel vouchers for a bed until the entry into the treatment facility is available. We request charging and Wi Fi stations available to every unsheltered and sheltered person and encampments shelters across the county. Thank you. Janet Runbeck Thank you, Miss Flores.Sean Harrison Next we have Sean Harrison, a peer care coordinated with the Tacoma needle exchange, Sean.We request that at least two people in each encampment be trained as street medics and provided with Naloxone to prevent overdoses. We request that people experiencing homelessness be considered high risk for the coronavirus, and receive the vaccine along with those with underlying conditions. We request that frontline homelessness program staff be considered essential workers and receive the vaccine, along with others in that category. We request that people experiencing homelessness and frontline providers have 24 seven access to a mental health, COVID clip hotline. Thank you.Carlos Castanon Thank you Mr Harrison, and Jan thank you for those introductory remarks. Next we will present requests related to the need for space to live. Let me introduce Joy Stanford, a powerful advocate for people experiencing homelessness, including people in the Key Peninsula and other rural rural areas of Pierce County and for the shared housing model, welcome to Ms. Stanford.Joy Stanford Thank you, Carlos at the root of all encampments is the need for greater investment of resources to address severe shortages of housing affordable to people with little or no income. Absent this commitment, people experiencing homelessness, are forced to find other places to stay and encampments may be the best alternative among a limited set of options, a consistent set of factors contribute to people's decision to stay in encampments rather than in shelters, or in other unsheltered locations, shortages in availability of shelter beds, policies that create barriers to entry, and undesirable conditions inside shelters all influence people to seek an alternative place to stay. When shelters cannot fulfill their needs for safety, sense of community and the freedom to come and go at will, people experiencing homelessness may decide to stay in encampments. We have three service providers here with us today, who will be reading the coalition's request around physical space. The first is Novus-Khan Binyaamem, a coordinated entry specialists and veteran case manager with Catholic Community Services.Novus-Khan Binyaamem Hello, good morning. We request that JBLM commits to design of encampments using military materials and knowledge, and provides required military surplus materials free, and allocates advisors to us. We request Metro parks commits to getting each of their parks department peers to mirror the use of East Side community center to add additional shelter capacity. We request Mayor woodards commits to establishing a safe encampment program, just as she did on affordable housing; County Executive Dammeier joins her as co chair and brings on the mayors of all jurisdictions with shared policies and programs. We request the Puyallup Tribe commits to training providers about the sacredness of their land and identifying any land that could be used for safe encampments. We request Pierce County Council, as allowed by House Bill 1590, authorize the local option sales tax, 1/10th of 1% for housing and related services.Joy Stanford Thank you Novus-Khan. Next we have Troy Christensen, who has taken on many roles in the community over the years and is currently serving LGBTQ people as executive director at the Rainbow Center.Troy Christensen Thank you joy. For those of you that don't know, LGBTQ people are desperately impacted amongst homelessness, especially in youth and young adults. We request Pierce County government develop a proposal for acquisition of surplus public property and set of capital and other funding requests for a Pierce County budget package to the state legislature. We request the Tacoma Pierce County Chamber of Commerce establishes safe parking businesses with identification stickers for businesses that will allow vehicle parking, through the safe parking network. We request hotel and motels with Washington hospitality Association throughout Pierce County commit to flat nightly weekly and monthly rates for hotel vouchers coming through a list of providers, self help groups and law enforcement and allow clients in these programs with or without IDs. We request all nonprofits, including hospital systems with empty buildings and other parking lots, to commit to offering them for use as housing, either free or at a rate that covers their actual costs. And finally We request the rental housing association of Washington, and the Washington multi family housing association commit to providing a list of empty apartments weekly, to accepting the universal application, and to accepting a rental repayment plan that includes a modest rental subsidy provided by either public or private sources. Joy Stanford Thank you so much, Troy. For our final request around physical space. Let's welcome Juanita Contreras, a coordinated entry specialist with Associated Ministries.Juanita Contreras We request the Low Income Jousing Institute builds, at least 100 additional Tiny Homes across Pierce County. local jurisdictions allow small 10 to 40 managed outdoor encampment set up in low impact areas throughout the county. We request nonprofit organizations and local governments purchase one or more hotels for immediate use as emergency shelter and eventual use as permanent housing. We request existing shelters and public buildings with CDC compliant infrastructures and operations reopen day shelter options. We request, we have real time information in several formats, showing the numbers of beds, and the number of people needing shelter from the beginning of Tacoma's declaration of emergency to date with complete funding information of all shelters.Carlos Castanon Thank you for that Miss Contreras. And also thank you for introducing us to that section Ms. Stanford. Our final area is services, let me introduce Orlando Sturvol, an experience outreach worker with comprehensive life resources. Gerrit Nyland All right, I think we are short one Orlando, which is unfortunate, I will jump us in. Services are the bridge that connect people experiencing homelessness with community-based supports to help them secure and maintain housing, people experiencing homelessness are already among the most vulnerable in our community. They often have greater needs and may face higher barriers to housing. They need the experience and energy and resources service providers bring with them. COVID-19 is exacerbating all of the disparities already present, people of color as we know are disproportionately represented in both the sheltered and unsheltered communities of people experiencing homelessness, everyone brings the trauma of their lives to the trauma of homelessness. Sometimes it's as simple as a new ID card that is needed. Other times it's enough diapers for the month. Sometimes it's knowing the rent is paid for the coming year. Other times, help getting or keeping a job. Everyone needs an individual approach and pets can make that even more complicated.Gerrit Nyland We have three service providers who will be reading the coalition's requests around services. To lead us off we have Haley Crow-Cyr, a site coordinator with Communities in Schools Tacoma and also an outreach worker with Tacoma Rescue Mission, Haley.Haili Crow-Cyr Thanks Gerrit, so We request Pierce County and local municipalities think and act regionally to address issues related to homelessness in a systemic and coordinated manner, working with the coalition and others to frame the information in a way that builds compassion, understanding and collaboration towards solutions. We also request all of law enforcement and all first responders, the sheriff's department, local police agencies and local fire departments, commit to training every full and part time paid and volunteer staff member in basic crisis intervention, trauma reduction, caring and use of Naloxone, waving out of date vehicle tab tickets for anyone in safe parking, and notifying a designated County Human Service person of each encampment. We also request Pierce County Human Services commits to dramatic expansion of coordinate coordinated entry diversion and rapid rehousing programs, providing money and allowable use so that every person in an encampment moves out of the encampment into safe shelter within five days. We request the city of Tacoma makes the use of purple trash bags, available at every encampment within the city limits and offers them to every encampment in the county, and on tribal land. We request United Way commits to a 24/7 safe encampment hotline that can be used by people looking for safe places, as well as by law enforcement and community partners.Gerrit Nyland Thank you so much Haili - much appreciated. Next let's welcome nawiishtunmi Nightgun, whose name I'm probably screwing up sorry, the director of housing with Wellspring Family Service, a long time service provider in King County that recently expanded services with a housing program for Tacoma Public School families.Nawiishtunmi Nightgun Thank you. Okay Dominic's gonna go Nina Stoney Donna Guna wisdom. Good morning everyone. We request that every local jurisdiction enacts and enforces a no sweeps policy for the duration of the pandemic. We request honey bucket commits to a reduce rate to service every honey bucket every day. We request Tacoma Pro Bono commits to meet with every person in any kind of encampment to review their rental history, clear what they can and help set up repayment plans. Thank you.Gerrit Nyland Much appreciated Ms Nightgun. Our last set of requests will be read by Jackson, who does community development with Valeo Vocation, a nonprofit staffing agency built to employ people experiencing homelessness, Jackson.Jackson Good morning. Oh, Yes. Can you hear me now. Yes,Gerrit Nyland thank you, Jackson.Jackson We would like to request the philanthropic community commits to investing in a safe Encampment Fund managed by the coalition to cover the variety of costs associated with expanding safe shelter opportunities. We request that banks and credit unions agreed to create a fund to ensure no subsidized units are lost through an expiration of contracts, no naturally occurring low income housing units are lost to market conditions, and establish a fund of allowing the purchase of RV's at reduced interest rates. We request the laundry industry develops models to address the need for laundry services at encampments and for the individuals experiencing homelessness, and supports the development of local nonprofit laundry servicesWe request local jurisdictions implement a coordinated approach, including facilitated conversations with nearby housed individuals to ensure that residents are safe from acts of violence, and that during severe weather events there is a sufficient number of warm beds available.Carlos Castanon Thank you, Jackson, I appreciate that so much, and thank you Gerritfor reading that part as well. All these requests feel like a heavy lift but we have good news at the summit as well. We brought these requests on so quickly many agencies have not had a chance to respond. The coalition wants to present these needs so we have goals to work towards and we're hoping our community partners can take on these commitments, or needs we haven't considered. If you want to help with this work the coalition wants to work with you. Five agencies have already committed to meeting these needs and they would like to make that commitment public. It was going to be Kim Zacher, the CEO of CLR but instead, I'd like to ask James Pogue to read the commitment instead. James.James Pogue I do believe Kim is here under Breanna Lyons,Carlos Castanon I'm just kidding. Okay. Kim Hi.Kim Zacher As long as someone commits that's good with me. Thank you Carlos. Comprehensive Life Resources commits to providing community based mental health and substance use assessments at encampments, safe parking areas, and any other location where homeless individuals are not able to reach a community clinic. Thank you.Carlos Castanon Thank you, Kim. Next Jan Runbeck, admin lead with the Pierce County Medical Corps, will present their commitment.Janet Runbeck Thank you. The Medical Reserve Corps commits to assisting in systems that will increase access to health care. This will target all populations living homeless - both sheltered and unsheltered.Carlos Castanon We appreciate that commitment by the Medical Reserve Corps. Next we have a commitment from the Dave Purchase Project/Tacoma Needle exchange. Let's welcome back Sean Harrison Peer Care Coordinator with the needle exchange, Sean.Sean Harrison Thanks Carlos. The Dave purchase project/Tacoma needle exchange committs to providing overdose awareness education and response training, opioid overdose prevention kits and opioid reversal medication, wound care supplies, and bio bins for safe syringe disposal street medics living in encampments in and around Tacoma Washington.Carlos Castanon Thank you for providing an important service to the community Sean. Next join me in welcoming Teresa Power-Drutis, executive director with New Connections.Theresa Power-Drutis Hi. These are great ideas and we add New Connections are committed to helping wherever we can. The three ways I want to talk about now are: we will expand our "bank on it" project that helps people who have trouble with banking - some history with difficult banking - to get banked. And we will also work with anyone who wants to work on community benefits agreements in terms of our unsheltered neighbors and sheltered neighbors, we can offer training on that or advice on that because we're going through it. And we also commit to the volunteer training program that is set up in partnership with the St. Leo's homelessness workgroup. And we offer training for people who are looking at volunteering in one of these high impact areas, dealing with homelessness. So, yeah, that training is starting in January, and all are welcome. Thanks.Carlos Castanon Thank you, Dr. Power-Drutis; partnerships like that are key to serving people experiencing homelessness. For our final commitment today it is my pleasure to welcome Carly Roberts executive director with Tacoma pro bono.Haili Crow-Cyr Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for having us. Tacoma Pro Bono commits to working with unsheltered people in encampments, sheltered people in individual and congregate settings, and people in coordinated entry on any eviction history.Carlos Castanon Thank you Ms. Roberts, I'm heartened and encouraged by the commitments made so far and we look forward to the commitments each of your organizations are going to put forth in the coming weeks. Also, we actually have one more commitment that was brought forward by the philanthropic community, the philanthropic community commits to investing in the variety of costs associated with expanding so safe shelter opportunities. While homelessness is a County-wide challenge, the concentration of services has created some challenging situations on the hilltop in Tacoma, and no one knows that better than Deputy Mayor Blockner who represents that district, Deputy Mayor, thank you for taking time to be here today.Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker Good morning everyone. Keith blocker here Deputy Mayor city of Tacoma. First I want to thank think Maureen at the coalition to end homelessness, and those participating in this discussion today to recognize the 30th anniversary of the memorial day to convene a conversation and reflect on what we do what we can do as homelessness, themes like your way. We know that there are no easy solutions to homelessness. and my leadership will be City Council. Addressing homelessness, and a share of the community vitality and safety committee. I am proud of the work the city staff and neighborhood Community Services Department has done to expand Shelter Bay capacity for the unhoused. I stand fully behind professional staff that work day in, and night. I have invested so much time focused on the city's issues and concerns around addressing homelessness, with our limited resources, while trying to deal with this crisis, listening to the requested comments and commitments of the various organizations that I've been I have a stake in addressing homelessness. And this region, I feel we all need to do our part of a thoughtful way to work together and collaboration. So here are some facts. In terms of homelessness, as a city it's a common which many of you may already be aware of. So, what the city is doing the city's invested $16.8 million to homeless response services for the 2021-2022 biennial is a testament to our commitment to those who are houseless. The city funds over 700 shelter beds for single adults, families, young adults youth and survivors of domestic violence. In 2021, we are already slated to add 70 more beds for our winter procedures procedural adults, that will operate at the end of the March. The city continues to work with community partners to identify and implement additional shelter beds and resources and under current cold conditions that we also want to make sure that we work to allow safe parking, create safe parking options. The city is following COVID-19 guidance on encampment responses from the Center for Disease Control. And it's Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, which recommends not dispersing already congregating encampents, to city cleans up cleans up garbage and debris in your cabinets, to third party contractors to reduce the health hazards can't miss pose to those residing in them. And the neighboring communities, the homeless outreach team is contained to provide consistent outcomes to people experiencing homelessness and living in encampments and Tacoma to connect them to shelters that are available, and with other homelessness services. The city has been operating under a declaration of state of public health. In an emergency, since May 9 2017 to address the health and safety concerns caused by growing encampments. This is anticipated to be completed when 95% of unsheltered individuals identified during the annual will Pierce County point in time count have access to shelter for three consecutive years. The city's affordable housing action strategy has two specific objectives, aimed at both preventing and intervening in homelessness objectives. Also, our objectives are striving to help people stay in their homes and communities. And objective four, is to reduce barriers for people who often encounter them.Deputy Mayor Keith Blocker As mentioned before, I've experienced homelessness in my personal life. As a young person with a mother who struggled with domestic violence issues, who struggled with an addiction, all of which led my family to experience homelessness. And so I know, I know the impacts that young people experienced the trauma that comes from those unfortunate experiences. I have relatives who struggle with mental health issues and drug addiction. I've seen it firsthand, and also experience homelessness, which led me to have to sleep in my car, find any safe place possible, which times was a bus station, just to keep warm, or sleeping on anybody's couch. So I'm grateful to be in this position where I can influence homeless policy advocate for the best path for for the city and addressing this crisis. I know the city and our partners are are eager to move forward and continue to do the good work of preventing homelessness and helping those who are currently houseless. Also, I wanted before I close I wanted to thank my council colleagues who are able to participate. This morning I believe Councilmember Hunter and Councilmember Beale, Councilmember Thom's - if I missed someone is my apologies holed into my, my head and not my heart. But this is work that that we have to come together on all the agencies, the city, the county. I'm so pleased to hear that. People included Metro parks, Tacoma Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, they really have to come together with the faith community the business community and it has to be a, a collaborative effort to address this crisis, none of us could do it together, and many hands make light work so I just want to thank you all for hosting this this summit this morning to address something that is, which is a problem that's impacting so many of us in our city in our county and throughout our nation so thank you all for your leadership, and thank you for your time.Thank you for your words Deputy Mayor Blocker. I think, sharing your personal narrative with us and your experiences of homelessness are really powerful for me, and I appreciate your courage I appreciate your commitment to the work. I also want to introduce County Executive Bruce Dammeier who is joining us today. Thank you so much Mr. Dammeier.County Executive Bruce Dammeier Thank you, Carlos, and thank you, Maureen and thank you, Kevin for bringing us together This is obviously critically important topic on any day of the year and of course it's been, as Gerrit Nyland talked about, it's been exacerbated tremendously by COVID. Not only are the folks experiencing homelessness more vulnerable to catching the disease, they're more vulnerable to be ravaged by it, and it has significantly made it harder to serve them, right, in a safe way. So it is, you know I'm reminded that, you know I'm from Puyallup, I'm reminded that the freezing nights ministry which has been a significant outreach in the winter is, you know, can't be done this year I guess because of COVID. So it has been dramatic in the impact - the disproportional impact that it has had on our community that's experiencing homelessness. I really appreciate you gathering everybody today, always, always good to be standing with the Mayor of Tacoma and her colleagues, and I'm really glad to see you have Councilmember Young kick us off for welcoming comments and very excited to see Councilmember Jani Hitchin here. You know this is, I want to start with - well before I go there you know COVID has been really tough. I want to thank, Heather Moss and her team, you know as the county has been one of the lead agencies and responding to supporting our broader community with COVID I really appreciate all the work that her team has done. They are in the process of getting almost $56 million out in various ways in various programs, utilizing various nonprofits to support our community. The people in our community who are being kind of hugely impacted by this that includes things like child care, includes things like rental assistance where we're really trying to keep people happy, right that the number one, one of our number one goals is let's not make the problem worse. Let's do everything we can to keep those who are who are at risk of losing their housing to keep them in their housing and that's both rental assistance and and kind of eviction counseling and things like that so we've got a lot of different programs in there. Thank you, Heather to you and your team for what you've been doing there, and that also included about $2.8 million. We wanted to make sure that our existing infrastructure that are key nonprofits like comprehensive life resources, like the Rescue Mission, like Helping Hand House, like you know so many that we're able to kind of preserve the capacity that we have. So, and in some cases, I'm excited to see that we've expanded - that at the Tacoma rescue mission and at the Arlington drive youth facilities which are open now so they're even in the face of COVID some good things have been happening. And with that, I guess I would, I would close with where Councilmember Blocker ended. Right, to me the key here as us all working together. We all have a role to play and if we are not all playing our role, we're not going to make significant progress on this. I just did a new employee orientation and I always talk about the importance of partnership - that nobody can do it on their own, but if we all come together, we can do it. I will tell you I'm proud of some of the work that we have done in our community. As I said, I think there's two parts to this: the first goal is to stop creating. If you keep people housed, keep them in their jobs, keep them from becoming homeless. And I think we've done some good work in that. We've done a lot of work on more and more types of housing including supportive housing that we've been doing a lot of coordination with Mayor Woodards, I mean, bringing together the community and particularly the Mayors from across the county, we've created the new South Sound Housing Affordability Partnership, which is the first time we've come together as a region, specifically to address housing affordability issues. It's about more and better jobs, so that people can have a job, and that can be a job that allows them to have the kind of life where they can be housed, raise a family, do all those kind of things that's important. And having more and better access to behavioral health services. We've done a lot of things to try to address crisis services in particular, things like the mobile community intervention response teams, like adding co-responders, like adding a new crisis Recovery Center in the Parkland area that will open early next year, like Cohen veterans clinic, and like the welfare and behavioral health hospital. And we have also done things to try to be innovative in making better services available to our Medicaid population. I'm excited about an issue that I hope the council will pass tomorrow night, which will be the 10th of a cent for mental health, which will include strategic investment of that money, which will include a six year behavioral health investment plan that we can really look long term and how we're doing this and make sure we're making smart investments, and significant reform in how our community will come together and deliver kind of all healthcare services, but especially targeted around kind of better behavioral health services, more and better behavioral health services for those in our community that are on Medicaid - and that's about that's about a quarter of our community, so it's significant - so I'm excited about that. With that there's some other things that that I would say that I'm, you know, while it has been much more difficult and as we look around our community it's hard, you see the challenges and the, the problems that COVID has kind of leveraged into our community that's showing up in terms of people on the street living in unsafe conditions, unsanitary conditions -you can't, you cannot see that. But I will tell you that I think there are some good news here as well. One of them that I'm really proud of for the first time, I think Pierce County brought Tacoma, Lakewoo, Puyallup and University Place - Mayor Caroline Belleci from University Place is on this call as well - so has brought those groups together to jointly apply for state money for emergency shelters. And as a result of that we got $4.7 million. And we're creating 120 new, beds, access to new beds, throug Pierce County. I think what's important - that's the first time I think we've had like the city of Puyallup step up, the first time that we've had Lakewood come together ,so I think the fact that we're bringing our municipalities along is important. We got to bring as was very evident in the list of requests, this is not something any one of us can do on their own but if we all take a turn at the or if we all grab hold we can have significant impact. And I will tell you that Pierce County remains committed - proud of the work that some of the work that we have done. There's still a lot more work to go and I'm really thankful for Heather moss and her team - in particular John Barbee's leadership on this is critically important - and I also appreciate, Sean Denerlein's work for our veterans - it's been really important so I can tell you that. Well, while we're not ready to fully commit to the entire list today, I can tell you some of the things on that list we've already committed to. And some of the things on that list where we're still working through, but Pierce County, will be there - will continue to lead, will continue to bring people together - both government entities and the philanthropic community and will stand alongside our nonprofit community as we address this challenge in our community. We've got to get people off the street and into a safe place it's not okay for people to live on our street in unsafe unhealthy conditions and Pierce County is going to be there, making sure we're doing everything we can to address that. So, thank you very much for the opportunity to address you today - I see we're a little early. Way to go, get this done a little early there Carlos. Good job. And again, thank you to Carlos, Maureen and Kevin for bringing us together today. Thank you.Carlos Castanon Thank you. I really appreciate your words and I appreciate your commitment to collaboration and I think I don't, I guess I'm gonna speak for the whole coalition when I say that we're all committed to doing our part and working with the county and the city and maybe even the state of Washington. We're happy to do all of those things and we want to, we want to end homelessness. That's our mission. So, finally, please welcome me in in welcoming Maureen Howard, who is the senior policy analyst with the coalition to end homelessness. This event was really Maureen's brain-child so it's fitting that she closes at our summit, thank you so much Maureen.Maureen HowardThank you, Carlos and everyone. So on the night of December 6. I wrote an email to Mayor Woodards. And I said, in part, that we all want permanent housing. But in the meantime, real people live their real lives in real tents and real vehicles on our streets and in the hidden byways all across our city and county. And until we can provide them with housing they can afford to stay in permanently, we owe them safe encampments. I can't believe that I'm advocating for tiny houses for safe parking. And for safe encampments. In January of 1982. I started as the executive director of the Martin Luther King ecumenical center in Tacoma's hilltop. And the first person who came for help was a man who was homeless, who didn't ask for housing. He asked for a job. So I started hiring people who were homeless. The newly announced federal coronavirus relief bill looks like it's going to go through. I just checked, I don't see any holdups, maybe. Who knows, but we are hopeful. If so, as it structured, it will have $25, billion for rental assistance. It will help keep people housed. Governor Inslee budget will help keep people housed. And we're confident that the Washington State Legislatures budget, and the final state budgets that are negotiated will help people help keep people housed. But we need at least another 250 winter shelter beds. Now, this winter. And that assumes we don't lose any existing beds. We need a fully supported system that helps people move quickly from homelessness to permanent housing. And while we wait for beds, and for housing. We need the safe sanctioned encampments with all the services we can offer. I believe the poorest among us have the absolute priority call on our resources. I believe we have an obligation to speak truth to power. I don't expect you to share that belief, or even to understand it, this absolute priority of the very poorest among us. I only ask that you respect it and that you look deep inside yourself for what you believe about those who are not only poor, but without even a place to live. What we believe shapes the decisions we make about how we share these public and private resources of ours. Whom will we make welcome in this community of hours. I expect you and myself to listen to the voices of people who don't live where we live, who really don't have any place to live, to them. My apologies for not already ending their homelessness. If you are a frontline provider. Thank you for the endless day in and day out everyday work that you do. In the midst of this pandemic, you keep on keeping on. Making sure one more person experiencing homelessness is safe. One More Night. If you are already part of our coalition, get some rest, because we are going to work harder, faster, smarter. I promised the Mayor, that I wouldn't have any more Sunday night bright ideas, but I didn't promise her anything about the rest of the week. I promised all of you who worked on this program that we would never do another two week public event. But I didn't promise it wouldn't be one week or three or any other variation. If you aren't part of our coalition yet. Thank you for coming and listening. I invite you to join with us, and commit, as we do to ending homelessness, come and do what we in the coalition do with each other. Every week we meet colleagues, we make new friends. We listen, we learn, we question, we challenge, we offer help. We make suggestions, we argue, we advocate. We laugh. And in our private spaces, we weep.And if you worked on making today happen. Thank you, all of you. It should not have taken Patrick's death to cause us to come together today. But now that it has, and we have met. What will we do. Will we get in good trouble necessary trouble. Perhaps if we do, if we make those commitments we request, and more, we'll bend that arc of the moral universe a little more toward justice, a little more toward Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's beloved community. So thank you all for coming today on this national homeless persons Memorial Day to our first safe shelter summit. We'll invite all of you, back to our second safe shelter summit. And we want you all to bring your friends, your colleagues, your networks. Be safe, everyone. Thank you. ................
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