Thursday, October 1, 2026
Residents and advocates urged Olympia leaders to take immediate action on housing access and anti-discrimination protections, tying their concerns to the city’s Fair Housing Month proclamation.
The Olympia City Council designated April 2026 as Fair Housing Month, committing “to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities for all.” The council made the move at a meeting on Tuesday, April 14.
That commitment contrasted with a longtime resident's account of living without stable housing.
C-C Coates said she is disabled and living in a van, where she has remained in the same area near her church, Gloria Dei Lutheran, for six years.
“I am homeless. I'm disabled. I'm living in a van. I have a stalker who's been inflicting hate crimes on me, and he's been using homelessness services to come after me,” said Coates to the council during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“Every single day, they have the right to steal my home and put me in dire circumstances without any shelter,” she said, referring to enforcement that requires her to move or park on public land.
Coates, who has been a resident of Olympia for 35 years, described herself as a senior and frail. She expressed concerns about gaps in housing assistance, including rising rents and limited housing assistance.
“We are going to see senior citizens and disabled people turned out onto the street to receive brutal treatment from the state,” said Coates, adding, “My church wants to take me in, but it is illegal for them to do so under current rules.”
She questioned how her current situation aligns with the city’s stated commitment to fair housing.
“So, where is my fair housing? You need to change the system now. This law is brutal and harrowing,” Coates said. “I do not know where my life, liberty or pursuit of happiness is to be harrowed for the rest of my life.”
Another speaker, Sam Kellendy, urged the council to move beyond recognition and take concrete action, saying there is a significant overlap between the transgender community and people experiencing homelessness.
Kellendy said both groups face high levels of abuse and discrimination.
“They are targeted for existing and treated as pests. … but houseless people are humans too," Kellendy said.
Kellendy called on the city to treat unhoused residents as part of the community and respond with compassion.
Other speakers who participated in the public comment period questioned the city’s definition of fair housing, calling it “tone-deaf” to celebrate a proclamation while people remain unsheltered.
Stephanie Scott linked housing and transgender rights together, saying Olympia’s “sanctuary” language does not match Coates’ lived experience.
“Sanctuary should mean she can sleep without being threatened and exist without being harassed," Scott said.
Grace Fletcher, a southwest Olympia resident, said harassment of a transgender woman in her neighborhood reflects concerns about targeting vulnerable residents.
“Weaponizing city systems to harass someone is not community safety," Fletcher said.
She urged the city to recognize patterns of harassment and strengthen protections for vulnerable residents, including unhoused neighbors and transgender community members.
Council members responded, acknowledging Coates’ lived experience. They offered to follow up with the Olympia Police Department (OPD), but did not propose any immediate solutions.
Mayor Dontae Payne said he had spoken with OPD Chief Shelby Parker about Coates’ concerns and requested a follow-up.
He said the city’s housing proclamation reflects intent and values, and noted sanctuary status does not guarantee the absence of crime.
“But it doesn’t mean that we should not strive for it," Payne said.
The mayor added the city has housed hundreds of people but acknowledged limits, noting progress is not happening fast enough to fully house and protect everyone.
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JW
Hard for residents to receive the services they might need when they are crowded out by people not from this city, state, or even side of this country who come to Olympia for the gravy train.
Thursday, April 16 Report this
Tanker1982
Precisely JW. Our taxes should help Thurston county residents only., everyone else should go home. If you pay the gravy train to anyone/ everyone, you can bet they will come. Are thurston county residents supposed to support everyone arriving in our county and demanding support?
Thursday, April 16 Report this
ClimateTeam
Not sure what JW means. ALL people need to be able to live in decent housing safe and secure from predators and other safety concerns. It's not an easy task but ALL people have worth and deserve safe and affordable housing, even those people you don't agree with.
Thursday, April 16 Report this
JW
The line has to be drawn somewhere. I say draw it at the city limits. Our tax money, our people, our support. Otherwise there is no end.
Thursday, April 16 Report this
HappyOlympian
As per JW, Olympia a small city with limited resources but a lot of folks here expect very expensive support to whoever wants it. Local resources devoted to help the homeless already astronomical. Providing opportunities, as per the proclamation not the same as everyone gets a place to live at someone else's expense. And when I mean someone I mean the employed working people paying the taxes! Time for ClimateTeam to provide Coates with a place to park the van and provide ALL the help she needs to feel safe instead of expecting everyone else to fulfill such lofty principles.
Friday, April 17 Report this
JS122471
While I believe it is our responsibility to offer resources to those in need, it can't just be at the detriment of everyone else. I should have the right to live in a city that is safe as well. Where my child doesn't have to grow up with drug addicts openly doing drugs in public or passed out on the sidewalk. Most people don't want to go back to encampments everywhere and broke down vans and RVs parked all over the place. Many of us can't afford a tax increase to give more resources to this group of people. All that will do is push many of us into that same boat. So yeah, we have to find the balance and pick and choose where and how those resources get handed out. I wish we lived in a magical world where anyone who wanted drug treatment got it, who needed housing got it, who needed food got it. We don't currently live in that world.
Friday, April 17 Report this
Southsoundguy
Are these mentally disturbed people asking for more tax dollars?
Friday, April 17 Report this
JasonS
@ ClimateTeam -- What JW means is that Olympia and Thurston County has been attracted folks in need from other counties (and even other states) because our city offers services and theirs often do not. So then the local folks in need here aren't getting all the assistance they could be due to the increased competition from those outsiders. Unfortunately, there isn't much our own city or county can do to make those other cities/ counties/ states provide similar services for their own residents.
Friday, April 17 Report this
LeahStio
This person has been here 35 years. I hope the jolt keeps following up with the mayor to make sure she gets in somewhere.
Saturday, April 18 Report this
EllipsisOG
The Fair Housing Month proclamation highlights the need for better housing access and anti-discrimination protections. It assumes the programs already in place are effectively catching vulnerable, newly unhoused people and quickly moving them back into stable shelter. But, it's just not the case.
Two months ago I was discharged from Harborview after three weeks in the SICU with life-threatening surgical wounds running from armpit to wrist—sutures, staples, and scaffolding still in place. As a middle-aged white woman with no additional discriminatory barriers—no systemic bias, no educational limitations, no mental-or developmental disorders—I followed every recommended step: Coordinated Entry, the 24-hour housing hotline, 211, respite providers, churches, crisis lines, a Molina complex case manager, DSHS for ABD, Catholic Community Services for the HEN program and cycled back to follow up with all of them when I received no calls or calls telling me there was no help to be had.
Despite jumping through every hoop, I received no offer of shelter, temporary or emergency voucher. I used every resource and dime available trying to stay safe and housed only to miss my skin-graft surgery while huddled up with my service dog in the hotel parking lot instead. I'd run out of money.
This isn't to garner sympathy, my story isn't special. Every story is horrible. My point is that I fit the demographic of people "most likely to receive support" and still have none. So can you even imagine what nightmares other people are experiencing?
Public investments in these programs must produce actual results. Fair housing requires more than proclamations and anti-discrimination rules on paper; it requires a system that works in practice and that can't really be said.
Saturday, April 18 Report this
Wesley
OMG why is she dressed like that? And what's with the mask? Is she Patient Zero . . . ?
Sunday, April 19 Report this
Boatyarddog
JW GravyTrain. You thing assistance is a GravyTrain? Your a privileged Individual No doubt rude and disrespectful.
Sunday, April 19 Report this
Boatyarddog
Tanker1982 Home? Could you even explain Where that is for a HOME less Person. Don't be A Sheep
Sunday, April 19 Report this
Boatyarddog
Southsoundguy exactly
Sunday, April 19 Report this
Boatyarddog
Southsoundguy Yes they are Your Peeps
Sunday, April 19 Report this
Southsoundguy
Nah, pretty sure that is a dude doing Little House on the Prairie cosplay.
Monday, April 20 Report this