Colleagues,
In case you missed Friday's Coalition to End Homelessness meeting, here
is some good news BUT you need to advocate with City of Tacoma and Pierce
County Council members to apply for FEMA reimbursement for hotel rooms.
This program has been available since the beginning of the pandemic but
both the City and County have refused to use it. Initially FEMA
reimbursed 75% of the cost of the hotel rooms and i was told local governments
didn't have the money for the 25%, weren't confident FEMA would reimburse
them, FEMA was historically a slow payer and how would local governments cover
interim holding costs. Not unreasonable until of course the Biden
Administration said FEMA would reimburse at 100% and the American Rescue Plan
Act gave every single local jurisdiction Relief money and even the State said
they would cover a portion of the holding costs.
President Biden announced Nov. 9 that the program will operate through
April 1, 2022
There is a process and like every government process, it can be
cumbersome. But other jurisdictions have figured out how to use it and
it seems to me the City of Tacoma and Pierce County could do so as well.
There would still be costs - case managers to support people living in
hotel rooms, meals, other supplies. But the City and County are
appropriating money for congregate shelters so why not appropriate money to
operate shelters with these free hotel rooms. We have University of
Washington reports on the use of hotel rooms in Seattle - both for people
coming from the large congregate shelters and for people coming directly from
the streets. We have current local costs from the Puyallup Hotel program
Catholic Community Services operates and from the operating projections from
the Low Income Housing Institute for the Comfort Inn.
Yes, the program has an end date but if we applied now, these rooms could
see us through the worst of winter. Glen Graham, a veteran and a
wheel-chair using amputee living in a tent in Tacoma died on the streets while
the City of Tacoma was clearing the Evergreen Encampment. Would he have
said "yes" to an ADA compliant hotel room where he could have gone to the
bathroom, showered, slept? We'll never know because that wasn't an
option anyone could offer him. We'll remember him on December 21 along
with everyone else who died living homeless this year.
Here's the link from the White House:
If you want to connect with people at the national level, please
let me know and I'll do the virtual intro We also have information
from the State of California. And of course, the UW reports and
legislative presentations from the 2021 State Legislative Session.
Take care all,
Maureen
Maureen Howard
Housing & Homelessness Advocate
3320 S. 8th St.
Tacoma, WA 98405
Tel. 253-756-8146 LL
253-255-2200 cell
"I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I'm changing
the things I cannot accept." Angela Davis
"Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble,
Necessary trouble." John Lewis
Good morning,
Those of you on Friday's Coalition to End Homelessness call know that I
updated everyone on the City of Tacoma Nov. 18 Community Vitality and Safety
Committee meeting. Assistant City Attorney Keith Echterling provided an
information briefing on the City's options on camping on public
property. His slide deck included "the Advocates' position" and I did
use the public comment to clarify that the draft he referenced was the product
of many meetings but no final agreement among those of us meeting or of the
Coalition to End Homelessness or the City Council.
There are four attachments:
1.The original ordinance which is the only one that has been presented to
Council. The proposed code changes are in red.
2.The document marked "ad hoc team" which is the May 6, 2021 final
working draft from the work that six of us from the Coalition did with the
Mayor, the Deputy Mayor, CM Thoms, the City Attorney and a Council staff
person.
3.The 11/18/2021 Memorandum to Elizabeth Pauli, City Manager from the
City Attorney accompanying the Informational Briefing
4.The slide deck "Unlawful Camping Options" presented to CVS on
11/18/2021
Here's some background which may be helpful:
Both the Mayor and CM Thoms reached out to me about the original
ordinance. CM Thoms offered to meet with anyone and did meet with the
Safe Sites For All committee. Rather than meeting with him alone, I
invited others active in the Coalition to join me. They were:
Jeffrey Boyce, Kevin Glackin-Coley, Rob Huff, Gerrit Nyland, Theresa
Power-Drutis. We met regularly with the City members.
We reported regularly to the Coalition's Steering Committee and the Full
Coalition. We did not circulate any of the working drafts because we did
not have a final product. We did regularly identify what we thought were
key issues that we would need to resolve - especially whether or not there
should be any punishment in the code. We knew we did not have agreement
among even the six of us from the Coalition and we made that clear to the City
folks.
We worked with Tristia Bauman, National Homelessness Law Center and Brian
Davis, National Coalition for the Homeless Civil Rights Committee - of which I
am a member. As well as keeping NW Justice and TacomaProBono in the
loop.
We were prepared to keep meeting to try to come to agreement on a final
draft to take both to Council and to the Coalition but the City asked us to
suspend the meetings due to receipt of the Matrix Report.
Here's where I think we are now:
Here's the link to the CVS meeting.
Council directed CVS to try to have a final version back to Council by
the end of the year. The final Council meeting is Dec. 14. CVS
will meet again Dec. 9.
We know that Chair Ushka wants community engagement beyond the Coalition
to End Homelessness which is totally appropriate. We know that NCS staff
believes they can have a version for CVS by Dec. 9 so CVS can take it to
Council before the end of the year -
DM Blocker believes more time is required. I concurred with
him.
Note that NCS is also updating it's Encampment Removal Policy. I
have not seen a draft but will request one. We could ask NCS to brief us
during December.
We could also ask the Assistant City Attorney to brief us and to provide
a copy of the "Staff draft" of the ordinance.
Take care all,
Maureen
Maureen Howard
Housing & Homelessness Advocate
3320 S. 8th St.
Tacoma, WA 98405
Tel. 253-756-8146 LL
253-255-2200 cell
"I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I'm changing
the things I cannot accept." Angela Davis
"Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble,
Necessary trouble." John Lewis
Attachment: Memorandum
on Informational Briefing 11.18.2021.pdf (application/pdf)
Attachment:
Ord21-0389
ad hoc team May 6 2021 Version.pdf (application/pdf)
Attachment: Ordinance
No-4.pdf (application/pdf)
Attachment: Unlawful
Camping Options 11.18.2021.pdf (application/pdf)