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.  

I ask folks to imagine how the daily increase in the level of crisis that people living unsheltered, or on the verge of living unsheltered, are experiencing has got to feel right at this moment.  

⚠️COB law is enacted outlawing public drug use https://meetings.cob.org/Documents/DownloadFileBytes/City_Council_Regular_Meeting_2890_Minutes_4_10_2023_7_00_00_PM.pdf?documentType=2&meetingId=2890
⚠️State law is adopted by COB to make drug possession and/or public drug use a gross misdemeanor https://meetings.cob.org/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=2902&doctype=3
⚠️End to Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center’s (WDRC) Eviction Resolution Pilot Program (ERPP) as a result of Washington state legislation https://news.yahoo.com/rise-evictions-more-homeless-possible-162326141.html
⚠️Proposal to expand areas of parking code enforcement for RVs https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/bellingham-seeks-rvs-limits-where-142030437.html
⚠️Ongoing shortage of public defenders https://noisywatersnw.com/2023/07/16/indefensible-injustice-in-whatcom-county-no-end-in-sight-to-public-defender-shortage-noisy-waters-northwest/
⚠️Closing down of daily shower availability at Arne Hanna public pool https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bellingham-announces-change-free-shower-162601828.html
⚠️Ordinance adopted by Whatcom County that prioritizes an expanded jail and delays funding for services for up to 6 years https://whatcom.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=E2&ID=1007093&GUID=EB6D8780-A7ED-41A1-B94C-DAFDD2B40057
⚠️COB fails to adopt initiatives to promptly increase minimum wage and increase protections for renters https://www.cascadiadaily.com/news/2023/jul/11/bellingham-city-council-defers-to-voters-for-initiatives-approval-amid-concerns/
⚠️2023 snapshot finds Whatcom County with a +27% increase in people experiencing homelessness while the Bellingham mayor campaigns on having increased facilities for the unhoused community three fold https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02qcT9rTar88FvDjtxdzvGL4fpLwHqdBnr3aQzRDRikA6m3J7rwp6qyjKYFyFYR6Ffl&id=100008270613723

It feels like a perfect storm of actions that leave those in immediate or imminent crisis in an ever more desperate lurch while everyone assures us better stuff is coming in the future. What good does that do those suffering right now? 

Long-term, holistic solutions are important, but we can be delaying and disarming the success of those indefinitely if our current crisis level out-paces the arrival and capacity of those solutions.