Tacoma to close 200 homeless shelter beds at end of month. Here's why and where
This week, the city reported that it was awarded half the funding it asked for and will be able to keep less than half of those shelter beds open through the next year.
The City of Tacoma has been planning to close roughly 339 emergency shelter beds due to an anticipated funding shortfall.
Heading into the beginning of 2025, the City of Tacoma requested $6 million annually over the next two years to maintain 307 shelter beds through June 2027.
The budget recently passed by the Legislature did not directly name Tacoma as a recipient for such funding but did note an annual allocation of $58.8 million in grant funding to be available to support homeless housing programs and services in cities and counties. The funding will be distributed through the Department of Commerce.
On June 9, Maria Lee, a spokesperson for the City of Tacoma, told The News Tribune the city will be awarded $3 million to keep 140 shelter beds open through June 2026.
Lee said the 140 beds will be at the tiny-home village shelter at 602 N. Orchard St., the family shelter operated by Bethlehem Baptist Church at 4818 E. Portland Ave. and Holy Rosary's safe parking site at 520 S. 30th St.
Pierce County has allocated $400,000 to help continue the tiny-home village shelter on North Orchard Street through June 2026, according to the city.
Lee said the decision to keep those shelters open over others was guided by factors including the capability of the providers hosting the sites, the locational feasibility of the sites, and the funding required to keep them operating.
Shelters planned to close after June 30 include the 32-bed shelter at Altheimer Memorial Church, Brotherhood RISE's 32-bed shelter at 2135 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and the Tacoma Rescue Mission's 135-bed Forging Path Community at 3561 Pacific Ave.
Tacoma Police Department's Crime Dashboard showed a 38% total reduction in crimes in the quarter-mile surrounding area of the Forging Path Community shelter compared to the year prior to its opening. The dashboard showed a 53% total reduction in crimes in the quarter-mile surrounding area of the Freedom Project shelter compared to three months prior to its opening.
According to the city, Forging Path Community has served 295 people, with 66 individuals successfully transitioning to permanent housing as of May 26. Freedom Project has served 50 people, with 26 out of 38 people who exited transitioning to permanent housing as of May 26.
Mercy Housing was awarded the property where Forging Path Community sits for development of an 81-unit affordable housing project for residents earning 60% Area Median Income (AMI) or lower. Lee said the site will include a community hub and an 8,000-square-foot early learning center.
The city has said it is committed to ensuring transitions to other shelters or housing programs for those currently living at shelters scheduled to close.
According to Lee, Forging Path Community had 41 residents and Freedom Project had 11 residents as of June 2. The city is recommending a month-long operation extension with the funding for the Freedom Project shelter.
'This provides crucial time to decommission the site responsibly and, most importantly, to work intensively with the 11 current residents as of June 2, 2025 to find alternative shelter or housing,' Lee told The News Tribune. 'The City plans to store the micro-shelter units while continuing to identify alternative locations and potential use by partners like Pierce County.'
The city had about 1,099 shelter beds as of the beginning of 2025. Lee said the city anticipates having 860 available shelter beds after standing down Brotherhood RISE, Freedom Project and Forging Paths Community.
When Tacoma's homelessness strategy was drafted in 2022, it was anticipated that there would be a funding gap of roughly $12 million to maintain the shelters at the end of 2024. Part of the city's plan included increasing the inventory of permanent affordable-housing units to provide housing opportunities for those living in shelters.
Caleb Carbone, the homeless strategy, systems and services manager for the city's Neighborhood and Community Services department, previously told The News Tribune that during the pandemic, one-time funding opportunities, like those through the American Rescue Plan Act as well as resources from the state, were used to support the operation of the shelters. The city significantly increased its homeless-shelter capacity at a time when it was needed.
'The challenge has been that the demand for temporary shelter beds has exceeded the initial expectations,' Tacoma's deputy city manager Sonja Hallum told The News Tribune in an interview. 'So the stand down is not happening at the pace that the city had originally expected and hoped would occur.'
Hallum said the beds set to disappear in 2025 represent a 'significant' portion of the city's shelter beds.
With Tacoma hosting what is about 80% of Pierce County's shelter capacity, the loss of shelter funding would have county-wide implications, Hallum said.
'So the impact isn't just for the city, it's for the entire region,' she told The News Tribune. 'We are greatly concerned about the ability to provide for this very vulnerable population.'
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