Lacey council member raises concerns about resident work group on homelessness
Lacey’s community work group on homelessness, a group of residents who have been appointed to come up with recommended strategies to address the issue, is very much a work in progress, city council member Lenny Greenstein said.
The council heard an update Thursday on the work group. Community and Economic Development Director Rick Walk said the group is expected to recommend a strategy or suite of strategies to the council in late spring or early summer.
Lacey, like Olympia, has a visible homeless community, such as “hamburger hill,” an encampment located between McDonald’s and the freeway on Sleater-Kinney Road Southeast.
But after Walk was done with his presentation, Greenstein said he has heard from several members of the group who have offered feedback that is “pretty bad.”
“They don’t feel like they are being listened to,” said Greenstein. He said they believe the city and the Athena Group, the moderator hired to moderate the discussion, came into the process with a predetermined set of outcomes and are pushing the group toward those outcomes.
“The feedback I’m hearing has not been positive at all,” he said.
Walk acknowledged the group has had challenges. The top challenge has been COVID-19, which initially forced the 30-member group to meet online. A small group has enough trouble communicating online, let alone a large one, Walk said.
The group is still meeting online, but now, according to the city of Lacey website, there are 24 members because a few were unable to attend, he said. Among the current members are Lacey business owner Madelin White and former Lacey City Council candidate Raymond Payne.
Online, it’s hard to establish a connection and dialogue among members beyond isolated conversations and statements, Walk said.
He also said some members are comfortable speaking online and some are not, and some have strong opinions, making it a challenge to find common ground.
Greenstein said he wouldn’t have alerted the council to the feedback if it had just been questions of process.
“This goes deeper,” he said. “They feel there was an agenda coming into this.”
Council member Ed Kunkel suggested the council needs to hear directly from those members at a future work session. Mayor Andy Ryder and council member Carolyn Cox said the group should be given as much time as they need to reach consensus or something meaningful.
Councilmember Malcolm Miller asked Walk what it will take to get the group to gel and become productive. Walk said the group is close to coming up with a draft product that they can focus on and then get into strategies.
The group will soon make its work to date public, he said. A virtual open house is set for Feb. 15 through March 1. For more about the work group, go to http://www.ci.lacey.wa.us/city-government/city-council/city-council-2/community-workgroup-on-homelessness.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
