Thurston County, local cities formalize Regional Housing Council
Thurston County, Lacey, Tumwater and Yelm have signed a 5-year interlocal agreement, formalizing a council focused on unifying their response to the local homeless crisis.
The Regional Housing Council has been meeting for about six months, but it has only just been formalized through an interlocal agreement. The council brings together local leaders to consider policy promoting equitable access to safe housing, according to a Thurston County news release.
It replaced the former Health and Human Services Council and furthers the county’s Homeless Crisis Response Plan which started in 2019. Olympia City Council member and Chairman of the Regional Housing Council called this development inspiring in the news release.
“This is the way, and I’m so glad we are doing it together,” Jim Cooper said. “I look forward to a day when our approach to caring for our less fortunate neighbors is unified across the region. This means meeting them where they are and providing individualized services and supports.”
The council will be made up of one voting member and one alternate member from each jurisdiction comprising more than 5 percent of the county population and Yelm, which will represent the southern part of the county, the release reads.
Other decision-making staffers from each jurisdiction are expected to participate but they will lack voting power, according to the release. For its part, Thurston County will act as the fiscal agent and lead agency on behalf of the other jurisdictions, providing a program manager, a chairperson of a technical team, a chairperson of a communications team and administrative staff.
The council will be responsible for making policy and funding recommendations to local leaders and establishing an annual work plan with an annual budget. It is also required to submit an annual report to each jurisdiction.
Each jurisdiction except Yelm will contribute at least one half of one percent of the last full year of general sales and use taxes, per the agreement. As the lead agency, Thurston County is expected to use 10 percent of the annual contributions for administrative costs and management.
Thurston County Commissioner Carolina Mejia will serve as the vice chairwoman of the new council. She said in the release that the county is committed to this collaborative framework.
“The signing of this agreement brings me so much hope as to what we can achieve as the Regional Housing Council and how we can provide support to some of our most vulnerable community members,” Mejia said.
The next public council meeting will be on March 18.
