Title
Housing and Homeless Response Briefing
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Progress report on programs, policies and initiatives in the housing and homeless response department.
Staff Contact:
Darian Lightfoot, Director of Housing and Homeless Response, 360.280.8951
Presenter(s):
Darian Lightfoot, Director of Housing and Homeless Response
Background and Analysis:
In 2018, the City hired its first Homeless Response Coordinator and Home Fund Manager, moving the City to take a more active role in the nationwide housing crisis. The Homeless Response Coordinator's role was to help support unsheltered residents and their transition to housing and manage other city-wide impacts. Over the years, the Homeless Response team has now grown to four staff working on a variety of different programs and initiatives including, tiny home village operations, encampment management, Governor Inslee's Rights-of-Way Initiative, RV liveaboard policy, workforce development, hazardous weather sheltering and more. The City's comprehensive, housing first approach is seen a best practice and allows the team to partner closely with the Olympia Police Department and Olympia Fire Department to balance compassion and accountability.
The City has also taken a very active role in housing policy and affordable housing development. While a majority of the Home Fund is now combined with Thurston County to best regionalize the housing development efforts, staff are working to create a pipeline of projects that will help bring units online faster and be more competitive for state and federal funding options. Some projects include, commercial to residential adaptive reuse, manufactured home park cooperative, land swaps with other public entities, and more. Staff have also responded to nation-wide data highlighting the increasing housing instability of renters, developing renter protection ordinances and a rental registry to help keep people housed and...
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