Thurston County seeks to close facilitation gap in housing experience committee 

In an attempt to fill a role left vacant earlier this year, Thurston County is working to restart a $50,000 request for proposals (RFP) after its first round failed to find a facilitator for the Lived Experience Housing Steering Committee. 

The RFP, originally released in January, is a part of the county’s homeless services strategy. It failed to advance after the sole applicant was deemed unqualified. 

During the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) agenda setting meeting on Tuesday, April 22, officials discussed a proposal to authorize Public Health and Social Services to reissue the proposal.  

Thomas Webster, Senior Program Manager in the Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention, said the Regional Housing Council approved the original allocation from “local document recording fees” and remains earmarked under the county’s larger homeless services budget. 

 “We received one application. The Homeless Services Advisory Board made a recommendation not to move forward with that applicant. They were inexperienced,” he said. 

The rejected application left the position unfilled, which prompted the county to restart the solicitation in hopes of contracting a facilitator by July 1. 

“We’re looking to go back out to award those dollars. … So, in June, we’ll be bringing forward to you a long list of awards to approve, but because this one did not move forward, we’re looking to issue this RFP so we can hopefully get our contractor in line by July 1,” Webster said. 

The commissioners also discussed the group’s earlier contractor. 

Board Chair Tye Menser asked if the new contract might go to the same organization that held it previously. Webster said the former facilitator, Partners in Prevention Education, did not reapply when the original RFP was posted. 

 Committee role, state practices 

Since 2021, the Lived Experience Housing Steering Committee has been active and was formed to voice the direct experience of homelessness in the county’s housing policies. The panel plays a role in shaping the county’s equitable homeless response strategies. 

Webster described the committee as “self-directed” in strengthening the homeless response system and flagging any policies that could deepen inequities. 

He explained the group’s structure follows “best practices” from the Washington State Department of Commerce, which encourages counties to build systems that allow people with lived experience to shape homeless services, including the five-year plan. 

Menser asked whether the facilitator would focus solely on the said committee. He noted several steering groups are tied to federal programs like HOME funds, and wondered if this committee was the only one the contract would cover under the Regional Housing Council. 

Webster confirmed the contract was specific to the Lived Experience committee. 

He also pointed out the committee is distinct from other boards because it provides stipends and requires external facilitation. 

“They receive a stipend for participating in that group, and so we need a provider to help manage those stipends and facilitate, a kind of professional facilitator to support that group,” he said. 

Board revisits stipend policy 

Commissioner Rachel Grant, who serves on the State Advisory Council on Homelessness as a person with lived experience, raised questions about the financial equity of the facilitation. 

 “Just double checking. So, on the other boards, though, we don’t have stipends, you’re saying, and we don’t have a need for a facilitator on the other ones?”  Grant asked.

Webster clarified that stipends for other advisory boards are “optional” and administered through the City of Olympia. Discussions about whether the county could manage those stipends directly have not moved forward. 

Grant pressed the issue, stating if stipends are offered to one board in the name of equity, all groups should be considered. 

“We should be considering them all equal,” she said. 

She explained financial barriers, like the cost of transportation, aren’t always tied to whether someone has lived experience. 

To add context, County Manager Leonard Hernandez recalled earlier board discussions about whether stipends should be offered to all advisory groups or only to a pilot set. 

“You probably recall the funding that we had to do stipends for all groups or to select groups that we would pilot stipends,” he said. 

He said former Racial Equity Program Manager Devi Ogden had been working to define which groups would qualify before she left the role. The draft stipend policy may have undergone internal review, but it has not returned to the board. 

“We could not afford stipends for all groups,” Hernandez said.

He added the board would need to decide whether to pilot stipends for selected committees. 

Menser noted the matter had stalled after Ogden’s departure but was never officially dropped. 

Meanwhile, in terms of the administrative scope of the facilitation, Grant pressed for clarity on what outcomes the facilitator would be expected to deliver, and how that role compares to staff support typically provided to other committees. 

“It is a statewide … incorporated practice. I just am wondering about what facilitation and what output that group has,” she said. 

The commissioners requested Webster provide more detail outside the meeting. 

A new round is expected soon, with the county hoping to have a facilitator in place by early next quarter.