‘Everybody is confused.’ Communication issues hurting Pierce homeless response

Consultants hired by Pierce County to plan and implement the Unified Regional Approach to homelessness are mapping the county’s homelessness response system. Already they have identified needs for better data sharing, transparency and accountability.

The Unified Regional Approach (URA) is an attempt to satisfy the first goal identified in Pierce County’s Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness, established by the Pierce County Council four years ago.

The URA is intended to bring together government, community and nonprofit partners involved with the region’s response to the homelessness crisis. The idea is that better coordination and cooperation is needed between jurisdictions and communities.

The effort to assemble the first URA meeting has been long and costly. Last year, Pierce County offered $1 million to a consulting firm to help organize and implement the URA. Uncommon Bridges was the consulting firm chosen.

During a Pierce County Council study session on Aug. 11, Brian Scott, the project director from Uncommon Bridges, gave council members an update on the URA’s development.

The consultants have hosted several meetings with three separate task forces to determine how the URA will operate, how it will govern itself, and how it will be financed. The task forces are composed of representatives from cities around the region, service providers, public agencies, advocates and volunteers.

Scott said his team identified several themes regarding Pierce County’s homelessness-response system from the members of the task forces, describing certain themes as “redundant.”

Some areas for improvement identified include the need to make services centered around the needs of clients, flexibility in how services are provided, and systems to help improve processes that might otherwise maintain the status quo.

Themes and concerns identified by the finance task force include the need to consolidate the grant funding process for services, researching new funding sources and creating a dedicated agency to advocate for state and federal funding for the region.

Some needs identified by the governance task force include a need for an interlocal agreement to clarify the roles and responsibilities of URA members and the scope of what it will do, as well as a need for what Scott called “participation equity.” He described “participation equity” as a way of looking at how jurisdictions are sharing resources with each other in a way that is fair.

“How do you balance the fact that Pierce County and Tacoma are big jurisdictions compared to many smaller cities and the tribes in the region, and you sort of can’t expect everybody to send people and money at the same level, but you kind of need them there to make the system work,” Scott told the council. “We realize finding that equitable spot amongst those jurisdictions is going to be one of the hard parts of this process.”

Scott said another recurring issue identified is the need for better data sharing and data transparency across agencies and jurisdictions.

“Maybe the one that comes up most quickly and most repeatedly is shared data. That is: What are people tracking? How are they reporting it? How are records being kept? Is the data [something] you can trust?” he said. “And that seems to be an overarching thing that comes up in every single group.”

The need for accountability and transparency in decisions made about funding and resources is also a common theme identified across all the task forces. Scott said the URA will have to identify someone to do oversight over how funds are allocated and whether those funds are used correctly.

The consultants told the council they are mapping Pierce County’s homelessness-response system as it currently exists. That means looking at all the jurisdictions to identify what resources are available to those experiencing homelessness and how people can access those resources.

“We’re basically trying to gather this information, and frankly, if you kind of take what we are hearing at the highest level, everybody ‘s like, ‘Well, talk to them,” or, you know, ‘So-and-so says this,’ and everybody is confused,” Scott told the council.

The patchwork system of services and programs across the county can be difficult to quantify. When asked by a council member about the current shelter capacity or the estimated need for services a year from now, Scott was reluctant to answer.

“That’s why we are doing these system illustrations because we feel like we can’t,” he answered. “Even if I came in here and said a number, I would feel like there would be three people behind me telling you it’s the wrong number.”

Uncommon Bridges expects to have the URA fully designed by February 2026.