Community Government Health & Wellness

Two organizations serving Gig Harbor area get Pierce County grants to aid the homeless

Pierce County awarded grants to nearly 50 project proposals last month as part of its Homeless Housing Program, including two nonprofits working to reduce homelessness in the Gig Harbor area.

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The county’s largest regular funding opportunity for housing service providers will deliver more than $17.6 million to projects across the Pierce, including nearly $200,000 to both Harbor Hope Center and Key Peninsula Community Services.

The hope center, which works to break the cycle of youth homelessness, will use the “lion’s share” of the nearly $195,400 in funds it received from the county to maintain staffing levels at its two youth shelters, Center Executive Director Daniel Johnson told Gig Harbor Now.

Through its Provide-A-Home Program, the center runs two six-bed shelters for students and young adults, ages 18 to 24, experiencing homelessness. Staff at the shelter include resident advisors, case managers and a dual diagnosis specialist, who now provides a drug assessment to all clients entering the shelter,  Johnson said.

Meanwhile KPCS, which was awarded $175,000, will use its funds to create a homeless outreach program called the Community Helping Network, said Executive Director Willow Eaton. It is the first time the county has earmarked funding for homeless outreach on the Key Peninsula, she said.

The program will fund a dedicated staff member to assist people experiencing homelessness. They will help connect people who use the KPCS food bank or senior center to housing services or harm-reduction equipment, like tents, so they can remain safe while living outside. The staffer will also  follow up on reports from community members and create a bridge between providers in Tacoma and KPCS clients, Eaton said.

Members of the Pierce County Council on July 2, when they approved more than $17 million in grants to housing service providers.

Controversy over grants

A few county council members and housing providers expressed frustration over the grant process, arguing it was slow and lacked transparency. The controversy was first reported by The Tacoma News Tribune.

Applicants submitted proposals to Pierce County Human Services. County staff graded them. Council members had no involvement in the process. They had no ability to alter individual recommendations, outside of approving or rejecting them collectively.

Some providers and council members said they were confused by how the scoring process led to final recommendations. St. Vincent de Paul’s Community Resource Center in Tacoma, for example, earned the second-highest score among outreach programs, but none of the $188,000 dollars it requested. Human Services passed it over in favor of requests with lower scores.

“Please make that make sense,” Jake Nau, a homeless outreach case worker for St. Vincent, said at the July 2 meeting.

Unable to alter the recommendations, the council unanimously approved the funding recommendation, emphasizing it did not want to delay the dispersing of critical funding any longer.

Jake Nau of St. Vincent de Paul of Tacoma testifies before the Pierce County Council on July 2, 2024.

No plans for homeless shelter in Gig Harbor

Despite rumors, Pierce County has no plans to erect a homeless shelter in the Gig Harbor area, local officials said. 

Robyn Denson, a county council member whose district includes Gig Harbor, confirmed in an email that the council has no plans to put an emergency shelter in the city.

City Administrator Katrina Knutson also squelched a rumor about an emergency shelter in Gig Harbor. Referencing a story that appeared in the News Tribune about such a shelter, she said, “We have no idea what they’re talking about. The shelter doesn’t exist in Gig Harbor.”

Rumors about a shelter likely stem from efforts by the county council to create a housing site outside of Tacoma, Denson said.

The county has allocated $2.5 million in funding it received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — a federal bill providing one-time pandemic-relief grants — to create one or more stability sites outside of Tacoma, she said. Thus far, the county has not put out a request for proposals seeking a partner to create such a site.  

The council envisions the project would build something similar to a “tiny home-type of community,” Denson said. The site would target an area with lots of homelessness and encampments, aiming to get people out of public spaces and into stable housing, behavioral health treatments or other services.

Deadline to spend funds

Denson said zoning laws in unincorporated Pierce County essentially prohibit temporary housing communities, meaning a tiny home-like community would likely need to be in one of the county’s cities.

That is still on the table, Denson said, but could only happen if a sponsoring entity, like a church, nonprofit or city itself were to partner with the county. The county has yet to put in a request for a partner and no cities have expressed interest.

The county must spend its ARPA funds by the end of the year. Council members may reallocate funds to a different purpose if an agreement is not reached soon, Denson said.

“This could have been very effective in quickly reducing the number of tent encampments residents see around the county and in helping those unhoused persons transition into a better, safer, more stable life,” she said. “The County Council continues to work however we can, as the legislative branch, toward effective solutions that truly move the needle on homelessness, but it’s frankly been a challenge.”