Thursday, October 1, 2026
The City of Olympia has completed a 16-month effort to close the Percival Creek Canyon homeless encampment and provide housing placement for its residents.
Community Planning and Economic Development Director Susan McLaughlin made the announcement during a meeting of the Regional Housing Council (RHC) on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
McLaughlin said the encampment closure was part of Olympia’s “One Community” plan, which implements a housing-first approach.
She said city staff placed as many individuals as possible into housing before finalizing the site cleanup.
The closure was supported by Washington State Department of Commerce funding, which helped relocate individuals into available housing.
RHC Chair Emily Clouse, who also serves on the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners, noted the county had received community feedback calling for a more coordinated regional approach to maintaining the by-name list, a record used to track and offer housing to encampment residents.
Clouse said some individuals may have returned to the site or arrived after the list was finalized. The individuals claimed it created discrepancies between county and city counts. She asked whether people not included on the by-name list were still offered housing assistance.
Olympia Homeless Response Coordinator Kim Kondrat said the city followed state protocols under the Department of Commerce’s Encampment Resolution Program, which limits placement to people identified on the official list.
Kondrat said Olympia assumed outreach and placement duties in July after OlyMAP’s contract ended, by which time the by-name list had already been closed.
“We followed the same procedure of finding everyone on that list and placing all those we could,” Kondrat told the housing council.
During the discussion, several challenges with housing placement were identified, including insufficient housing options, funding limitations, placement restrictions and future uncertainty.
Interfaith Works Executive Director Meg Martin asked if there would be a work plan to include additional housing units and shelter units for the placement of people.
She said there were “not nearly enough housing options for the number of people that needed it.” This means many individuals from Percival Creek likely ended up in The Jungle, the only remaining encampment.
Martin also serves as a member of the Thurston Affordable Housing Advisory Board.
McLaughlin admitted a challenge in housing everybody due to reduced federal and state resources for shelter and brick-and-mortar housing projects.
However, she said the city is committed to creating housing solutions and will develop multiple alternative strategies as part of a work plan.
McLaughlin also noted the city's attention will now turn to addressing The Jungle encampment. She added Olympia plans to develop a comprehensive work plan in collaboration with regional partners.
15 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
JohnFronono
Can’t wait for the measured and insightful comments that are bound to follow.
Monday, October 27, 2025 Report this
Snevets
Thank you to those who made this happen.
Monday, October 27, 2025 Report this
OlyBlues
Wow, it only took 16 months for the city of Olympia to address this out of control toxic wasteland polluting Percival Creek with trash and squalor everywhere? What an amazing feat! How about an enforcement FIRST approach to never let public property get this bad in the first place instead of waiting for the situation to become out of control, unmanageable, and dangerous? Lacey does this and provides compassionate response with social workers at the forefront and has great results. The Olympia Dems that revel in this squalor should take note.
Monday, October 27, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
"McLaughlin also noted the city's attention will now turn to addressing The Jungle encampment. She added Olympia plans to develop a comprehensive work plan in collaboration with regional partners. " Project to be completed in 2040, cost to be a mere 7 figures.
Monday, October 27, 2025 Report this
GinnyBanana
I always wish The Jolt included maps with stories so I could tell exactly where the story is located. Not all of us are in tune to the homeless camp locations. Next, where is The Jungle?
Personally, I understand all the red tape and complications that agencies have to jump through in order to get the simplest things done. I can't condemn the length of time taken for this to take place. I'm glad the homeless were given some place to live. I wish our country had no homeless and that more could be done to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. That is a complex issue for a different time. Right now, I applaud any and all efforts to help those in need.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
U2BH2Shaun
What there needs to be is a measured approach to the creation of a prevention and reduction plan for homelesses in Thurston County.
The first thing would be to start to pass measures which would create and enforce lowering rent prices, which have created a huge disparity between incomes and living expenses.
Create a comprehensive treatment and after treatment housing plan. Almost every single person that is homeless in Thurston County is addicted to either meth or Fantanyl. It doesnt matter if there ste enough housing placements to put people into if they are still using because they lack the ability to mot use drugs, they have none or forgotten life skills to get and maintain housing on a permanent basis.
This is the most common problem with housing addendums for any city, because they continue to use, end uo getting kicked out of their housing situation because they have too much traffic, cant keep the place theyve been placed in clean, and dont have work or a purpose to focus on daily. Their focus and daily purpose is to maintain their addiction at all costs.
Consider this approach to rehousingg and reintegration:
1. Treatment first. Have a bed ready in a treatment facility (mandatory for housing placement)
2. While in treatment
a. Lifeskills instruction
b. Reintegration instruction
c. Job search instruction
After treatment:
1. Have housing placement ready for move in by treatment graduate of in patient treatment program
2. Intensive Outpatient treatment program
3. Continuing lifestyles and reintegration program
4. Job search assistance program
5. Spiritual awareness and mindfulness program.
(This last one is incredibly important. Teach meditation and inner wisdom practices. And will increases participants chances of staying clean and reinforces reintegration instruction)
I truly beleive thet if all governments were to create a comprehensive program that included all of these variables, the success rate for rehouding and reintegration back into society would be at least 40%-60% higher in each case than it is now.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
Virge13
Thank you to all for the insightful, helpful comments. As always, there will be snark from individuals who have no lived experience of the problem at hand or have no empathy. I question whether “every unhoused person is addicted to meth or fentanyl” and I would like to know what that opinion is based on. I DO know many of the unhoused people I talk to have untreated mental health issues. At any rate, please remember these unhoused folks are human beings worthy of respect and dignity. ANY funds allocated to getting all of them into safe living conditions with after support is money well spent.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
Jmoneycomedy
I believe there to be a solution that can get rid of crime and homelessness to nearly 100% though politics will not allow it.
By providing housing, food, and every basic necessity to all there would then be little reason for people to commit crime. It's called automation. But politics won't allow it since it will replace the currency based economic system, remove the people in power out of power, and the people are not educated on it enough to fear it's transition.
Yes all jobs will be replaced by technology. But if there are no more jobs then there is no more use for money based economy. Everything is free and supplied by technology. Allowing us the freedom to travel or do whatever we wish as if it was summer vacation year round for the rest of our lives. The only thing getting ourselves into trouble would be boredom itself.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
DRamsey2
The downtown Olympia area isn't an encampment according to this article. But it shouldn't be forgotten as an area with a significant unhoused population. The number of people sleeping in doorways on Capitol Way is increasing, and some are curled up in their bags by 6:30 pm. Some have their spot staked out much earlier than that, on sidewalks where pedestrians are already facing a challenge due to the broken sidewalk panels. The Olympia Transit Center area, on Washington St and Olympia Ave for example, has crowds of people hanging out with apparently nowhere else they prefer to go. I wish some articles would address the needs of all the users of downtown Olympia, instead of just focusing on individual issues such as parking, homelessness, broken down sidewalks, lighting, empty storefronts, difficult regulations for retailers, etc. Olympia is a community, and the intersection of these issues are important problems in themselves. Navigating the sidewalks leading to businesses and restaurants on dark winter days, using buses in and out of the Transit Center to get around Olympia, these are issues that inevitably involve both the house and unhoused and we all want a decent quality of life.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
hptrillium
In response to U2BH2Shaun
This plan looks good but the problem is there are not enough treatment beds and not enough places to house people afterward. Also many need mental health treatment which there is not enough of. I also doubt the accuracy of most all homeless being addicted. Have there been any studies to back this up?
As living expenses continue to rise and government assistance programs close there will be lots more homesless. Increasing the minumum wage is needed but not by Prop. 1 which is too complicated and poorly written and will not have the intended effect of raising the poor's standerd of living.
This is a tough problem to solve but it should be a priority above other less urgently needed projects.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
A few comments here make it sound as though all it takes is opportunity. Folks, 10-15% of the population, and most of the homeless, can't keep track of money, paying bills, arriving to work/appointments when required. The American justice system thrives on the same demographic - commit a crime and fail to appear in court as required and a warrant will be issued and your life ruined; read the crime blotter, half the folks arrested on warrant issues and many of these the same homeless population. No matter what fluffy ideas folks on her have, Ginnyy, U2 etc.....not going to have any positive impact. The issue not empathy, the issue an inability of a lot of folks to think beyond the next hour and do what is needed to provide for themselves.
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
BrightLite19
What would be involved money-wise, and land-wise to get a community started for the poor, and make the homes from shipping containers? There are so many more people who know how to turn these into nice, good-looking, and functional homes. We have plenty shipping containers with WA being a coastline state. Is this a viable option?
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 Report this
NiteOwl
Where is Percival Creek Canyon?
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 Report this
Claire
Bottom line: The operative word here is accountability. No entity requires accountability. The Salvation Army does. Granted, they have limited resources because their funding is from limited grants and voluntary contributions/staffing.
The Shitty of Olympia is the worst municipality for any kind of accountability. The Olympia Shitty Council has made excuses enabling homelessness for a decade or more. Change is needed. No, required, to effect any changes.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 Report this
Wesley
Disgusting vagrants.
Saturday, November 1, 2025 Report this