HomeMy WebLinkAboutShelter Coalition Meeting 072226Shelter Coalition Meeting
June 16, 2026
Present: Greg Brotherton, BOCC - facilitator, Julia Cochrane, WWC - scribe, Trevor Breland - Bayside, K. Kiplinger - emergency management, David Ehnebuske, Debbi Tesch - Housing Authority,
Bill Volmut, Ariel - LE, Apple Martine, Mazure Pace and Anya Callahan - Health Dept., Josh Peters - County Administrator, Thomas Olsen - PTPD, Emma Bolin - PT City Planner, Peggy Webster
- Olycap, Neil Nelson - City Council. (Greg Brotherton, Neil Nelson, and Julia Cochrane are members of the Housing Fund Board, which the Shelter Coalition is a committee of.)
Trevor - Shelter - less full because some people are choosing to be outside. Worried about the elderly hanging out in the heat, some in their vehicles. During the day.
Apple - Lara finds the places to set up cooling centers. The money that pays her pays for costs in opening the cooling center. Thresholds need to be met having to do with heat and smoke.
The Health Dept. Conversation about using Health Dept or Hospital space for a cooling center when others like QUUF is not available. Contracts with Shelter and community center - which
can request to stay open with some funds from the Health Dept. Can Lara send us the set of criteria to be a cooling center.
Greg - Shelter - working on signing a contract with the American Legion for extended time to keep the shelter open. The Housing Fund Board and the BOCC did not allowed the use of an
additional $76,000 which came from commerce from recording funds till the end of 2026. Need an additional $36,000. Current vacate date June 2027. 2027 will be paid from a new RFP. Bayside
is screening people for sex offenses, but not everyone has I.D.s.
Peggy - Caswell Brown - permit for water about to be issued. Shold is beginning their work. Ground breaking on 7/1. L&I is looking to approve the modular building which takes 16 weeks,
then the county can permit it.
Anya - Jefferson Transit needs to serve Casswell Brown at a closer location because of the mobility needs for the elderly staying at the shelter. Peggy will put it on her list, and Greg
will bring it up at their meeting today.
Julia - new shelter will be less maximum capacity and use by unsheltered of showers, laundry and meals. Peggy working on this and the Shelter Coalition will keep this discussion going.
Also Greg will follow the American Legions plans for the space.
Josh Peters - discussion with city employees and the mayor around what happened at the encampment and the 5 year plan.
Greg - minutes will go through a process of approval because they are public.
Julia - WWC - 3 months instead of 5, 4 hours instead of 8. The 4 hours that were cut are the ones non-profits used for outreach and case management. It is a loss. Looking at alternative
sites.
Matt - still working on the Ranier Street project. Update on Mill Road encampment - visiting every 3 days, doing garbage collection. Garbage collection is a gross dangerous mess. Collection
guy is uncomfortable because of the presence of needs etc. A dumpster is needed.
Neil - a dumpster might complicate stuff. Education is needed.
Anya - the Health Dept. gives people sharps containers and contractor garbage bags every week when they are out there. They had to stop incentivizing trash pickup for monetary reasons.
Mazure - we also provide grabbers and sharps containers.
Greg - Porta potty - Trails Coalition and county employees do not support it being at the trail. Wondering if porta potties could be near the road at the entrance for Caswell Brown -
conversation will continue off line.
Five Year Plan -
2.B.3 - Shared operational policies and standards of Care.
3.B.4 - Reduce administrative and emotional burden.
3.C.2 - Cross-sector networking for essential needs.
5.A.1 - secure long-term location for year-round day center. (Is this the same thing as an Urban Rest stop) Jan. to June 2026
5.A.2 - Develop supportive EH plan for encampments.
5.A.1 - secure long-term location for year-round day center. (Is this the same thing as an Urban Rest stop) Jan. to June 2026
Should this day center be zero barrier?
Julia and Anya brought up a port location - Point Hudson - that we are looking at. Asking for people to lobby the Port Commissioners to consider us.
Emma mentioned that the Fish and Wildlife building at Point Hudson would experience significant barriers to permitting due to the City’s Shoreline Master Program and misalignment with
preferred uses of the Shoreline Management Act and hearing this during the SMP update last year from our Ecology Planner. Julia mentioned that the SMP allowed for “adaptive reuse” of
Point Hudson buildings. (Additional context from Emma after meeting: I had never heard of that before and I looked it up. She is correct that there is a pathway for unlisted non-water
oriented use in Point Hudson. There are still barriers that could add additional hurdles for siting, yet not insurmountable, to include a Shoreline Conditional Use Permit approval recommendation
by the City, Hearing Examiner, and ultimate approval by Department of Ecology. Such application must show that the building does not exceed 30% adaptive re-use, if the building is eligible
(hospital, main building, and shower building.) I still caution steering away from shoreline sites as the use allowances for these types of shelters will have difficulty demonstrating
state preferred use alignment. Ultimately, a customer assistance meeting or pre-application conference from the Port, if they would like to pursue a lease, is recommended for more thorough
research.)
Where can homeless people be? Not in town. Not in the port. Not near commerce. Etc.
We need to keep this conversation in the open.
Next Meeting: July 7th and 21st - 11:15
Hybrid at the Recovery Cafe or Microsoft Teams meeting
Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/25378659299171?p=MOWv4jHuEZYBdCL80K
Meeting ID: 253 786 592 991 71
Passcode: 9Jt3Ad7J
Julia Cochrane, just julia
LBTQ+ - reclaim your alphabet!
willowtree@olypen.com