Unified Regional Approach - Pierce County

Understanding the Existing System

These 13 Maps & Visualizations were prepared by Uncommon Bridges for the Elected Leadership Group of the Unified Regional Approach to Homelessness in Pierce County. They are meant to illustrate the existing homeless response system in the county to the best of our ability. This is not an official report and the data used, some of which is original research the other source is from a Draft Annual County Expenditure Report based on upon SFY 2025 (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025) which is still under review and will be made available publicly in the near future.

Map 1 Homeless Episodes in School Districts

Episodes by School Districts.pdf

This map shows the percentage of Students considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Assistance Act aka the Mckinney-Vento Act which is a federal law that ensures immediate enrollment and educational stability for homeless children and youth. This act defines homelessness as the “lack [of] a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence”.

Below are examples of children and youth who would be considered homeless according to the definition in the Act:

● Children and youth sharing housing due to loss of housing, economic hardship or a similar reason

● Children and youth living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds due to lack of alternative accommodations

● Children and youth living in emergency or transitional shelters

● Children and youth abandoned in hospitals

● Children and youth whose primary nighttime residence is not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation (e.g. park benches, etc)

● Children and youth living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations

● Migratory children and youth living in any of the above situations

Key Takeaway: 1 in every 13 students in Tacoma Public Schools was reported as homeless in the past year, 1 in every 20 for Bethel School District, 1 in every 50 in Peninsula School District.

Data Source: the Washington State Office of Superintendent Instruction, the primary agency charged with overseeing public K–12 education in Washington state.

Map 2: Homeless Episodes in Pierce County

02_Homeless Episodes_HMIS.pdf

This map represents data showing episodes of homelessness in Pierce County. The data for this map is sourced from Pierce County’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a locally-administered data system to record and analyze client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to individuals and families at risk of and experiencing homelessness..

A person is counted as experiencing an episode of homelessness in HMIS when they engage in the coordinated entry process in Pierce County. The intake question for experiencing homelessness of “Where did you last sleep?” allows service providers to collect data in a dropdown which includes Pierce county cities as well as Census Designated Places (official federally recognized areas that are not local governments). The responses from individuals in Pierce County in 2024 are represented on this map as total counts of each episode entered in that jurisdiction or place.

Map 3: Entry and Assessment Points

03_Entry&Assessment Points Visualization.pdf

This map shows locations where individuals can access Coordinated Entry and Emergency shelter as reported in the Pierce County Annual Expenditure Report. This report is based on what the county reported was existing and operational in Pierce County in SFY 2024. For more information about the Annual Expenditure Report please reference the entry for Visualization 9

There are two types of entries shown here:

Coordinated Entry Points: Locations where people can access coordinated entry and enter into the homeless system in Pierce County
Emergency Shelters: temporary lodging for members of the community who are facing a housing crisis or fleeing from abusive circumstances

Nyland Information Systems data was consulted to help geocode the addresses into coordinates on a map.

Map 4: Homeless Service Providers

04_Service Providers Visualization.pdf

This map shows locations where individuals can access Coordinated Entry and Emergency shelter as well as other homelessness services. This data is inclusive of the data in map 3 and is also based on the SFY 2024 Pierce County Annual Expenditure Report, data that the county reported to the Department of Commerce.

Many of these locations may have more than one service offered, but for the purposes of visualization we made an attempt to show the primary function of each location and limited our functions to 8 Categories as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):

Emergency shelters- temporary lodging for members of the community who are facing a housing crisis or fleeing from abusive circumstances
Day Shelter- Locations that provide temporary lodging but may not meet the requirements for the emergency shelter definition
Homelessness Prevention- services and/or financial assistance necessary to prevent a person from moving into an emergency shelter.
Permanent Supportive Housing - is permanent housing in which housing assistance (e.g., long-term leasing or rental assistance) and supportive services are provided to assist households with at least one member (adult or child) with a disability in achieving housing stability. 
Services Only- Locations that provide referrals to other housing or other necessary services—to families and individuals experiencing homelessness
Street Outreach- Locations offer services necessary to reach out to unsheltered homeless people, connect them with emergency shelter, housing, or critical services
Transitional Housing- Locations that provide temporary housing with supportive services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness with the goal of interim stability and support to successfully move to and maintain permanent housing.
Other- Other not listed services

Visualization 5: Referral Relationships

Emergency shelters- temporary lodging for members of the community who are facing a housing crisis or fleeing from abusive circumstances
Day Shelter- Locations that provide temporary lodging but may not meet the requirements for the emergency shelter definition
Homelessness Prevention- services and/or financial assistance necessary to prevent a person from moving into an emergency shelter.
Permanent Supportive Housing- is permanent housing in which housing assistance (e.g., long-term leasing or rental assistance) and supportive services are provided to assist households with at least one member (adult or child) with a disability in achieving housing stability. 
Services Only- Locations that provide referrals to other housing or other necessary services—to families and individuals experiencing homelessness
Street Outreach- Locations offer services necessary to reach out to unsheltered homeless people, connect them with emergency shelter, housing, or critical services
Transitional Housing- Locations that provide temporary housing with supportive services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness with the goal of interim stability and support to successfully move to and maintain permanent housing.
Other- Other not listed services

Visualization 6: Service Provider Data Systems

A 18 Question Survey was distributed electronically to service providers located within Pierce County to better understand how they are currently handling data related to their work in homelessness response as well as their practices and standards regarding that data.

The survey was sent to 63 providers and 23 responses were received. Which is only about a third of those who were outreached to and therefore this data is only representative of of a portion of providers within the county.

Responses to a survey to homeless service providers demonstrated that most but not all use HMIS, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a locally-administered data system to record and analyze client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to individuals and families at risk of and experiencing homelessness. Some also use other data systems (which may duplicate their work) and over 60% think their organization does an effective job collecting & managing data.

Visualization 7: Data Sharing Challenges

An 18 Question Survey was distributed electronically to service providers located within Pierce County to better understand how they are currently handling data related to their work in homelessness response as well as their practices and standards regarding that data.

Homeless service providers ranked their challenges in sharing data across systems. Surprisingly, it was not consent, internal policy, or privacy & confidentiality regulations issues, but rather methodology, duplication, and lack of formal agreements that were cited most frequently. This is useful to determine what challenge to tackle first - shared definitions.

What are the primary challenges your organization faces in data sharing and collaboration across systems? (Select level of challenge: Major Challenge, Moderate Challenge, Minor Challenge, Not a Challenge)

Privacy and confidentiality regulations (HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2, etc.)
Incompatible technology systems and data formats
Lack of standardized data definitions and collection methods
Organizational policies restricting data sharing
Client consent and permission requirements
Staff capacity and training for data sharing protocols
Funding restrictions on data sharing activities
Lack of formal agreements between organizations
Different organizational cultures and priorities

Visualization 8: Contract Requirements

These visualizations, created by HR &A (part of the consultant team) highlights how contract requirements for homeless services are inconsistent across different jurisdictions in Pierce County. There is a matrix showing how timelines and data reporting requirements vary among just five sample contracts from five jurisdictions/funders. There are also quotes: highlighting how these different contract requirements are creating significant administrative inefficiencies for service providers.

Source: Review of approximately 50 contracts shared with the consulting team. Along with interviews with providers that get funded by multiple fund sources focused on “challenging” or “misaligned” standards of fund sources

08a_Contract Requirements_combined.pdf

08c_Operating Standards_SPOE.pptx

08b_Contract data standards.pptx

Visualization 9: Funding Sources

This visualization is a pie chart representing the sources of funding used for homelessness response work in Pierce County. The potential sources of funding are:

- - The Federal Government
    - - Temporary-These are short term or one time allocations of funding from the United States Government i.e., CARES Act Emergency Solutions Grant & HOME American Rescue Plan (HOME – ARP)
      - Recurring-These are sources of funding that are a consistent part of the allocations of funding from the United States Government. E.g., Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services for Rental Assistance, Continuum of Care,
  - Washington State Government: This is funding that is distributed to entities in Pierce County from theWashington State Legislature’s budget process and are distributed by the Washington State Department of Commerce. For more information about these sources you can visit the Department of Commerce website
  - Local Government (County & Cities): As part of the budgeting process for Pierce County and the jurisdictions within e.g. Homeless Document Recording Fee Fund: Develops, implements, and monitors County plans and activities to end homelessness.
  - Private Funding: These could be from grants from private foundations or donations from individuals to fund

Source of Data

SFY 2025 (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025) Annual County Expenditure Report, Direct Reporting from Staff at cities of Fife, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, and Tacoma

What is the Annual County Expenditure Report?

The state of Washington requires each county in the state to report all expenditures by funding source for each homeless housing project in their community. The Washington Department of Commerce uses the expenditure data in combination with data entered into HMIS, the Homelessness Management Information System, locally-administered data system to record and analyze client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to individuals and families at risk of and experiencing homelessness to create a consolidated report for the entire state of Washington which is published annually on their website.

Visualization 10: Funding Uses

This visualization uses data from the recently submitted draft of the Pierce County Annual Expenditure Report for SFY 2025 (July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025) along with data collected from jurisdictions directly : Gig Harbor, Lakewood, and City of Tacoma to show how homelessness response funding is used in Pierce County by type of project .

Below are the definitions of project types. The majority of these categories have been defined and sourced by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the non-HUD defined projected types are based upon the description of the services provided in the respective jurisdictions.

Emergency Shelter - Entry/Exit: A project that offers temporary shelter (lodging) for people experiencing homelessness in general or for specific populations of people experiencing homelessness.
PH - Rapid Re-Housing: A permanent housing project that provides housing relocation and stabilization services and/or short-and/or medium-term rental assistance as necessary to help an individual or family experiencing homelessness move as quickly as possible into permanent housing
and achieve stability in that housing.
PH - Permanent Supportive Housing (disability required for entry): A project that offers permanent housing and supportive services to assist people experiencing homelessness with a disability (individuals with disabilities or families in which one adult or child has a disability) to live independently.
Homelessness Prevention: A project that offers services and/or financial assistance necessary to prevent a person from entering an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation.
Transitional Housing: A project that provides temporary lodging and is designed to facilitate the movement of individuals and families experiencing homelessness into permanent housing within a specified period of time, but no longer than 24 months. Requirements and limitations may vary by program and will be specified by the funder.
Coordinated Entry/Assessment: A project that administers the CoCs centralized or coordinated process for assessment and referral of individuals and families seeking housing or services, including the use of a comprehensive and standardized assessment tool.
PH-Other Permanent Housing: This includes the two sub types of housing below.
- - PH – Housing Only: A project that offers permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness but does not make supportive services available as part of the project.
  - PH - Housing with Services (no disability required for entry) A project that offers permanent housing and supportive services to assist people experiencing

Visualization 11: Revenue from Local Taxes & Fees

This visualization is a pie chart representing the sources of funding used for homelessness response work in Pierce County from local sources. Although homeless response is funded by Federal, State, Private funding as well, this particular chart calls out the individual sources that make up the Funding Source Local as represented in Visualization 9: Funding Sources.

The local sources of revenue that fund homeless response in Pierce County are:

Local Document Recording Fee: this is a surcharge specifically designated for homelessness housing and assistance programs. This surcharge is collected by the Pierce County Auditor and is used to fund local efforts to prevent and address homelessness.
City of Tacoma General Fund: The General Fund is the main operating fund that pays for general services provided by the City of Tacoma. The General Fund accounts for all general revenues of the City and for expenditures related to the rendering of the City’s general services.
City of Tacoma Substance Use and Mental Health Treatment Sales Tax: The City of Tacoma has joined jurisdictions all over the state to implement a 0.1% increase in the sales tax (This is only 1/10th of one percent or one penny for every $10 purchase.) The money under this section must be used solely for the purpose of providing for substance use disorder or mental health treatment programs and services that may include therapeutic court programs, case management, and housing. [Source]
City of Fife General Fund: This is money allocated from the general operating budget for the City of Fife that was used for homeless response work.
City of Lakewood General Fund: This is money allocated from the general operating fund for the City of Lakewood for homeless response work.
City of Gig Harbor General Fund: This is money allocated from the general operating fund for the City of Gig Harbor for homeless response work.
City of Gig Harbor Opioid Settlement Fund: This is money that has been allocated from settlement funds won from lawsuits against companies that were found to have contributed to the opioid epidemic. The City of Gig Harbor used this funding to staff a Health and Human Services position in their local government.

Visualization 12: Government Affairs Staffing

This visualization represents how Pierce County and its various jurisdictions provide staffing for Government Affairs work. The responsibility of individuals engaging in government affairs work is to build and sustain relationships with government officials and other stakeholders for the purpose of trying to influence legislation and policy and engage in advocacy in the interest of the jurisdiction they represent.

This visual demonstrates what capacity is available for the local jurisdictions of Pierce County to advocate for sustained or additional funding for homeless response work.

Left Column: List of Pierce County and all included jurisdictions along with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians.
Top Row: Type of Staffing that exists for Government Affairs Work in that jurisdiction.

Key Takeaways:

The City of Tacoma and Pierce County have in-house dedicated staff for government affairs work. Many jurisdictions have either in-house part-time staffing or a contract lobbyist engaging in government affairs work. About half of jurisdictions listed do not resource any government affairs staffing.
This is an area of opportunity for Pierce County to have a Unified Approach to advocacy.

Visualization 13: System Governance

This visualization exists to represent how the existing homeless response system is governed in Pierce County. It shows the significant organizations, jurisdictions, and entities as well as the flow of funding, policy, information, services and support between them.

Currently the flow of policy and governance is attached to the flow of funding direct from the two major sources of funding, as noted in Visualization 9, the United States Federal Government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Washington State Government through the Department of Commerce and State Legislature.

There is not a single agency or entity within Pierce County unifying these various streams. One significant proposal from within the Unified Regional Approach is to create a framework for oversight and accountability for the homeless response system and this map demonstrates the need for said framework.

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