Would regional approach work better to address homelessness? Local effort is underway

As part of its Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness , which was established in March of 2022, Pierce County is bringing local leaders and stakeholders to the table as a way of coordinating efforts to reduce homelessness across different jurisdictions.

The latest coalition is being called the Unified Regional Approach (URA). While some leaders are celebrating its creation as a necessary step, others are more skeptical about how effective it will be.

The URA held its inaugural meeting April 12, hosting representatives from the cities of Auburn, Bonney Lake, DuPont, Edgewood, Fife, Fircrest, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, Steilacoom and Tacoma. A news release from the county noted that the cities of Milton, Sumner, University Place and the Towns of Carbonado and Wilkeson were invited to the table, but representatives were not present.

Representatives from Pierce County Council also attended, including Councilmembers Ryan Mello and Jani Hitchen, who convened the meeting.

Hitchen said the URA is being established out of realization that the county’s current response to homelessness is a “patchwork” of community organizations, agencies and jurisdictions working without coordination. She said that, ultimately, this approach has allowed people to “slip through the cracks” of the region’s social-safety net.

One of the goals of the URA, according to Hitchen, is to create a “unified regional organization” that will work together to determine what services and supports exist in different communities and jurisdictions and to identify gaps.

Hitchen said that while this first meeting was predominantly attended by representatives of city governments, the URA would invite department staff from public agencies as well as community-service providers doing the work to help people who are unhoused and at-risk.

Mello said that up to this point the uncoordinated approach to reduce homelessness has lacked strategy and that county leaders and officials have identified a “yearning” for an alignment of systems and efforts.

“It has become abundantly clear that we need systems to be significantly more coordinated,” Mello told The News Tribune in an interview. “As I listen to providers, these systems have a lot of improvement to make. People are frustrated.”

Mello said he hopes the URA will help to develop a data-driven approach to the issue to better track outcomes.

After the first meeting, described as a “listening session,” Hitchen said she was pleased to hear a willingness to work together as well as acknowledgment that homelessness exists in and impacts so many different communities across the county.

She said there are many services that exist that folks may not have known about, as well as some jurisdictions that admitted to not offering anything at all.

Nikki Bufford, mayor pro tempore of Fircrest, said that her city of roughly 7,000 was one of those unable to provide service. With a staff of just around 35 employees, she said, Fircrest does not have the infrastructure or the budget to provide significant human services.

Bufford praised the county for convening stakeholders and creating an opportunity for dialogue. She said she hopes the URA will foster collaboration and allow for the pooling of resources, as she left the meeting “encouraged” and “excited.”

When asked if he left the inaugural URA meeting any more confident in the region’s efforts to tackle homelessness than he was before, Puyallup City Council member Ned Witting gave a firm: “No.”

While Witting agreed with the idea that the county needed better coordination between its jurisdictions and service providers, he said he felt that the county needs better leadership to execute its plan in a timely, cost-effective way.

Witting is on the county’s Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness Implementation Advisory Board and the plan’s steering committee. He pointed out that the first goal named in the plan announced in 2022 was to create a “Unified Homelessness System,” but it has been two years since the county has made steps to achieve that goal by creating the URA.

“We plan, plan, plan, but we don’t act, act, act,” Witting said of the county’s Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness process. “We have to build the ship as we are sailing.”