What if long-term homeless solutions are increasingly too little too late? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image to access nightly Base Camp shelter numbers on the Lighthouse Mission Ministries website

July 28, 2023 Dena Jensen

After about a month of nights where beds were not quite filled up at Base Camp, numbers have been back up near capacity (and above) this week. 

I realize that people are working on putting things in place for services that may possibly emerge in the future, but severe weather season starts in three months and I want to point out a list of things that have been happening this year, some of them in the last few months, some in the last few weeks, and some loom ahead as possible in the future.  

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Seth Fleetwood: keeping up or falling behind with homeless services? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/75702/2023-PIT-Count-Report?bidId=
https://noisywatersnw.com/2021/07/29/chapter-two-city-staff-and-the-mayor-whatcom-barriers-to-equity-a-review-for-2021-candidates-noisy-waters-northwest/

July 22, 2023 Dena Jensen

For folks who are receiving campaign literature with claims like this one of current Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood’s, “Sustaining and expanding shelters, with a threefold increase in facilities for our unhoused population.” >>>>>>> 

Be sure and do your homework to prevent yourself having illusions of grand services being provided without context for what terms like “threefold increase” really mean related to benefits to the community. In other words, does this mean are we actually getting ahead or falling behind in getting folks into stable living situations?

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Indefensible injustice in Whatcom County: no end in sight to public defender shortage / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of a YouTube video screen to access a portion of the recording of the July 6, 2023 Whatcom County Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force Steering Committee meeting discussion of the shortage of public defenders

July 16, 2023 Dena Jensen

In a Bellingham Herald article back in mid-May this year, Denver Pratt had reported on the local shortage of defense lawyers during that timing when Whatcom County was waiting for a public defender to be named.

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2023 Opportunity Council update to Whatcom County Council on 22 North / Noisy Waters Northwest

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July 14, 2023 Dena Jensen

At yesterday’s Whatcom County Council Public Works and Health Committee meeting, there was a presentation from the Opportunity Council on the status of the 22 North 40-unit apartments that are aimed at providing permanent supportive housing. The presentation comes about a year after the County approved funding in the interest of significantly improving services to the residents, as well as their hopes of reducing crime and disturbance to neighbors in the area. 

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Public hearing on jail-first sales tax coming up on 7/11/23 / Noisy Waters Northwest

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July 7, 2023 Dena Jensen

There are two public hearings scheduled for the Tuesday 7/11/23 Whatcom County Council meeting. The one for the sales tax for the jail and services comes first. (The second is about Nooksack River tubing regulations to better protect endangered-species-listed salmon). Here’s the link to the Council meeting agenda: https://whatcom.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1007093&GUID=EB6D8780-A7ED-41A1-B94C-DAFDD2B40057

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Whatcom proposed sales tax revenue won’t fund crisis relief center first / Noisy Waters Northwest

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July 5, 2023 Dena Jensen

I am almost done listening to the Bellingham City Council’s 6/26/23 Committee of the Whole meeting. That’s the one where they were having discussions about adopting the state legislation making drug possession and public use a gross misdemeanor (which I’m going to talk about in a later post) and about the City Council’s “Resolution Affirming the City of Bellingham Values with Regard to the Proposed Ballot Measure for the Purpose of Providing Funds for Costs of Public Health, Safety and Justice Facilities and Services, Including Behavioral Health, Housing, Public Safety, and Criminal Justice Facilities and Programs.” 

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