Latest news with #PierceCountyCouncil
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Homeless, sick and aging: Pierce County faces worsening crisis in 2025
Homeless-service providers in Pierce County are sounding the alarm on the need for healthcare among those living unhoused. During the Pierce County Council's Health and Human Services Committee meeting June 3, a panel of homeless-outreach workers, healthcare specialists and social workers painted a picture of the high number of elderly and disabled people experiencing homelessness and the lack of resources available to keep them from dying on the streets. Jake Nau is the homeless outreach manager for St. Vincent DePaul. His job is to develop relationships with people living unhoused with the goal of helping them find housing. On June 3, Nau told the committee at least 50% of the unhoused people he meets are either over 55 years of age or are experiencing a physical or mental disability they either were living with before becoming unhoused or have incurred through their experience living on the streets. During the 2024 survey of those living unhoused in Pierce County, volunteers counted 2,661 people living unhoused in a single night. Of those surveyed, 25% reported having a chronic health condition, and 22% reported having a physical disability. 'Homeless seniors and people with disabilities are largely from here,' Nau told the committee. 'This population is not chasing benefits across counties and states. They were housed here, and now they are not.' Nau said the normal process of aging is 'harmfully accelerated' by being unhoused. According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), people who experience homelessness have an average life expectancy of around 50, almost 20 years lower than people who are housed. The Center for Disease Control states that people experiencing homelessness are at a greater risk of infectious and chronic illness, poor mental health and substance abuse. They are also more susceptible to violence, 'a fact confirmed by over 20 years of reports on bias-motivated crimes,' a letter from USICH stated in 2018. 'On the street there are perpetrators of harm and victims. Seniors and people with disabilities are almost always the victims,' Nau said. 'Our parents and grandparents get exploited, robbed, beaten and bullied.' Nau said there are simply not enough shelter and housing options to get those folks off the street, specifically not enough Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant shelters. He said many shelters cannot accept individuals who are physically unable to wash themselves or use the bathroom on their own. He also said there are not enough senior-specific permanent supportive-housing options for folks who need specialized care. Amy Decker is a social work case manager for MultiCare Health System. Decker reported that 404 people were discharged from Tacoma General Hospital and Allemore Hospital into homelessness through the first five months of 2025. Of those known to be unhoused at the time of their discharge, 176 were between the ages of 50-69 and 25 were over the age of 70. One individual discharged from a Tacoma hospital into homelessness was over 90. Recently the county has obligated funding to increase its medical respite capacity. Medical Respite facilities offer a place for unhoused individuals to stay while they heal after a hospital stay. In January 2023, Pierce County awarded the Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) over $10 million to support a new shelter project, which would eventually become the acquisition of the Oasis Inn. The former hotel will be converted into 117 units of non-congregate emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing, with at least 51 of the units capable of providing medical-respite services. John Brown of the LIHI told The News Tribune potential clients at the facility would need to be healed enough for discharge, meaning they can still perform activities of daily living and only be in need of basic nursing services such as wound care and medicine management. If the client regresses in treatment during their stay, they would be moved to a long-term care respite facility. 'Once the client heals and progresses through recovery, they could either be referred into one of the long-term rental permanent supportive-housing units in the building or another low-income housing building as openings become available,' Brown wrote in an email to The News Tribune. It is unclear when the facility wound open. Meanwhile the county has made funding available for operation of a temporary medical respite facility in Parkland. The facility will have roughly 16 beds available. Jan Runbeck is a registered nurse who provides healthcare at one of Tacoma's only operating medical-respite facilities in Tacoma. Runbeck previously told The News Tribune that Nativity House has 12 beds reserved for medical-respite referrals. She said patients discharged from the hospital can use a bed for 30 days before they have to be treated like everyone else who comes to the shelter and receives a bed on a first come, first served basis. During the June 3 Health and Human Services Committee meeting, Runbeck said many individuals living unhoused are dying a 'prolonged death,' typically resulting from unmanaged chronic diseases such as diabetes, heat disease, kidney failure and CPD. She said the deaths would be preventable with access to primary care. Runbeck said many individuals she met in Nativity House and in her street-outreach work became homeless in their 50s and 60s. She recalled several cases in which individuals suffered injuries and had jobs without benefits, creating financial pressures leading to homelessness. Runbeck made the case that medical-respite facilities ultimately save tax payer dollars. She said before Nativity House implemented a medical respite program with nurses who could provide healthcare it had more 911 calls than almost anywhere in the city, averaging more than two emergency calls a day. After the program was implemented, it reduced calls there by 30%. 'When you have prolonged death, it is messy, it is ugly, it is nasty,' she told the committee. 'You go to the [emergency room] way too many times, you go to urgent care way too many times. You have all these other complications of untreated chronic disease.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
100 letters, 48 hours: Pierce County towns fight for access after bridge closure
When Wilkeson town clerk Marie Wellock sent out an email on April 30, she had no idea that it would be the beginning of something big. Wellock's email was a race to beat the clock. The goal? Write as many letters as possible to U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, (Democrat, WA-8) about the closure of the Carbon River Fairfax Bridge. Dave Morell, who represents District 1 on the Pierce County Council, was going to go to Washington D.C. to meet with Schrier later that week. One of his staff members reached out to Wellock and told her that Morell wanted letters to give to Schrier. 'They said he would like some letters drafted that he could hand deliver to her regarding the bridge and the access,' Wellock said in a recent interview. 'I immediately put together an email and sent it to all of the businesses here in Wilkeson and Carbonado as well as the people in the Carbon Canyon, just letting them know that this opportunity presented itself and that we should get as many letters as possible for him to hand deliver to D.C.' Just 48 hours later on May 2, Morell had over 100 letters to give to Schrier. The Washington State Department of Transportation closed the State Route 165 Carbon River Fairfax Bridge on April 22 due to safety concerns. The 103-year-old, single-lane bridge is the only way for vehicles to access key areas of Mount Rainier National Park, such as the Carbon River Ranger Station, Mowich Lake, Spray Park, the Carbon Glacier Trail and Tolmie Peak. While there is a 9-mile detour for law enforcement and local property owners, WSDOT has said it is not open to the public. Since then, Wilkeson and Carbonado have grappled with how to move forward. Businesses in Wilkeson previously told The News Tribune they are struggling to stay afloat without the tourist traffic from people visiting Mount Rainier in the summer. 'We know that we're a small area,' Wellock said. '[It] really pushed a lot of travelers this direction — not only our tourism, but just so people can see this northwest corner of the mountain and Wilkeson is the only way to get there.' In an interview with The News Tribune, Morell said residents who live in the Carbon Canyon have struggled since WSDOT closed the bridge. 'Most of them are an older population — a very hearty population, but they are an older population,' Morell said. 'So concern was response times, because now you have to go through two gates and a gravel road, so there are definitely concerns about if they call 911.' Wellock and Morell both told The News Tribune that the goal of the letter-writing campaign was to get federal eyes on this issue. 'We have thousands of acres of public lands that people can't access that we don't want to be forgotten,' Wellock said. 'If access is never restored, a regular person loses the ability to go to this section of the park … that's not the intent of public land. The intent of public land is to be open and accessible for all.' After Wellock sent out her initial email requesting letters, Friends of the Carbon Canyon posted about the campaign on their Facebook page. The post got 334 shares. 'WE KNOW that the Fairfax Bridge will NOT be repaired or replaced, BUT it is VITAL that access to the Carbon Canyon remains through the Carbon River Corridor, continuing to support the Towns of Burnett, Wilkeson & Carbonado,' the post said. Wellock also crafted templates for people who just wanted to sign their names and addresses. Children from Wilkeson Elementary chipped in by drawing pictures of the bridge. Some of the pictures had short notes attached. '[There's] a lot of history up in that area and a lot of these folks that live in Carbonado and Wilkeson have lived there multi-generations,' Morell said. 'And so their great-grandkids are going to Wilkeson Elementary and they know the stories.' Morell told The News Tribune that when he arrived in Washington D.C. later that week to talk to Schrier, he had all 100 letters in tow. 'There was someone, actually, who wrote a letter on the back of a napkin, so she had to read that one,' Morell said. 'But she just got the biggest smile on her face, [that] the community would rally together that quickly and send those letters.' The News Tribune reached out to Schrier's D.C., Issaquah and Wenatchee offices but did not get a response before deadline. Morell said his conversation with Schrier was a step forward, especially when it comes to helping businesses impacted by the closure. 'We talked about maybe getting some grants from the Department of Commerce,' Morell said. 'It would give them much-needed relief. There's a lot of grants that are available to help struggling small companies that need help, especially in an emergency situation like this.' Wellock said the community would continue to fight to get access restored. 'We want to keep the heat on them to either help WSDOT come up with the money [or] encourage the parks or the Forest Service to work with local agencies to maintain some level of access to these public lands,' Wellock said. WSDOT previously told The News Tribune it is considering three options now that the bridge is closed: Keeping the bridge closed and not replacing it. Building a replacement bridge in the same area. Re-routing State Route 165 to the east or west of Carbon River Canyon. The agency also told The News Tribune it is in the process of scheduling an in-person open house for the public, tentatively scheduled for early June. WSDOT is aiming to have an online open house go live shortly after Memorial Day. On WSDOT's website, there is a page for the planning study that will help the agency examine its options. The website said the study is being paid for by $1.5 million in state funding. '[This campaign] was a call of action to do something,' Wellock said. 'We can't just let this go. We're certainly not going to go quietly.' The News Tribune archives contributed to this report. In the Spotlight is a News Tribune series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email newstips@
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Will Pierce County Dems hold onto council majority? Here's who is running in '25
Only one of the Pierce County Council's seven seats is up for election this year. Three people have filed for the Aug. 5 primary, and voters will have the chance to choose between two on the Nov.r 4 election. The District 5 seat is currently held by Democrat Bryan Yambe, who was appointed after several hours of debate in January. Yambe replaced Marty Campbell, who was elected Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer last November. Yambe will serve through the end of 2025. Yambe is running in the primary, in addition to Democrat Kimber Starr and Republican Terry Wise, according to filing information. If Democrats hang onto the District 5 seat, they will have the upper hand in Pierce County politics, with a majority on the council and a Democrat in the Executive's seat. District 5 includes the communities of Browns Point, Dash Point, Fife Heights, City of Fife, Midland, North Clover Creek, Tacoma's Eastside and Northeast Tacoma, Parkland, Spanaway, Summit-Waller and Port of Tacoma. Salaried County Council members make about $137,889 a year as of 2025, according to the county's current salary class plan. Learn more about how to register to vote, who your candidates will be and where your nearest ballot box is online at the Pierce County Elections website. Yambe served three stints as mayor of Fife and four terms on the Fife City Council, as previously reported by The News Tribune. In interviews with the council in January, Yambe said he is most proud of bringing people together, finding compromise and building community. Yambe said traffic safety, affordable housing, homelessness, transportation improvements and economic development were his main priorities, in an interview with The News Tribune earlier this year. He has raised $34,512 and spent $8,781 for his campaign, according to public disclosures. Starr was considered by the Pierce County Council to be appointed to the District 5 seat in January. She is a current District 5 planning commissioner and manager of the Governor's Subcabinet on Business Diversity. Starr told the council she is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a proud union member, a working mom and had been involved in community work for 40 years, including serving on the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority Board and working to secure grants for affordable housing and economic development. According to her campaign website, her top three priorities are 'responsible economic development,' affordable housing, 'preventing displacement' and public safety with community-based solutions. She has raised $9,176 and spent $6,573 on her campaign, according to public disclosure records. Wise is a longtime real-estate broker and land-use consultant who lives in the Mid-County area of unincorporated Pierce County. He has served on the Mid-County and Frederickson Land Use Advisory Commission, the Puyallup and Pierce County Housing Advisory Board and is a member of the Commercial Brokers Association and Master Builders Association, he said Tuesday. Wise said he believes the private and public sector need to be more collaborative and that he could provider better leadership. Wise said he would bring expertise in land use and housing to the role and described himself as a collaborative leader that builds people up to a common goal. He had not reported spending or funds raised for his campaign by the filing deadline, according to public disclosures.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Calls for accountability, transparency as Pierce County amends homelessness plan
Pierce County has begun the process of amending its Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness, and it is getting an earful as it does. On April 28, Pierce County Human Services hosted a community listening event at Sprinker Recreation Center. Roughly 75 people attended the event, the broad majority of which were representing local homeless outreach programs and service providers. While folks from all corners of the county expressed commitment to addressing the homelessness crisis, many raised concerns about a lack of transparency and accountability within the county's response. The Pierce County Council adopted the Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness (CPEH) in March 2022 to serve as the official Homeless Housing Plan. The current CPEH consists of goals designed to achieve 'functional zero' – a state where any person starting a new episode of homelessness has immediate access to shelter and permanent housing intervention. At the beginning of the listening event, Devon Isakson, social services supervisor for Pierce County's homeless team, told attendees the county had the choice to either adopt an entirely new plan or amend the existing one — they chose the latter. State law mandates that the county must update its CPEH by the end of this year. During the event, attendees were asked to work together to discuss the county's goals to improve its homelessness-response system and to decide on how to prioritize its plans. The seven goals, already decided by Human Services, were: Create a unified homeless system which promotes equity, accountability and transparency. Prevent homeless episodes whenever possible. Prioritize assistance based on the greatest barriers to housing stability and greatest risk of harm, and ensure interventions are effective for all populations. Ensure adjacent systems address needs of people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. Meet immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness. Seek to house everyone in a stable setting that meets their needs and expand the permanent housing system. Those goals were a part of the CPEH passed in 2022, with the addition of a new goal: 'Strengthen the homeless service provider workforce.' Human Services spokesperson Kari Moore told The News Tribune the new goal is now required by the state. The Washington State Department of Commerce dictates the housing and homelessness plan guidelines for local governments. Pierce County's homeless response system is almost entirely dependent on nonprofit organizations that competitively apply for funding from the county. Many of those organizations rely on grant funding to operate on a year-to-year basis. In the past year, service providers and officials have raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the process through which the county selects organizations to award funding, internal politics which create a perceived unfairness in that process, and delays in how that funding is distributed. 'We need to empower service providers,' Jessica Pair, co-founder of Family Promise of Pierce County, said during the listening event. After spending nearly an hour discussing the goals and how to prioritize them, participants shared what they had discussed with county officials. Many people expressed the need for different elements to be prioritized within the county's homelessness-response system. One group struggled to prioritize a collection of objectives, identifying all of them as equally urgent. Among the priorities shared by several attendees was the need for accountability in how the county spends its funding and tracks its progress. Some street-outreach specialists said the county needs to be sure that contracted service providers are meeting the expectations and actually making progress towards the goals and objectives outlined by the county. 'Its pretty embarrassing when we are out in the field and homeless people are asking where the $17 million [in affordable housing investments] went,' Trisha Munson, outreach specialist with Common Street, told Human Services officials. Others agreed the county's homelessness response needs to incorporate more feedback from individuals with experience living homeless. 'There is no one size fits all,' one participant said. 'We need to assess what they say they need. We need to talk to the people being served.' Isakson said the April 28 listening session was part of a nearly year-long process of updating the CPEH. There will be additional events through which people can provide feedback, including on July 19 and another on Sept. 18. People can also provide feedback online between April 24 - May 16 at
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pierce County exec, sheriff at odds over working with immigration authorities
A Pierce County Council resolution to be voted on Tuesday affirming the county's position on limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities reveals a brewing feud between the Democratic-majority council and the county's conservative sheriff. The resolution would commit the county to fully complying with the Keep Washington Working Act, a bipartisan state law passed in 2019 that determined a person's immigration status isn't a matter for police action. The law was intended to give immigrants and refugees confidence that going to work or calling police for help in an emergency wouldn't land them in the custody of federal immigration enforcement. The council's resolution also expresses support for a directive from County Executive Ryan Mello describing how county departments should interact with federal immigration officials. 'Residents must feel confident they can safely seek county services and assistance from all county departments,' Mello wrote in the directive. Issued in March, the directive instructs county employees not to interfere with federal investigations but also to request to see a warrant if a federal official asks to inspect a non-public area of a county building. It asks employees to report interactions with federal law enforcement officers to a department representative. Sheriff Keith Swank has said he thinks the Keep Washington Working Act is not constitutional, and, in a phone call with The News Tribune, he described feeling caught between federal directives to enforce immigration detainers and state law that forbids it. An immigration detainer is a request from federal immigration authorities to keep a person detained so federal authorities can take custody of them. Since Swank began his term as sheriff on Jan. 1, he said, the Sheriff's Office hasn't received any detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said the office had arrested a person for a violent crime this year who Swank said is an 'illegal alien.' Earlier this month, Swank traveled to Washington, D.C., with other sheriffs from across Washington, including Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner, who is in a legal battle with state Attorney General Nick Brown over allegedly helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. Swank said he went to Washington, D.C., to give moral support to Wagner and to bring what he sees as a conflict between state and federal law to the attention of the federal government. While in the capital, Swank and the other sheriffs met with representatives from the Department of Justice, including a brief meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi. 'We need to get this resolved, and ultimately … my whole purpose of going there and still doing this stuff is to bring attention to the matter because I want to have it in front of the U.S. Supreme Court so they can rule once and for all what's what,' Swank said. An equity note on the County Council's proposed resolution states that its intended to ensure all residents feel confident in their ability to seek county services and assistance without fear, noting that recent executive orders from President Donald Trump sow fear and concern among immigrants and refugees that they'll be targeted by federal law enforcement. Bernal Baca is executive director of Mi Centro, a decades-old nonprofit in Tacoma that provides services to the Latino community. Baca provided a public comment on the resolution, calling it a 'crucial step' from the local government to ensure residents don't have to worry about being tricked when they renew their driver's license, show up for an appointment or other activities to live normal lives. 'Much of what President Trump has stated about his intentions is concerning, but what the administration has done so far to subvert due process and intimidate honest, hardworking, and god-fearing Americans is deplorable,' Baca said. Swank doesn't agree with the argument that limiting cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities has the effect state law claims it does. He called it a fallacy. 'If people are in America legally, they have nothing to worry about calling 911,' Swank said. 'If they're here illegally and they call 911 because they're a victim of a crime, we're not going to be running their name to see if we can deport them. That doesn't happen.' 'We'll have our hands full in the meantime with violent criminals, citizens and noncitizens,' Swank added. The County Council's resolution affirms that county property, personnel, funds and equipment can't be used to support federal immigration enforcement activities unless legally required. Swank described the resolution as a 'broad overreach,' saying he doesn't think the County Council has the authority to impose those restrictions on his office. He also is displeased with the council for not asking for his input on the resolution. 'They do the budget, but they don't have control over how I run the Sheriff's Office,' Swank said. 'But I believe many people think that they should have that control or that they do. So that's kind of a little bit of the rub right there, too.'
