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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Send your input now as Whatcom County seeks to improve homeless sheltering services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of the first page of a Whatcom County draft resolution to expand year-round shelter capacity and create a shelter subcommittee to access the full document on the Whatcom County website

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen significant action from Whatcom County Council toward activating more resources to increase County-managed homeless sheltering capacity. Although some strides had been made by Whatcom County government in activating their own emergency severe weather shelter in 2023/2024, the impact of that critical effort was dwarfed by the increase in people who found themselves living outside when the rain, snow, ice, and winds struck during that time.

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Additional funding available to support the operation of a continuous Winter Shelter, if necessary / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Link to Whatcom County’s full Severe Weather Shelter RFP that closed on August 29: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/77699/23-57-Severe-Winter-Weather-Shelter-Facility-Operators—City-of-Bham?bidId=533
Link to Whatcom County’s full Severe Weather Shelter RFP that closed on August 29: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/77699/23-57-Severe-Winter-Weather-Shelter-Facility-Operators—City-of-Bham?bidId=533

September 14, 2023 Dena Jensen

From a recently closed Whatcom County Request for Proposal (RFP): “The County and the City would consider making additional funding available to support the operation of a continuous Winter Shelter, if necessary.”

“…if necessary”??? What kind of language is this after years of brutality to many community members otherwise left to sleep outside during winter?

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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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Transcript: update from the Whatcom County Health Department on severe weather shelter plans / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the still frame of a video recording of the 09/27/22 Whatcom County Council Committee of the Whole meeting to access the recording via the Whatcom County website

October 4, 2023 Dena Jensen

At Whatcom County Council’s September 27, 2022 Committee of the Whole Meeting, committee members received an update on severe weather shelter plans for the upcoming cold weather season from the Whatcom County Health Department’s Human Services Manager, Ann Beck. I am providing a written transcript of that presentation in this blog post.

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Whatcom County Council Members need more education related to homeless services / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the still frame of the recorded 8/02/22 virtual meeting of Whatcom County Council meeting as the Health Board to access that recording on the Whatcom County website

August 2, 2022 Dena Jensen

Our Whatcom County Council Members continue to need additional education and oversight on their positions regarding homeless services in Whatcom County. You can contact your Council Members with your input regarding the following information with contact information provided at the bottom of this post.

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