What Factors Increase the Likelihood Unhoused People Will Seek Out Shelters? Part Two

In Part One of this series, we talked about barriers that may prevent unhoused people from accessing shelters. This week, we'll share five case studies about shelter programs coordinated or funded by cities and counties across the state. 

City and County as Shelter Funder — Bellingham and Whatcom County

Bellingham reports that around 750 of its residents are homeless on a given night. Forty percent of those are the so-called "visible homeless," while 60% are the "hidden homeless," or individuals lacking permanent housing. 

To support this growing homeless population, the city serves as a funder for nonprofit housing agencies by supplementing federal, state, and county funding. The city prioritizes funding shelters that remove barriers for underserved populations facing homelessness. 

When choosing which programs to fund, Bellingham identifies gaps in its shelter offerings, including which populations remain unhoused and the types of housing programs (emergency shelter, interim and transitional housing, and permanent housing) that lack availability. The city also partners with Whatcom County, which helps to fund city-based nonprofit shelter providers as well as opening county-run severe weather shelters when needed.

The city also supports the Opportunity Council, a nonprofit organization that has served northwest Washington for nearly 60 years.

The city, county, and Opportunity Council collectively fund several agencies providing shelters, including: 

• Motel room stays for survivors of domestic violence;
• Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of Whatcom County, a shelter dedicated to families fleeing domestic violence;
• Road2Home, which provides severe weather emergency shelters for adults and operates Gardenview, a tiny home village for medically-unstable and elderly clients;
• 22 North, which offers permanent supportive housing, and
• The HOT Team, which collaborates directly with the community’s unsheltered population.

Local shelter programs are serving their purpose — Bellingham's 2023 Point In Time (PIT) Count accounted for 711 individuals who slept in shelters or transitional housing facilities, an increase of 9% from the previous year’s survey.

County/Cities Shelter Partnership — Skagit County

From 2022 to 2023, Skagit County saw the number of unsheltered individuals increase by 191%, from 75 unsheltered individuals to 218. The number of "unsheltered chronically homeless people" also increased from 39 to 133, or by 241%. 

To support this growing number of unhoused individuals, Skagit County focused on increasing its seasonal shelter capacity to provide housing during extreme weather events. 

Sarah Hinman, Skagit County Public Health Assistant Director explains this approach:

For extreme weather events, we (Skagit County) have relied on churches to provide space, and local nonprofits to provide staff and volunteers to operate during these events. We also work with libraries to provide day warming centers or cooling centers.

The county's seasonal shelter options also include motel vouchers and shelter beds in a large building near the year-round pallet shelter program operated by a nonprofit. 

Hinman added:

We were able to provide shelter to about 50 additional people per night during the most recent extreme weather event. Staff were also able to provide guests with food, warm clothing, referrals to services, and other resources. 

Skagit County is also working to move unhoused people more efficiently into permanent shelters while keeping at-risk individuals and families in affordable and permanent housing. For example, the Skagit Friendship House’s First Step Center provides 45 low-barrier cabins with locking doors, electricity, climate control, and communal bathroom facilities. Residents also have access to medical care, mental health and substance use treatment, and employment services. 

Additionally, the county recently partnered with the cities of Anacortes, Burlington, Mount Vernon, and Sedro-Woolley to address the homelessness crisis beyond providing temporary housing. The project, called North Star, addresses behavioral health and housing issues by: 

• Funding priority projects across the county and its local cities,
• Offering more housing vouchers,
• Streamlining processes to identify land for affordable housing development, 
• Improving Coordinated Entry processes so those experiencing homelessness can access housing more efficiently, 
• Enhancing coordination for first responders and healthcare professionals, and
• Connecting those in crisis to resources and services and keeping them out of jails and emergency rooms. 

Enhanced Shelter — Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville, and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority

With the goal of supporting its emergency homelessness resolution, the Shoreline City Council expressed interest in using The Oaks at Forest Bay Nursing Home, which was discontinuing operations and would be available for purchase, as an enhanced shelter. Essentially, the former nursing home would serve as a “shelter-ready” site that would be available quickly for shelter programming. 

The North King County Aurora Oaks Enhanced Shelter (The Oaks) provides necessities like meals, bathrooms, and laundry facilities along with case management and health services. Residents can only remain there if they can "maintain behaviors that are safe in a community setting." 

Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, and Woodinville entered into an Interlocal Agreement for Homelessness Services with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA). KCRHA purchased the property in 2021, and then proceeded with an RFQ process for another agency to take over ownership of the property. Catholic Housing Services was selected in 2021.

Based on the information included in the application for 2023-2024 funding, The Oaks Enhanced Shelter program projects expenditures of approximately $2,000,000 per year. In 2024, the Shoreline City Council approved $25,067 for the shelter and $45,000 for the outreach program.

The long-term plan remains to build new supportive housing on the site.

Shelter Me Spokane Dashboard — Spokane, Spokane Valley, Spokane County, and Spokane Regional Health District

The number of unhoused people increased in Spokane County from 2022 to 2023, as well. In 2023, the PIT count connected with 2,390 unhoused people, an increase of 36% from 2022 and a more than 100% increase since 2013. 

With such a significant increase, Spokane-area municipalities and a local health district developed a dashboard called Shelter Me Spokane that provides real-time information on shelter capacity across the region. In addition to displaying how many beds remain at several local shelters, viewers can identify shelter locations, check-in times, populations served, the weather forecast, and a time stamp on when the information was provided.

Similar resource networks may list where shelters are and their phone numbers, but they don't always let unhoused people know how many beds, if any, are available. Spokane's dashboard helps to prevent residents from traveling to shelters only to find they have no more beds. 

The previous shelter bed availability reporting system required the region’s shelters to email the information to city staff, who would then input the data onto a shared spreadsheet that was posted to the city’s website and stakeholder distribution lists. The dashboard was created to streamline this process, as noted by Brian Walker, the Communications Manager for the Neighborhoods, Housing, and Human Services Division:

The dashboard has resulted in more timely information and a central location that’s widely used by the community, media outlets, emergency agencies and providers. Overall, the dashboard improved transparency...

Diverse Shelter Options — Tacoma 

From 2017 to 2023, Tacoma nearly doubled its shelter capacity from 620 permanent shelter beds to 1,234. City-contracted shelter providers must provide, at minimum, fences, hand washing stations, garbage services, bathroom facilities, electricity, and drinkable water. Caleb Carbone, the city's Homeless Strategy, Systems and Service Manager notes:

The system as a whole addresses barriers like criminal background, mental and behavioral health, substance-use disorder, pets, disabilities, income level, or any other barrier that would keep someone from accessing a safe and dignified place to stay.

A few of the different shelter types funded at least in part by the city include:

• A former hotel;
• Micro-shelter sites, including one that offers micro-shelters in a temperature-controlled tent;
• Mitigation sites with tents; and
• Safe parking sites.

As of early 2024, these projects have had a combined 1,225 total exits to permanent housing and have served a total of 3,297 clients.

Tacoma distinguishes between three shelter types — permanent, emergency and temporary.

• Permanent shelters only receive a portion of funds from the city (typically receiving other funds from philanthropy or other governmental partners).
• Temporary shelters are established by faith-based institutions and receive some funding from the city to operate.
• Emergency shelters established under the city’s declaration of Public Health Emergency likely have the city as a primary or sole funding source. The city's emergency shelters have a utilization rate of about 95%. 

Carbone also said this about the city’s shelters:

This means that they are practically at capacity throughout most of the year and when there is no one utilizing a shelter unit, it is mostly due to repairs or maintenance needed for the unit to be turned over for the next resident. 

Tacoma and Pierce County are familiar with each other’s projects and funding opportunities, and they communicate on a weekly basis with progress updates. The city has also conducted shelter tours for other jurisdictions that are interested in exploring site development, locations, and operations. 

Developing Low-Barrier Shelters Across Washington

The number of unhoused individuals has grown considerably in the last few years. Despite these increases, some barriers have kept some unhoused individuals from turning to shelters for housing. 

Shelter programs across the state deploy methods that ensure safe, temporary housing for unhoused members of their communities. These programs demonstrate solutions that make a positive impact in our communities.