Conflict over $15.3M for homeless services led to emergency Thurston Co. meeting
Thurston County will release $15.3 million to help unhoused and housing-insecure residents on-time following urgent action by staff and elected officials.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved 49 homeless services contracts with 17 nonprofits during their Tuesday meeting in Olympia.
The board considered the contracts for the second time Tuesday, one week after voting 3-2 to table the contracts and return them to the Regional Housing Council. The RHC convened an emergency meeting Monday on this topic. Last week’s board vote followed an eleventh-hour objection from Tumwater Mayor Leatta Dahlhoff and a lively back-and-forth between commissioners and Tumwater officials, The Olympian previously reported.
The June 16 vote occurred about two weeks before the nonprofits expected to start receiving the money, which comes from a mix of state and local housing tax revenue and grants. At the time, it was uncertain if the RHC could reconvene before late July, potentially delaying final board approval as late as August.
The contracts are a second-year renewal of money for many purposes, including basic needs, survival gear, food, shelter, rent assistance, tiny homes and more. A delay would have likely disrupted many of these services during the summer heat.
With the board’s Tuesday vote, the one-year awards are expected to start flowing July 1 as previously scheduled.
One of the larger contracts in the package is $3.7 million for the county’s housing and essential needs program, which is operated by Catholic Community Services, according to county documents. The program provides residents items such as hygiene products, rent assistance, security deposits, money for move-in costs and case management services.
Another contract provides $2 million for Interfaith Works’ shelter program for adults experiencing homelessness, per the documents.
The RHC is an advisory body that includes voting members from the cities of Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Yelm as well as Thurston County. At an April 22 meeting, three of five council members voted to recommend approval of the contracts, and two abstained, according to meeting minutes and a recording of the meeting.
On Monday, the council voted to recommend the 49 contracts again without any dissension.
Tumwater City Council member Meghan Sullivan voted in favor of 48 contracts. She recused herself from voting on a $55,000 housing basic needs contract with Together!, saying she works with that nonprofit.
“I don’t think it was Tumwater’s intention whatsoever to interrupt the planned funding stream,” Sullivan said at the Monday meeting. “It was Tumwater’s intention to raise awareness that there are significant opportunities for us to do better with communication, transparency and telling the story of the work and the impact.”
After last week’s board meeting, Tumwater City Administrator Paul Simmons sent the county a list of 18 questions broadly about how the money is being spent, how many residents are being served, how outcomes are being evaluated, how information is communicated and more.
Before the Monday vote, county staff shared a spreadsheet with some answers to the 18 questions as they pertained to each of the 49 contracts. However, some questions were left unanswered.
“The spreadsheet was something that we pulled together quickly, with Friday being the holiday,” Thurston County Public Health and Social Services Director Jen Freiheit said at the Monday RHC meeting.
“… We have answers to all of those questions, and they’ve all been provided publicly in many, many forms, from RHC agendas and minutes to several other formats. It’s just going to take a little bit more time to pull the pieces out of different applications and contracts to put them all into one spreadsheet.”
Dahlhoff attended the RHC meeting as well. She said she acted quickly to log her objection when she learned of the imminent vote, thinking there would still be She acknowledged that the timing of her objection created concern in the community.
“I’ve served on many, many boards, and I understand the harm that that has created and the fear,” Dahlhoff said at the Monday meeting. “And that is trust that I have broken, and I will work on.”
Last week, Dahlhoff told the board she acted quickly to get her questions on the record when she learned about the imminent vote. At the time, she said did not intend to hold up the timeline and believed the RHC still had a meeting scheduled for late June.
On Monday, the first-year mayor said she supported moving the funding forward. She also floated the idea of bringing in a third-party consultant to evaluate the RHC’s processes and communication.
“What we’re looking for is providing information in a consistent and transparent manner, in a format that allows the public and elected officials to better understand how public funds are being allocated, evaluate recommendations based on objective information and demonstrate accountability to the communities they represent,” Dahlhoff said.
Dahlhoff said these improvements would also create stronger public records that would document the council’s rationales, funding decisions and investment outcomes.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 3:53 PM.
