Theresa Power-Drutis, Greg Walker and I met yesterday afternoon with Linda Stewart, Director of Neighborhood & Community Services and her staff along with Rob Huff representing Pamela Duncan, MDC. These are my notes from that meeting - I did not take time to ask Linda to review and approve but if there are errors, I will forward the corrections to you. I wanted to get some good news into your in-boxes today.
Linda and Elizabeth Pauli, the City Manager, have visited the people living on the parking strips at People's Park, whom Linda calls the Park Dwellers. The City has provided dumpsters which are emptied regularly, sorta potties, a hand washing station. Linda is working with the leadership of the Park Dwellers. The City will compensate Park Dwellers to manage use of the amenities. The leadership of the Park Dwellers have agreed that they will not replace anyone who moves out. 4 or 5 people living in the encampment have requested the Stability Site and the City is working to help them move there. I believe the City has also improved lighting but I did not write down the details - only that it was clear that the City is not just talking to the Park Dwellers but listening as well.
The City has identified the corner of S. 8th and Martin Luther King as the potential site of an emergency mitigation shelter - this is the same designation the Stability Site has - and the City hopes to secure use of the land for the next 8 months. This should happen when the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority (TCRA) meets Thursday morning to consider and hopefully approve this interim use of the land which has already been scheduled for affordable housing development by Mercy Housing. Once the land is secure, the City departments involved will meet to discuss their plan for moving forward and Linda will let us know what type of shelter this site will provide and who the operator will be. This site will be for the established Park Dwellers at People's Park.
I felt that Linda spoke with respect for the people living in People's Park and the community they have formed. "Park Dwellers" is the term she used which I like. She also acknowledged the very real issue of drug use.
Tacoma Police will monitor People's Park for drug activities.
8th & MLK will have the same status as the Stability Site and as such, will not be considered as a Temporary Shelter and will not fall under those regulations. The 8th & MLK site will be set-up under an "Emergency Action." The City will however engage nearby residents, etc.
Since the establishment of the site is dependent on the TCRA action Thursday morning, we did not receive details about the potential operator, opening date, etc. Remember, all of this rests on 1) TCRA approval of the use of the site, 2) determination of the type of shelter, 3) an operator, 4) community engagement in the process.
2. Status of Temporary Shelters
NCS staffer Tiegan Tidball walked us through the Planning Dept's permitting process for Temporary Shelters. She will give us a brief timeline of required actions which I will share with all of you. Note: the permitting process takes 45-60 days.
Bethlehem Baptist has about three weeks left in the permitting process - public comment, appeal, and then should receive a decision. At present, no operator has been confirmed. The Tacoma Rescue Mission will not be the operator as was previously reported. This will be 40 beds for families with children, couples, and single women.
Shelter A - is a faith-based indoor shelter and will be 32 beds for families with dependent children. Their permit application was just submitted. Volunteers from the congregation of Shelter A will be compensated for operating this temporary shelter.
Shelter B - is a faith-based Safe Parking program. The exact nature of the program are still being worked out. There are no details yet about what type of vehicles, number of vehicles, etc.
Linda told us that Peter Huffman, Director of the Planning Dept and his staff are working to expedite the permitting of the Temporary Shelters and have waived the permitting fees.
I believe we should send Peter Huffman and his staff a thank you for prioritizing these Temporary Shelter permits, expediting them and waiving the permit fees. We can do that Friday at our regular Coalition meeting.
3. Status of Updated Temporary Shelter Regulations - these should go to the City Council Study Session and be on the Council Agenda for Nov. 19.
The requested changes are:
a. move from one Temporary Shelter per Police District to 150 people per Police District.
b. change square footage of Temporary Shelter to 150 sq. ft/individual or less if amenities are provided on-site
c. no change to the one mile between Temporary Shelters
More significant changes are expected to come in part from the convenings and go to Council this summer.
Remember - the proposed 8th & MLK site is NOT a Temporary Shelter and does not affect either the population or the mile apart sections of the regulations.
4. Status of Changes to the Inclement Weather Designation
NSC staffer Erica Azcueta is working with CCS and the other shelters to determine what would be required if the shelters moved from individual day declaration of Inclement Weather (temperature and moisture) to a date specific determination - a fixed period of time.
5. MDC Contract
The City is working with MDC and their partners Assoc. Min and the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance to work out the details of the convenings and other deliverables under the contract. The contract with its scope of work is public and the City will provide this information to us.
We asked MDC to report weekly to the Coalition and they agreed to do so and have already contacted Gerrit for standing agenda space.
6. Extension of the Emergency Declaration
This goes to Council Nov. 19 and allows continuation of the Stability Site and the proposed 8th & MLK site.
7. Sweeps
The City does not use the term "sweeps." They engage in public safety and public health actions under specific encampment policies and protocols. The City knows we do not want any such actions during Thanksgiving Week.
8. Future Meetings
Linda asked that we use the MDC convenings to bring up the remainder of our issues and any emerging ones. We agreed. We asked that her door remain open to a future meeting if we felt the need. She agreed.
9. Opportunities
We continued to stress the need for accurate information and also for reframing and better communication on issues surrounding homelessness.
I offered to include City and MDC information on the Coalition's table at the coming South Sound Summit. I also invited the City to provide me with any helpful information prior to the Nov. 1 New Tacoma Neighborhood Council meeting - I've been asked to talk about homelessness. Linda and Erica both attend that meeting.
10. Finally, my thanks to Theresa Power-Drutis and Greg Walker for their work and to all of you for trusting us to bring your concerns and ideas forward. And to Linda, Erica, Tiegan, and Matthew for listening and responding. And to our new partner MDC and their partners, Associated Ministries and the Tacoma Ministerial Alliance in this new venture.
Ours is an imperfect world. I don't know what will happen next. I am for sure more hopeful than I was when we began this process. I think we stay on top of what seems to be a new relationship between the Coalition and the City and certainly with MDC. That English town I spell of last Friday was actually Newcastle. It is a city of 268,000 with a base of 700 government (I think) funded shelter beds. They believe that one person "sleeping rough" is one too many. You can find their campaign at
www.streetzero.org. I propose we adopt the same - that one person unsheltered is one too many. Stubbornly, I have to believe we can do this.
Thank you for your work,
Maureen
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Tacoma, WA 98405