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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Whatcom County is falling behind in providing winter sheltering options / Letter to the Whatcom County Council

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Click the screenshot to access 2023 Winter sheltering information on the Whatcom County website

October 26, 2023 Dena Jensen

Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2023, 05:00:11 PM PDT

Subject: We are behind in supplying capacity with our emergency shelter options for this cold weather season

Dear Whatcom County Council:

I am glad for your new Facebook page and saw your post today regarding the Severe Weather Shelter that Whatcom County will be operating.  I am also grateful for the hard work of Whatcom County Health and Community Services to help provide some safety for people who have no other options but to live outside this winter. It is encouraging that Whatcom County has transcended the misguided 2021 recommendation for the County to *not* operate sheltering options after that year.

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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.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02rTbWgRaL3nbT9zPz541Kq6kqKAjt8GiYD1y3ARaRBbbTuNwQLdkpngqgPkNSvrB1l&id=100008270613723
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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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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On top of sweeps, no sitting or lying, aggressive parking enforcement: how the race to displace continues now / Noisy Waters Northwest

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March 31, 2023 Dena Jensen

Click the screenshot to access the information in the 3/27/23 Bellingham City Council regular meeting summary

On Monday night March 27, 2023, Bellingham City Council voted to advance (first and second reading) “An Ordinance Prohibiting the Use of Controlled Substances in Public Places” toward approval by a vote of 5-2. The earliest final vote on the ordinance will not be until the next regular Council meeting in two weeks on April 10, 2023. If approved on that date, the ordinance would go into effect two weeks later.

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February 7 severe weather sheltering update reveals need to prioritize funding / Noisy Waters Northwest

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February 16, 2023 Dena Jensen

Time to call on Whatcom County Council Members to be proactive in making sheltering a priority. Contact info is at the bottom of this post.

With forecasted lows in the 20s starting to show up for next week this time, it’s all the more relevant to consider the on-the-fly severe weather shelter update that Whatcom County Health Department’s Community Health and Services Manager Ann Beck gave to Whatcom County Council’s 2/7/23 Finance and Administrative Services Committee which I’m including in this post.

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Update on previous email related to information and activation for accessible severe weather sheltering / Letter to Whatcom County officials

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November 27, 2022 Dena Jensen

Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2022, 07:30:34 PM PST

Subject: Update on previous email related to information and activation for accessible severe weather sheltering

Dear Whatcom County Health Department, Whatcom County Council, and Whatcom County Executive Sidhu:

Below my signature line, I am including a copy of the email  I sent you earlier today regarding information on the County website and various social media pages related to severe weather shelters being available. 

I wanted to write again on a related matter having to do with the recording on the night by night shelter hotline, at 360-788-7983.

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Displacement creates a stronger need for increased emergency sheltering options / Letter to Bellingham and Whatcom County officials

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Click the screenshot of a NEWS webpage on the website of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to read the statement from USICH Director Olivet, “Collaborate, Don’t Criminalize: How Communities Can Effectively and Humanely Address Homelessness”

October 31, 2022 Dena Jensen

On Friday of last week, I had posted on Facebook about a recent article in Cascadia Daily News, “Bike lanes to displace homeless campers on Cornwall. At the time of my post, I was just responding to information in the article. Since that time, I have had a chance to listen to a recording of the Bellingham City Council Members’ October 24, 2022 Committee of the Whole discussion of the proposal to eliminate parking on portions of four Bellingham streets, including the section of Cornwall Avenue that is near the Bellingham waterfront.

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