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?
First here’s a link to this year’s Point in Time Count for Whatcom County, which shows a significant increase in the number of people who are homeless and without shelter which is acknowledged to almost certainly be an underestimate: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/75702/2023-PIT-Count-Report?bidId=
Next, City of Bellingham staff does not have a great track record for accurately divulging to the public what degree of results their efforts deliver. I am putting an excerpt here from this blog post – 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/ – and reading the whole thing can provide even more insights into some of the Mayor’s actions related to providing shelter for those with no options but to sleep outside.
This section shows how the City was strategizing providing info on their increasing sheltering options during the severe weather season of 2020/2021:
“December 18 – Nice try with shelter space numbers
“In the days and weeks ahead, some documents focused on efforts like anticipated responses and rebuttals and contingency planning scenarios to be used for proposed emergency sheltering and housing negotiations.
But by December 18, 2021, eleven days after Nicole Oliver’s email about the tragic testimony at the December 7 Bellingham City Council Meeting, a ‘Draft Communication Start’ document had emerged.
“The predictive draft document relayed that, ‘the City of Bellingham has moved to bring to a close the protest encampment in front of City Hall and on the Library lawn.’ It projected that negotiations for one proposed sheltering option had broken down with ‘organizers of the protest’ who were not able to, ‘agree on applying a standard municipal code condition which prohibits the use of alcohol and illegal drugs by residents of a tiny house encampment.’
“The draft also cited City actions that would result in 28 certain, and around 40 less-certain additional spaces for winter sheltering than there had been in November when the encampment began.
“28 spaces were to be available at a new HomesNOW! tiny home community at Geri Field. While not a drop-in shelter where anyone could acquire shelter on any given night, the arrangement would allow people to sign up to be screened for an opportunity to live in a modular home in a moderate barrier community until permanent housing was secured for them.
“This was an option which HomesNOW! Chairman Doug Gustafson had been making City and County officials aware that his organization was ready to provide all last summer, well ahead of the hostile weather season. The City did not begin making arrangements with HomesNOW! for the new village until December. Tiny homes at Swift Haven ultimately became available for some people to occupy after the first week in January 2021.
“In another separate option, approximately 40 additional sheltering spaces were to be made available only on occasions when winter shelter organizers made the decision to activate extra space and extra volunteers to aid people needing shelter. Individuals would be screened at Lighthouse Mission‘s 24 hour emergency drop-in shelter, Base Camp, and would either be taken to their former Drop-In Center location to stay, or would be instructed to remain for sheltering at Base Camp.
“The draft communications document had also described a longer-term tiny home community set to shelter 30-40 people, but that was not projected to be available until spring of 2021. Still, this draft communications document asserted:
“’Implementing these initiatives will add 230 to 240 more shelter spaces which will be more than adequate to accommodate the approximately 100 unsheltered individuals who have participated in the protest.'”
P.S. 28+40= 68 spaces for additional severe weather shelter in winter 2020/2021 not 230 to 240
noisy waters northwest 
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