John Braun: Legislators can learn from Pierce County’s bipartisan effort on homelessness
Friday, December 6, 2024
Of all the public policy issues legislators wrestle with, the issue of chronic homelessness is easily among the most frustrating.
It’s frustrating to think of all the billions of tax dollars that have been spent on a myriad of programs intended to reduce homelessness in our state, without an appropriate return on that huge investment.
The issue is even more challenging now than it was just a few years ago because of the Legislature’s failed drug-decriminalization experiment. That made the homelessness crisis immeasurably worse, especially in Washington’s urban communities.
But instead of going on about the many flaws in state government’s approach to addressing chronic homelessness, I would rather put a spotlight on a local approach that gives me hope, during this season of hope.
It’s called the Good Neighbor Village (GNV), and will be constructed in the Spanaway Lake area of Pierce County. The groundbreaking ceremony took place Nov. 21.
The GNV is the product of a unique public-private partnership between Pierce County and the Tacoma Rescue Mission. It is modeled on the Community First! Village in Austin, Texas.
Two of my former Senate Republican colleagues took the lead on this for Pierce County: county executive Bruce Dammeier and Steve O’Ban. But even more exciting to me, Democrats and Republicans on the county council joined together to support this solution.
The vision of these villages is to empower people to be good neighbors, in a literal sense, with those who are chronically homeless — people who have lived more than a year, sometimes decades, on the streets.
These people were often driven to the streets by addictions, mental illness, other disabilities, or a combination of those conditions. Pierce County has approximately 900 chronically homeless residents, nearly 125 of whom are military veterans.
Having no suitable housing options, they are the people we see living in the rights-of-way, parks, and doorways — the “visible homeless,” as former Sen. O’Ban puts it.
Many of the chronically homeless have lost the basic skills necessary to work and even socially interact with others. The model for the GNV seeks to restore those skills by creating a community in which formerly homeless people and their new neighbors all live in tiny homes.
In a sense, the village will act as the social safety net which so many chronically homeless people have lost, because bridges to family members and friends have been burned.
The feeling of community offered by the GNV approach is what seems to separate it most from the “housing first” strategy advocated elsewhere in our state. An example of the latter is the Partnership for Zero project in King County that collapsed in September 2023, less than 18 months after it launched.
The flaws of the housing-first approach are exposed in a raw, unflinching way in a recently released documentary, “Behind Closed Doors.” It was produced by the partnership of ChangeWashington and filmmaker V Ginny Burton, and is easily found through an internet search for the title and filmmaker’s name.
The interviews featured throughout the film reveal how most residents of several Seattle housing projects continue to use illegal drugs, violence is an everyday occurrence, and staff has no ability to help those who seek addiction or mental health treatment.
The film also explores how housing-first policies are a huge drain on government resources, including law enforcement.
Amazingly, the state’s Homeless Housing Strategic Plan for 2024-2029, which was quietly released by the Department of Commerce on Sept. 1, clings to the idea that the cost of housing and lack of housing in our state are the key drivers of homelessness.
The plan criticizes the “criminalization” of homelessness — meaning the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson that allows communities to enforce rules against camping and sleeping in public.
However, the plan goes out of its way to downplay any connection between substance use and homelessness, or mental health and homelessness. Income inequity, systemic racism and natural hazards made the list of “structural pressures” that influence the risk of homelessness, but not substance use or mental illness.
If simply sheltering someone was the answer, you have to ask why King County was so quick to pull the plug on the Partnership for Zero, especially after the King County executive repeatedly promised it would help formerly homeless people get their lives back.
The GNV plan in Pierce County is for 285 microhomes, common buildings and a farm. Behavioral-health treatment, and drug and alcohol treatment will be provided. Vocational and recreational activities will be offered.
But most of all, the village approach offers something less tangible, which the housing-first approach clearly seems to lack: the opportunity, as one of my former Senate colleagues puts it, to live in a community that offers dignity, accountability, and hope — and feel like a human being again.
If all of this sounds too good to be true, know that getting it off the ground was a challenge. In Austin, three sites were opposed by surrounding communities because of fear that bad experiences might follow. But finally, a location was found.
Pierce County and the Tacoma Rescue Mission initially identified four potential sites for the Good Neighbor Village. The one they chose is in the middle of an area with a significant chronic homelessness problem. Nearly 70% of the 191 encampments Pierce County cleaned up between 2019 and this past year — at a cost of $1.07 million — were in the Spanaway area or neighboring Parkland.
Fear of the unknown caused some around the future Pierce County village to protest as well. Their objection was not to the concept, but to the location — and their apprehension is totally understandable.
However, just as the Community First! Village in Austin won its neighbors over, I’m willing to bet Pierce County’s commitment to excellence will ensure the Good Neighbor Village is a good neighbor to other residents of the Spanaway-Parkland area.
In fact, former Senator O’Ban says the county and Tacoma Rescue Mission agreed the first 50 microhomes would be set aside for homeless people from the immediate area.
There is no question the issue of chronic homelessness, as frustrating as it is, will again be high on the legislative agenda in 2025.
Considering what we know about the Good Neighbor Village effort in Pierce County, versus the failures of the housing-first approach, this would be a good time to revisit the state’s approach to addressing chronic homelessness.
Instead of focusing on how much money there is to spend, let’s talk about how the money is spent. I am reluctant to pour even more money into programs and services that pretend addictions and mental illness are not major drivers of chronic homelessness.
I would rather look at investing in a housing model that is honest about the causes of chronic homelessness and responds to them in a way that offers real hope to our homeless neighbors. That’s how we can make our state better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.