Brian Coddington, Communications Director, 509.625.6740
Thursday, August 3, 2023 at 1:40 p.m.
Mayor Nadine Woodward issued an executive order today pledging support to the regional homelessness collaborative and providing access to City staff, data, and information relevant to homelessness, affordable housing, and behavioral health.
The order commits access to accounting, legal, and data systems staff with the intent of completing the work necessary to execute the legal documents to create a regional authority. Establishing a regional authority is the vision outlined in the Homelessness Plan 2.0 that Woodward announced in April 2022. A vote of the City Council will still be required to join the regional authority.
“A regional collaboration is an important advancement of the plan we developed with stakeholders to make our system more efficient at moving individuals quickly into supportive situations that produce better outcomes,” Woodward said. “We need this final push of data and information to launch this collaboration and the City is committed to partnering regionally.”
Woodward launched her Homelessness Plan 2.0 during her State of the Address last year. That plan has eight strategies that include getting individuals into emergency housing, knowing them by name and need, wrapping services around them, creating more housing inventory, and shared responsibility for outcomes. Establishing a regional authority is a central part of Woodward’s Homelessness Plan 2.0, which was the next evolution to an initial plan she presented to the City Council the summer after taking office and the early months of the pandemic.
The initial plan focused on meeting existing and emerging health and safety needs. It prioritized 6-month needs related to the pandemic, improving the Cannon Street shelter to convert it from seasonal to year-round use with better access to services, establishing a bridge model for transitional space, and collaborating on the opening of a shelter space specifically for 18-to-24-year-olds.
The Young Adult Shelter has opened, Cannon Street operated for two years as a year-round shelter before combing resources into the Trent Resource and Assistance Center navigation model, and the Way Out Center has been operating as a service-intensive transitional housing program.
The Trent Resource and Assistance Center opened last fall as a navigation center with on-site service connection and ability to flex to meet emergent weather and environmental needs.
