Thursday, October 1, 2026
After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations with the Washington State Department of Commerce, Thurston County has contracts that will support local homeless shelters, including two in Olympia that faced state-imposed cuts.
During its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 19, the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) signed off on two major agreements under the state’s Encampment Resolution Program (ERP).
The first was a $3.8 million interagency agreement with the Washington State Department of Commerce. The second was for $3.68 million in provider contracts with Interfaith Works and Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI).
Together, the contracts cover Unity Commons, Quince Street Village, Sandy’s Flats, LIHI Lotus Court and LIHI Maple Court. Each agreement will run for one year, dating back to July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.
Public Health and Social Services Director Jennifer Freiheit said the county’s $3.8 million share comes from a $5,576,751 award issued by Washington State Department of Commerce, with the balance directed to the City of Olympia.
The agreement, she said, covers four ERP projects as well as county administrative costs.
The budget allocation followed a series of negotiations between Washington State Department of Commerce and county officials after the state altered the original distribution plan earlier this summer.
County Manager Leonard Hernandez said the outcome was more favorable to the county, compared to earlier drafts of the plan.
“The final decision that Commerce gave us, which was more in alignment with the Regional Housing Council, very appreciative of their efforts, but understand why those numbers are changing at the last minute. It’s to the county’s advantage,” Hernandez said.
Commissioner Carolina Mejia noted the contracts had been subject to rapid revisions and described the ERP item as “an emergent contract” that required immediate board approval.
Board Chair Tye Menser provided additional context about how the county and the Regional Housing Council had pushed back on Washington State Department of Commerce’s earlier adjustments.
“The Regional Housing Council came forward with recommendations that we thought was the best use of the dollars and Department of Commerce made some adjustments to that, and we weren’t satisfied that those adjustments were in the best interest of the community, so we reached back out, had a follow up meeting with Department of Commerce,” Menser said.
He said the talks with Washington State Department of Commerce eventually brought the numbers closer to the county’s priorities for the coming year.
In the second ERP agreement, the BOCC approved $3.68 million in provider contracts with Interfaith Works and LIHI. The contracts fund Unity Commons, Sandy’s Flats, Lotus Court and Maple Court for the same period.
Freiheit said the updated contract figures were the result of additional negotiations with the Washington State Department of Commerce.
Those discussions, she explained, allowed for new money to be directed to Unity Commons and Olympia’s Quince Street Village, both of which had faced steep cuts in earlier drafts of the state’s allocation plan.
Commissioner Emily Clouse credited county staff for pushing the contracts through after weeks of back-and-forth talks with the commerce department.
“I appreciate the staff. I know you’ve worked diligently to get this up to the finish line, so I’m happy to push this forward today,” she said.
Menser emphasized the board wanted to reinforce shelters already proving effective.
“The shift helps projects that are succeeding, and making sure that they stay successful, versus shifting money from successful projects to less successful projects. We know what’s working here, and we know it was where we need to put our investments,” Menser said.
The contracts passed unanimously, with the BOCC authorizing Freiheit to sign the agreements and make amendments not exceeding 10% of the total value.
26 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
BillString
And yet, the Jungle and other such encampments will continue to exist for years to come, no matter how many "Encampment Resolution Programs" are funded.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
To BillString - this problem will improve when we see a return to companies paying living wages and offering better options in affordable housing.
Blame the billionaires for hoarding all of the money.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Southsoundguy
Oh please…none of that will do anything to deal with the junkies and vagrancy. What a liberal-tier take.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Quadlok
Southsoundguy, have you ever not just said the first thing that pops into your head?
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Tanker1982
I want to support thurston county homeless only. There must be metrics for success against taxpayers funding. Otherwise, we have a self licking ice cream cone with no metrics of success. If we are just hiding the resolution to the problem, defining success, we are in never ending expenditure of taxpayers $$
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Honestyandrealityguy
You can never give away enough free stuff! Find a solution. Require accountability, work and common sense.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
Hey dingus, what happens when jobs don't pay living wages and rent/mortgage rates are out of control? The guy who wears orange makeup isn't fixing any of that, so what do you expect people to do?
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
chrispc2u
I agree with Tanker1982. Serve only locals who are MOMENTARILY on hard times. Since the pandemic Olympia has welcomed professional bums with open arms and bottomless pockets. Downtown has become Lord of the Flies combined with the Zombie Apocalypse. The pandemic is OVER. Move along bums, find a free ride in the next town over where maybe they’ll enable your lack of motivation to work. Work that includes washing dishes, digging ditches or whatever you’re asked to do. But the enabling free ride needs to end.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
TheVirtualOne
Help those who are willing to work and improve their lives. Give the others a one-way ticket out of the state.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Shushu
The next town over where they are taking over and throwing garbage and rocks at cars coming down"their" street is Rochester and no one does anything. We Thurston County residence pay taxes also.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
JulesJames
Funding LIHI is the opposite of progress. Progress is when running away from home -- for out-of-area adults and local kids -- isn't so attractive. We need to write off the folk under the proverbial bridge. The bum's rush is the only way to decrease the street population. We'll never eliminate the flow of folk who -- for whatever reason -- are no longer contributing. But to stem the tide, to take back our streets, parks and greenspaces -- its not housing first. Its get up, get gone or get jail first.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Boatyarddog
Thanks CobraCommander I agree, A hand up is better than a Useless Put down. Small minded people will Lose everytime. Limited Creativity.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Boatyarddog
Well, the Truth is @Quadloc, there isn't much going on up there in SouthsoundGuys Brain but incorrect logic and an EGO loop. Complete BS.
Monday, August 25, 2025 Report this
Boatyarddog
@JulesJames You lookin to get on Orange Hilters good side? Write off Human Beings?, Fkin Cruel.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
mhjwilson
I have not been able to keep up with the changes in the zoning code. Have changes been made to allow for boarding houses like there used to be? How about single room occupancy hotels? Any progress there?
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Chappellg
Southsoundguy, are you so judgmental, angry & bitter that all your comments attack individuals & groups that live differently than you. Try a dollop of empathy & understanding to free yourself from these prejudices that mostly hurt only you.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
HappyOlympian
Olympia becoming another failed west coast city. A city of 60,000 spending millions to support people from who knows where. I notice the article does list how many folks are actually "helped". "Menser emphasized the board wanted to reinforce shelters already proving effective." All the effective places listed feature unemployed folks milling around doing nothing. Unity Commons particularly awful example of failed public housing.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Porter
Spend the six million on a shelter that houses all of the homeless in thurston county. A shelter with individual rooms, 12 feet by 12 feet, communal bathrooms and a communal kitchen. Hire staff and security to manage it and send busses in the morning to pick people up to go work on the public infrastructure.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Bigjules
A one year contract that started last month doesn’t give me the feeling that homelessness will be addressed with a lasting solution.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
JW
LIHI is a joke. Their managed properties are crime and drug infested and increase crime in the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Just ask the Eagles Lodge next to that abomination Unity Commons.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Mugwump
There are three distinct populations of homeless people. One population is simply priced out of housing (Population 1). The second population consists of people with mental illness and/or addiction (Population 2). The third population are people who choose for whatever reason to live outside. (Population 3)
Population 1 can be helped by providing low-cost or subsidized housing.
Population 2 can be helped by providing housing that comes with strings attached: compulsory treatment for mental illness and/or addiction. If members of this population refuse treatment, see Population 3.
Population 3 has made a choice to live outside and we as a society should not feel compelled to "help" them.
Providing "help" for people should incorporate compassion. Compassion is not the same as enabling unhealthy and unsafe choices. People who are, for whatever reason, incapable of making good/healthy decisions deserve our compassion. And sometimes that compassion requires tough love.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
CobraCommander
I see Mugwump is one of those "the sin of empathy" people
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Quadlok
Jesus would beat the **** out of most of you people. Inhuman, greedy monsters. I hope your children break contact and you die in a puddle of your own filth.
Tuesday, August 26, 2025 Report this
Mugwump
It might do people good to understand the difference between empathy and compassion. Compassion, real compassion, isn’t enabling.
Wednesday, August 27, 2025 Report this
LindaD
There are many working poor who cannot afford housing. And yes, there are many undiagnosed, untreated mentally ill who cause endless problems wherever they go, including supported housing. That's why there's so may problems around those locations. Of course nobody wants shelters or supported housing near by. It's wrong to label them NIMBYs unless you're willing to have the problem next to you.
We've lost the old hotels that rented long term and boarding houses which provided so much cheap housing all in the private sector. Over regulation prevents innovation. Yet we need balance.
The city exempts all those big new corporate owned apartment buildings from the rent caps and many regulations that apply to us locals with one rental. That shows contempt for us locals. Really, city, aren't you even a little ashamed for cuddling up with the corporations that suck wealth out of our community and build on land that could be used to build some kind of housing that supports locals, both renters and owners?
Friday, August 29, 2025 Report this
Olygirl4
First of all I'd like to say the header on this article is very deceptive. I thought maybe they were getting money to build new low income housing to get the people out of the encampment aka the jungle off the streets.
But hey it's all good let's not build anymore treatment centers for drug addiction because that's not the problem (insert sarcastic snarl). There's not enough beds in any of the treatment centers around here to help the people that actually want help. I don't want to hear no crap about how they have room just have to wait a week have you ever been an addict? When you're ready to get clean and sober you need to stick with that momentum not be stuck going back to the jungle around all your friends that are drug addicts cuz you just end up using.
And before I get any rude comments about how much I know about this yes I'm a recovering addict I have 24 years clean and yes I'm a local born and raised here except for 9 years in Kentucky I've lived here my entire life. My dad was a police officer for Thurston County back in the day Lacey and a correction officer at the jail he is now retired.
And my son is a current drug addict who lives in the jungle. He got himself off a fentanyl while he was in Thurston County serving time for two and a half months but I need him to get off the other drugs to. He has Crohn's and self-medicates to get through the pain so jobs unless they're short ones and he has an understanding boss are pointless.
So the reason I'm commenting is because it makes me really sad there are all these hateful people in Thurston County where I grew up and spent my life and raised my children. It makes me sad to see how far down all this political BS is dragging everybody. My other son just recently lost his job because of his company closing down because they can't afford to run here anymore.
I work on my own doing cleaning because I make more money and I'm still a paycheck away from being homeless. And it really sucks to think that I would have to go move into the jungle or any of these other places just so I can get housing that's not there. I even tried habitat for humanity and I was .06% making too much money to be able to get a habitat for humanity house. Ain't that a b****.
And you know what I had to do to get clean and sober back in the day? I had to take a felon in position of a firearm charge so my friend wouldn't get his third strike and go to prison for life but I would get enough time in Thurston County jail to get treatment while I was pregnant. Now if that doesn't tell you that we need more treatment facilities here I don't know what does. Don't get me wrong it was my choice to take that charge but that's the only choice I had to be able to get into treatment at the time that I wanted to get into treatment I was ready to be clean and sober I had to go with that momentum and do whatever it took to get me into treatment.
So before you start judging people and making up whatever stories you want to in your own head about all these people maybe you should stop and think about what got them there in the first place. It's not always just wanting to get that high, sometimes it's to stop the pain that you're in because of a medical condition sometimes it's because you've been raped or molested and want those thoughts out of your head and that's the only way you can get them to go away maybe it's something else but stop and have some empathy and compassion because not everything is black and white.
Anyways I'm going to get off my soapbox I just wanted to throw some things out there for people to think about before they go passing judgment. I hope everyone on here has an amazing day and doesn't find themselves in a position where they would have to ask for help for housing.
Monday, September 1, 2025 Report this