Olympia’s homeless response coordinator resigns, leaving city to spread out duties

The city of Olympia’s first homeless response coordinator recently resigned, city officials confirm. But, with the COVID-19 public health crisis creating economic uncertainty, it’s not clear if or when a new coordinator will be hired in his place.

Colin DeForrest’s last day working for the city of Olympia was April 10, according to city spokesperson Kellie Purce Braseth. The city hired DeForrest in April 2018, just a few months before it declared a public health emergency due to an increase in visible homelessness.

“Colin was here at the beginning,” Interim Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley told The Olympian in a phone interview. “... He’s been off and running ever since.”

As homeless response coordinator, DeForrest’s fingerprints are on all of the city’s efforts to address the crisis in the last two years. But the downtown mitigation site and Plum Street Village are the two Stahley thinks will have the most lasting impact.

DeForrest established the city’s mitigation site in a parking lot at Olympia Avenue and Franklin Street Southeast in December 2018 — in Stahley’s words, DeForrest “more or less personally constructed it” and was instrumental in developing the contract with Union Gospel Mission to supervise the site.

Catholic Community Services took over for Union Gospel Mission to manage the site about a week before DeForrest’s last day on the job.

DeForrest also played an “integral role” in designing the tiny house village on Plum Street, Stahley said, and worked with Seattle-based Low Income Housing Institute to facilitate its construction.

On April 10, Mayor Cheryl Selby signed a proclamation honoring DeForrest, Stahley said. It’s packed with compliments and a list of accomplishments.

“Colin recognized the dignity and humanity in all people and treated everyone he met with respect,” the proclamation reads, in part.

He resigned because he wanted to spend less time commuting and more time with his family and his Puyallup community, spokesperson Purce Braseth wrote in text messages to The Olympian. The Olympian was not able to reach DeForrest directly for confirmation or comment.

“He resigned and left in good standing,” Stahley said. “He certainly would merit a strong recommendation from me as someone in his chain of command.”

Whether there will be a second homeless response coordinator to serve in DeForrest’s wake is uncertain.

His position was funded by donations from Evergreen Christian Community — the church pledged up to $100,000 per year for three years to cover the position. But Evergreen Christian will no longer be funding the position, and the city has put the position on hold in light of economic uncertainty due to COVID-19.

Jim Ladd, pastor at Evergreen Christian, told The Olympian that the church didn’t intend to withdraw funding, and “a confluence of realities” led to the decision. When DeForrest notified Ladd of his resignation, Ladd said he was “very sorry to hear” it and thinks DeForrest did a “tremendous job.”

About a week after he learned the news, Ladd said, he met with Mayor Selby. The city’s hiring timeline was uncertain, and at that time the church’s budget had taken a hit due to a drop in March giving, according to Ladd.

The city intended to take on DeForrest’s role in its budget after the initial three years anyway, Ladd said, and it seemed “pertinent” for it to embrace the role now instead.

“We did not withdraw our funding,” Ladd reiterated. “It was a conversation where this dovetailed into the best approach for everybody.”

Ladd says the church isn’t reducing its commitment to city issues, rather redirecting it and ramping up other efforts and is open to future financial commitments.

Stahley said filling DeForrest’s position is a possibility that’s being revisited daily. Yes, the city had planned to take on funding the coordinator position, but with COVID-19, Stahley said, “all bets are off.”

“We don’t even fully understand what it’s going to look like a month from now or two weeks from now or six months from now,” Stahley said. “It makes it really challenging.”

For now, DeForrest’s responsibilities are spread out among several city employees: Stahley, Home Fund Manager Cary Retlin, Downtown Ambassadors Teal Russell and Katherine Trahan, and Brandon Ault. Ault has been helping with the transition of mitigation site management, Stahley said.

The city also has hired Tye Gundel and Robert Bruce of Just Housing Olympia on a temporary basis. Stahley says the two are assisting with outreach efforts focused on keeping unsheltered people safe during this time period, which Ault is also helping with. In part, Stahley said, outreach efforts include coordinating food and resource delivery so people can shelter in place for longer periods of time.

Gundel and Bruce were hired for a 60-day period and last week was their third week, according to Stahley. The city plans to seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for their efforts.