Who needs an Immigrant Resource Center if Bellingham is free of discrimination and its harms? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot of a portion of a Bellingham City Council Agenda bill for their June 9, 2025 meeting to view the whole document on the COB website

June 8, 2025 Dena Jensen

Bellingham City Council is scheduled to consider a proposed resolution reaffirming the “City of Bellingham as a welcoming city” for all people on Monday, June 9, 2025. After the draft resolution recites a long list of COB measures that have been taken over the last few years that can help allow the City to incrementally become a more welcoming place for marginalized community members, the following statement in the operative section is included:

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Bellingham is a welcoming city for all people to live, work, attend school, visit and play free of discrimination, violence and systemic barriers that threaten their safety, well-being and human rights;”

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Second meeting tomorrow of Bellingham work group examining if police actions could aid ICE / Noisy Waters Northwest

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May 14, 2025 Dena Jensen

Coming up tomorrow, Thursday 5/15/25 at 5:30 p.m is the second meeting of Bellingham’s Keep Washington Working Act Work Group. There is currently only one way for community members to witness these meetings and that is in person at Bellingham City Hall, 210 Lottie St., Suite 227. There is no Zoom option available, no recordings being made, and no minutes have been posted yet from the work group’s first meeting in March. After tomorrow’s meeting, the work group won’t likely meet again until July, since their proposed schedule of meetings is every two months. The only point of contact provided for the work group is the Bellingham Mayor’s Office.

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Whatcom County Council will discuss draft letter to expand emergency shelter access this Tuesday / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screen shot of content in a 1/12/2025 petition update by Tukoyote Helianthus to access his post on his blog site. The petition calls for expanded emergency shelter access this winter. Helianthus provides homeless services through his Operation Waterdrop project.

January 12, 2025 Dena Jensen

With the Committee of the Whole meeting agenda this week for Whatcom County Council, there is an attached draft letter created by one – or some – of the Council Members (there’s no attribution to the author/s on the letter so far). The letter is addressed to Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu. It emphasizes the need for increasing reliable shelter for our friends and neighbors who will be losing a place to live and sleep this winter, among other things. One reason for such loss will be due to the planned sweep of the Bakerview encampment which begins this week.

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Don’t stop calling for better winter homeless shelters / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot of the image and headline for the December 31, 2024 petition update from Tukayote Helianthus to access the update on his petition to lower the temperature threshold for opening the Bellingham Severe Weather Shelter

December 31, 2024 Dena Jensen

It’s valuable to keep pressing officials for better homeless sheltering services. They will try to tell us they can’t do better. But over the years we have seen them at least try despite their stated limitations and resistance.

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Contact City officials prior to October 24 joint meeting to urge public input on area growth / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of a Whatcom Environmental Council social media post calling for public input on City of Bellingham’s preferred growth strategy to access the post on Facebook

October 22, 2024 Dena Jensen

I sent this email today to support the letter sent by the Whatcom Environmental Council related to their post shown above:

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Chapter One: What IAB members had to say – An imposition of indignity, the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance / Noisy Waters Northwest

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September 28, 2024 Dena Jensen

Link to ‘Introduction – An imposition of indignity: the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance’ : https://noisywatersnw.com/2024/02/23/introduction-an-imposition-of-indignity-the-tale-and-trail-of-bellinghams-immigration-board-suspension-ordinance-noisy-waters-northwest/

Chapter One

First, some fresh news

Bellingham City Council Member Hannah Stone will be presenting an ordinance at Monday’s City Council, September 30, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting, that would dissolve the Immigration Advisory Board. People can attend the meeting which starts at 1:00 p.m., and the topic of dissolving the board is also on the agenda for the Council’s regular meeting at 7:00 p.m that night.

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New Searchable Minutes for Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board and an update on Mayor’s upcoming update / Noisy Waters Northwest

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September 1, 2024

First things first

Here is a link to a document that allows readers to search and browse minutes for all meeting dates of the three and a half years of Bellingham City Council’s Immigration Advisory Board:

June 2020 through January 2024 Immigration Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

[Note: the links were corrected above because the first document linked to was missing content]

Also, folks can also access these minutes, along with other year-long searchable versions of local government meeting minutes, along with details on how to interact with them, on this website’s Searchable Minutes page.

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New, improved, easier: Searchable Meeting Minutes starting with 2023 Bellingham City Council & committees/ Noisy Waters Northwest

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August 15, 2024 Dena Jensen

After falling behind last year in keeping up with Searchable Meeting Minutes, I recently put on my thinking cap and managed to figure out how to create new and improved ones that are much easier and faster for me to put together and without the funky formatting of the previous ones I have posted. Searching them is still simple and direct, while I believe the minutes will be much easier to read; easier to tell the difference between which set of minutes is for which date; and easier to browse through if it’s not a specific phrase, word, number, or name that you are looking for.

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All hands on deck to support immigrants too / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the annotated screen shot of a portion of the August 5, 2024 Riveters Collective newsletter to access the original and complete newsletter on a browser

August 11, 2024 Dena Jensen

Last week, the Riveters Collective, an organization which “promotes effective progressive civic action in Whatcom County and neighboring communities,” sent out a newsletter containing a call to action to contact Bellingham officials requesting a progress update this month regarding the Immigration Advisory Board. Contact information was provided where people can reach officials.

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