Pierce County expected to allocate $22.3M for village-like shelter

By Spencer Pauley The Center Square

A homeless shelter that acts as a village is being pitched to the Pierce County Council for $22.3 million in allocated funds.

The village would be modeled after a community in Austin, Texas, called Community First! Village. The proposed village in Pierce County would be built on 86 wooded acres near the Cross-Base Highway and Spanaway

All the work. All the time. The presentations and preparation. The negotiations and research. The emails. The letters. The meetings … the meetings … and the meetings. The entire culmination of relaunching the railroad project into motion was within his grasp in the form of his tiebreaking “yay” vote.

However, when called to vote on the resolution, Mayor Baublits elected to recuse himself.

He probably did this knowing full well that there was likely no legal requirement for him to do so and that there was little, if anything, opposing members of the council — myself included — could do to prevent the motion from passing. Instead, the mayor’s recusal resulted in a 2-2 tie vote and, lacking a majority vote in support of the resolution, the motion to approve the resolution failed. In what I can only presume must have been a tremendous internal conflict between his desire to see the railroad project moved forward and his obligation as an elected official to appear to govern fairly, Mayor Baublits elected to sacrifice the project for the sake of avoiding the appearance of governing in favor of a personal agenda.

Governing as an elected official is not easy. Governing can include putting a

Loop Road. The village itself would cover 27 acres, with the remainder being forested open space.

“I was very excited to see the success of Community First! in Austin helping those trapped on the streets with addiction and untreated mental illness,” Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier said in a statement. “This proposal provides our most vulnerable with a chance for hope and a home ... and our community with a solution remarkable amount of work into a proposal only to have it rejected by the governing body. It comes very easy to some to criticize the decisions of elected officials, even easier for others who play social media keyboard warrior and cultivate animosity towards those who, for all intents and purposes, are simply trying to govern the best they can.

Many, however, fail to acknowledge or recognize the amount of time that goes into understanding an issue from all perspectives and the toll it can take in processing the negativity that

they can believe in.”

The village is expected to house 257 formerly homeless people when built, according to the county. The village would include support services, healthcare, community gathering spaces and microenterprises. Notably, residents would be expected to pay rent and contribute to the overall community. Along with guidelines in place for residents, a surveillance system and a controlled gate would be constructed. There accompanies unpopular, yet necessary, decisions. Although it does not aways result in a consensus within Eatonville’s government, I can speak with absolute certainty that your six Town of Eatonville elected officials make every effort to govern in a way that is fair and responsible, and that each is doing their very best to govern the best that they know how.

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve read “… they’re just in it to line their pockets,” or “… they’re just doing it to get what they want,” I’d have just enough nickels to take my daughter would be 24/7 monitoring of the village grounds and the county expects up to 28 residents of the village to volunteer to aid staff in security.

The Tacoma Rescue Mission has worked with homeless people in Pierce County for more than 100 years, according to the mission’s executive director, Duke Paulson. The mission has already purchased the 86 acres of land for village construction.

According to the county, to the Roxy, my son to Malibu Yogurt, or my wife to dinner as apologies for missing another soccer game, baseball game or date night as the result of studying for and/ or attending another town meeting. Should you ever need an example that reflects the simple desire to govern in the council is expected to consider and vote on releasing the $22.3 million that was previously allocated in the current biennial budget for the village “in the near future.” the best interests of the Town of Eatonville, bookmark the actions taken by Councilmember Litzenberger and Mayor Baublits when they surrendered their votes on this resolution. You will likely never find a more shining example of governing with integrity and without personal interest. Participate in your government. Attend the meetings. Speak and be heard. Email or call your elected officials. It’s a pleasure to serve.

With an expected vote in favor of the proposed village, a comprehensive engagement and outreach effort will be launched to provide more details for neighborhoods on the perimeter of the site and surrounding community.

Bill Dunn Eatonville Town Council, Position No. 4 bdunn@eatonvillewa.gov

Jerry joined the Army in 1975 and served several tours in Germany working in the transportation sector. Through his 15 years in the Army, driving became Jerry’s passion and he spent many years as a long haul truck driver following his army service.

Upon retirement, Jerry settled in Eatonville Washington, where he enjoyed motorcycles, traveling, operating heavy equipment and above all, helping others. Jerry was active in the AA community and recently celebrated 33 years of sobriety.

Jerry’s short battle with cancer was valiantly fought and he passed away at his beloved “Virgin Waters’ in Eatonville on September 23rd 2022.

Jerry is survived by his loving partner Mary and the friends and family he chose to call his own.