Whatcom County Council is pondering the possibility of a county-run, low-barrier, year-round homeless shelter.
Council members Kaylee Galloway, Barry Buchanan and Jon Scanlon brought forward a resolution on Tuesday, June 4 that asked Executive Satpal Sidhu to develop a plan by September to expand year-round shelter capacity, including a proposal that the county run its own shelter. Council only discussed the resolution this week — it could come back next council meeting on June 18, but Galloway said July 9 is more likely for a potential vote as they seek more community input on the proposal.
The resolution was driven by the demonstrated need for shelter this past winter, and the challenge in finding a local nonprofit with the capacity to run winter and severe-weather shelters. This year, the county spent $900,000 on funding external winter shelter programs and more than $400,000 to operate its own severe-weather shelter for 20 nights after no nonprofits responded to the call for an operator, Ann Beck, human services manager at Whatcom County Health and Community Services, told council Tuesday.
The health department also struggled to find enough staff and volunteers to run the severe-weather shelter this year, demanding a significant amount of overtime from staff — 69% of the $403,000 went to staffing expenses.
A low-barrier, county-operated shelter with 100-150 beds could cost about $2.3 million a year, the health department estimated. This assumes hiring an additional 21 people to operate the shelter. A low-barrier shelter has few restrictions to entry, besides basic core expectations of no violence, harassment, or smoking inside.
The nightly single bed cost per person is estimated to be $64.34 — significantly less compared to the nightly single bed cost of the severe weather shelter this year of $426.
There isn’t a clear consensus yet that this is the right path forward. Council member Tyler Byrd said at committee of the whole on Tuesday that he’d like to see an expectation that people who stay at the shelter need to be working toward housing or employment, a sentiment council member Ben Elenbaas agreed with.
Additionally, the county’s executive office isn’t sure that hiring more new staff to run a county shelter is the path forward, or at least, shouldn’t be the first option.
Deputy Executive Kayla Schott-Bresler said after the committee meeting that adding staff can impact the county’s ability to “do some of our core functions.”
“The more staff we add, the more paper we have to process, the more facilities space we need, the more hiring we have to do,” Schott-Bresler said.
Other developing projects may also demand the hiring of new Whatcom County staff, including a behavioral care center connected to the Justice Project and the implementation of Sidhu’s fentanyl executive action.
Galloway said on Wednesday that the county has a “foundational role” in supporting nonprofit providers, but that the need is still greater than providers have the capacity to provide.
The county needs to have a backup plan, Galloway said, “because not having a backup plan means that many folks will continue to be unsheltered.”
Galloway said while she recognizes that this would be “uncharted territory” for the county, this year’s experience running a severe-weather shelter shows that the county is qualified to do this work, “in conjunction with other providers.”
The resolution also sets a goal of achieving functional zero homelessness in 10 years and recommends Sidhu establish a Homeless and Shelter Subcommittee of the Housing Advisory Committee. The health department estimated that hitting “functional zero” — which refers to when a community’s services generally prevent homelessness, and when homelessness does happen, it’s brief — would cost about $4 million annually. That’s based on early Point-in-Time count data for 2024, which counted 15 families with children living unsheltered (41 individuals) and 202 singles living unsheltered (which is likely an undercount).
Elenbaas said at the council meeting that he questioned if achieving zero homelessness is the best focus right now, and said he would “rather go for broke” to have a policy that anybody who wants or needs substance abuse treatment can get treatment.
“Then we can focus our remaining energy on homelessness for those that are homeless not because of addiction,” he said.
Markis Dee, an advocate and outreach worker who was on the Homeless Strategies Work Group, a body that dissolved in 2021 after providing recommendations to council, said he was thrilled to see the talks of a county-run shelter.
“I really would like to applaud the effort. I think that it’s absolutely massive, and certainly in step with ‘the big lift,’ to consider providing county-run shelter,” Dee said. The big lift is a housing proposal put forward by progressive candidates in the fall election. Dee has some critiques of the plan to establish a subcommittee on homelessness — he’s made it known to council members that he’d rather see a standalone commission or committee.
Galloway said the conversation gave her hope that providing shelter to all homeless people in Whatcom County could be possible.
“It’s just going to take a lot of collective work and will and funding, and that community investment,” she said. “I think when you put a price tag on what it could look like to shelter every unsheltered person, it is daunting, but it’s possible.”
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
