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. 

Here is the link to the audio of the presentation: https://whatcom.granicus.com/player/clip/971?view_id=1&redirect=true&h=9ead20efcd2325aa23c7e53489351e51

The information presented yesterday portrayed a much improved outlook and atmosphere for both 22 North residents and neighbors and there were many details provided about what kinds of changes had been implemented. 

It’s important to recall that at the time of the last 22 North report to County Council, the Opportunity Council had made hires that had increased their staff from just 3 people during pandemic months to around 16 in August of 2022. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3303805516571770&id=100008270613723

At one point in the meeting, Opportunity Council Executive Director Greg Winter and other staff members described measures in response to Council Member Byrd’s questions about accountability and crime, with a very familiar bottom line being made clear: there is no answer yet to the question of “where are people supposed to go?”

Here is a segment of the interaction between Council Member Byrd and Greg Winter, which starts at around 00:25:45 in the recording:

Council Member Tyler Byrd:
“I’d like to start off with a crime and handling of crime in general at the properties and how that’s changed and what’s happening now. So, can you kind of walk me through – how is drug dealing or drug use handled? Like, is assault or crime handled in the same way, or theft on the property or by tenant – and like, specifically what’s the escalation path for that? Is there enforcement of those rules with accountability that is put in that’s a little more strict over time as more infringements occur. 

“And then, in addition to the accountability and enforcement side of things, what other tools are we leveraging, or is Opportunity Council leveraging, to help those people get back on track outside of that? 

“So, and what I’m thinking – or what I’m trying to articulate more clearly would be, personally, I’m a big believer in carrot and the stick. You can’t just have a stick and you can’t just have a carrot. You have to hold people accountable and there has to be accountability for your actions. But there should also be incentives at the same time, so I’m kind of curious what those steps look like as it relates to those items today.“

Greg Winter: “That’s a great – yeah, that’s a very good and important question, Council Member Byrd. I’ll start, and I’ll ask for – maybe see if either Michaela or Wendy may want to give use an example to demonstrate this. But first, we start with our lease. The lease really sets out what the behaviors need to be for tenants. And certainly the examples that you’ve mentioned, the crimes you mentioned are clear lease violations. 

“We also want to keep in mind that this is, for all practical purposes, for many of the people that are in the program, housing of last resort, meaning if they don’t succeed in the housing at 22 North, it’s, you know, it’s likely that they would end up being discharged to the street or to emergency shelter.”