Ending Homelessness In Pierce County: Public Input Sought

TACOMA, WA — The Pierce County Council is asking for public input on its plans to end street homelessness within the county.

The plan is called the 2021 Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness, and is a two-pronged approach to the issue, creating two teams working on short-term and long-term goals. For the long term, it creates the Steering Committee to End Homelessness made of members of the community who will develop an overarching, comprehensive response to housing issues, and who will present their plans to the county by November 2021.

The short-term plan is handled by a Shelter Work Group, made of homeless service providers and advocates and city representatives from across the county. It has been asked to create a shelter plan to rapidly increase the county's available shelter space and accommodate all remaining unsheltered Pierce County residents by Nov. 1.

Right now, the council estimates there are roughly 3,300 people in Pierce County experiencing homelessness, but fewer than 1,000 emergency shelter beds. That means 70 percent of homeless Pierce County residents are forced to live in their cars or encampments.

Council Member Ryan Mellow says most of those people are long-time county residents who need public help.

"We know that 70 percent of people experiencing homelessness in our county are from our county," Mello said in a written statement. "When people become homeless, they often stay near the community they’re used to. These sobering statistics are likely an undercount. We know something must be done to address these numbers and provide a safe place for people to get the services and resources they need."

But before they can do that, the Pierce County Council is asking the public to share their thoughts on how best to address homelessness through an online survey. The 11-question survey asks residents to share their thoughts on shelter locations, and preferred types of shelters between overnight shelters, tiny homes, safe parking lots and sanctioned camping areas.

Data from the survey will be used by the Shelter Work Group when they begin their efforts to rapidly expand local shelter capacity.

>> Take the Open House Survey for the 2021 Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness