Local leaders struggle to manage homelessness as residents demand solutions

A friend asked a good question last week: “Why do people think local governments can solve homelessness?”

The truth is, of course, that local governments can’t. They don’t have anywhere near enough money to even provide shelters for all the folks living in tents. Nor do local governments control the private sector housing market, or the mental health and addiction treatment funding streams. And they don’t fund or operate the early learning, child welfare and education systems that can help prevent homelessness.

So local governments face a Catch-22 problem: No matter how hard they try, they can’t win, but not trying is not an option. In the eyes of many citizens, all homelessness is local, and they demand local solutions. They are convinced that local governments just aren’t doing the right things, in the right places, in the right way.

For local governments short of resources, homelessness is a dilemma that must be managed, not a problem that can be solved. And that doesn’t make anyone happy.

That’s why we are worried about what local leaders from Thurston County, the Regional Housing Council, Olympia, Providence St. Peter Hospital and nonprofit service providers are going to face at 6 p.m. Nov. 4 when they host a virtual public information meeting on a proposal to site a temporary safe parking project at the corner of Martin Way and Carpenter Road, on land owned by the city of Olympia.

The purpose of the project is to get about 17 RVs and other live-aboard vehicles off Ensign Road near St. Peter Hospital, where they impede traffic into the emergency room.

There are far more than 17 RVs and vans parked along Ensign Road. An earlier attempt to remove them was thwarted by the state Attorney General, who said doing so would violate a pandemic-related eviction moratorium unless they were provided with a place to go.

So the focus of the proposed project is to provide a place for some of them to go. It would clear space near the emergency room entrance and prohibit future parking there, but leave other RVs further down Ensign.

Seventeen is the likely maximum number that can be accommodated at the Carpenter Road site. Their tenancy there is expected to last six or eight months, while a much larger site on Franz-Anderson Road that could accommodate about 50 vehicles is purchased and prepared. That is a chicken that has not yet hatched.

The Carpenter Road site already has been the subject of controversy when, in 2019, a much larger area there was proposed as a managed camp site, similar to Olympia’s “mitigation site” downtown. At that time there was virulent, angry opposition, and, as it turned out, a prohibitive amount of cost for site preparation, so the project was scrapped.

This proposal is vastly smaller, on less land, and won’t require site preparation. It is intended to serve only the “most vulnerable,” which means Ensign Road RV dwellers who are older and/or more at risk of COVID-19. The proposal is for the site to be fenced and gated, and to have 24/7 staffing.

This is a modest, imperfect proposal. It will certainly not solve the problem of homelessness, or even remove all the RVs parked lower on Ensign Road. It won’t be cheap. But, like other local government actions, it will manage the dilemma. It will restore fast access to the emergency room, and provide staff services that will improve safety and may help some of those who move to the Carpenter Road site find permanent housing.

It’s a proposal that deserves civil discussion, not fear, outrage and vitriol. So to those who plan to submit questions or comments to the Nov. 4 meeting, we ask this simple question: Do you have a better idea?