City OKs $30,000 request to staff Community Care Center

The Olympia City Council has approved an emergency request for $30,000 to help pay for staff at the Providence Community Care Center through September.

The money is needed to “help fill a gap in funds” at the center, according to an email from Meg Martin, director of homeless services at the non-profit Interfaith Works, to city leaders in April.

“The vital organizations serving those with the highest needs and the most complex members of our community ... are often left scrambling to fill gaps in program year budgets because of a lack of clear funding priorities” from local governments, Martin wrote.

The council approved the request at its meeting Tuesday.

The Community Care Center, which opened last year in downtown Olympia, was set up to connect people in need with mental, physical and behavioral health services and social service providers. It also has served as a de facto day center for the street community and attracted large crowds on a regular basis — to the distress of some neighboring businesses.

Interfaith Works staff run the Community Care Center’s waiting room, helping people coming off the streets connect with services offered there, as well as the showers, laundry and restrooms.

Earlier this month, the City Council committed to a series of steps to address homelessness, including working with the Community Care Center, designating sites for legal camping, and opening a day center for homeless people separate from the Community Care Center.

The council has asked the city manager to provide it with an update on legal camping by next month and on the day center by July.

In 2016, the city gave Providence $200,000 and Interfaith Works $35,000 to help open and operate the Community Care Center.

Interfaith Works also has requested $45,000 from Thurston County to staff the center from now to September. Martin said some of that would pay for an additional staffer to help lessen the impact on the center's neighbors.

“We are really committed to making the Community Care Center as successful as possible for the people who need it and also for the community as a whole,” Martin said.

This story was originally published May 24, 2018 at 8:48 AM with the headline "City OKs $30,000 request to staff Community Care Center."