Thurston County weaves lived experience, public voices into 2025–30 Homeless Housing Plan 

Thurston County is racing to lock in its 2025-30 Homeless Housing Plan before a state deadline in September, finalizing its draft to meet Washington State Department of Commerce’s required components. 

The Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention (OHHP) discussed the updates during a Thurston County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) work session on Wednesday, Aug. 13. 

Senior Program Manager Tom Webster said the plan will serve as a “North Star” for the Thurston Regional Housing Council and the Homeless Services Advisory Board when creating targets for annual priorities and making awards. 

“This is a requirement of our contract with the Department of Commerce. We need to follow the guidelines they’ve provided and make sure our plan is in compliance,” Webster said. 

Webster said the Department of Commerce mandates five objectives be addressed: 

1. Promote an equitable, accountable and transparent homeless crisis response system.
2. Strengthen the homeless service provider workforce. 
3. Prevent episodes of homelessness whenever possible.
4. Prioritize assistance based on the greatest barriers to housing stability, and the greatest risk of harm.
5. Seek to house everyone in a stable setting that meets their needs.

 Since fall 2024, input has been gathered from the Lived Experience Housing Steering Committee, a team of required stakeholders, and the community through two surveys — targeted listening sessions and ongoing meetings. 

The survey generated 557 responses, including 94 from individuals with lived experience in the past decade. A separate provider workforce survey collected 157 responses.  

The OHHP then supplemented the surveys with listening sessions at tiny home villages and among unsheltered individuals, with sessions involving service providers. 

“We feel we’ve really gone above and beyond those requirements,” said Webster adding feedback has been integrated into preliminary strategies for each objective. 

Before the plan’s adoption, OHHP needs to submit a draft to the Department of Commerce in September for review, open a 30-day public comment period, and hold a public hearing in October or November. 

The final version would go to the housing council for recommendation in October and to the BOCC in November.  

According to Thurston County Manager Leonard Hernandez, the early-stage briefing enables commissioners to have an opportunity to influence the plan before it enters the final stages. 

Transparency, equity 

Webster said the first objective, promoting an equitable, accountable and transparent homeless crisis response system, includes various strategies. 

Those strategies aim to strengthen transparency through shared information and cross-system collaboration, and enhance accountability through measurable coordination and continuous improvement. 

He said the idea is to advance equitability by monitoring, evaluating and redesigning access to prioritize underserved populations. 

The second objective addresses workforce conditions in the homeless service provider network, an element new to this plan cycle. 

Homeless Response Program Manager Jackie Velasco said turnover in service providers affects the system’s function and the experience of people seeking help. 

Strategies include “fostering collaborative learning and knowledge sharing, enhancing provider capacity through technical support and resource navigation, and promoting system alignment and workforce retention.” 

BOCC Vice Chair Wayne Fournier underscored the importance of supporting existing capital assets before building new ones. 

“We’re not going to create housing stability by creating projects that are not stable,” he said, stressing the need for sustainability in order to prevent recurring financial crises. 

Homelessness prevention efforts

For the third objective, preventing episodes of homelessness whenever possible, strategies include optimizing existing prevention resources, reviewing policies for flexibility, strengthening early identification and intervention practices and building landlord partnerships. 

Velasco said community feedback stressed engaging market-rate landlords, as well as permanent supportive housing developers. 

The fourth objective, prioritizing assistance for people facing the greatest barriers and risks, calls for a “consistent, equity-informed prioritization framework, annual review of system criteria, targeted identification of high-risk groups, and expanded pathways for safety and stabilization.” 

Velasco said emergency shelter capacity remains an unmet need identified in public feedback. 

BOCC Chair Tye Menser asked how the Department of Commerce monitors such broad strategies. Webster said tasks under each strategy would be monitored through specific timelines, responsible parties and measurable goals, with progress reported annually.  

Velasco cited an example task involving county assistance to providers in creating formal referral agreements, with completion targeted in the plan’s first year. 

Housing stability goals 

The fifth objective, seeking to house everyone in a stable setting that meets their needs, proposes maintaining and expanding flexible housing options, leveraging under-engaged sectors, such as health care and workforce development, coordinating to expand access, and improving housing stability through tenant protections and quality standards. 

Velasco said feedback from lived experience committees included concerns that tenant rights knowledge does not always translate into consistent enforcement. 

Additional strategies include advocating for system and policy changes to sustain stability, integrating long-term supports into funding priorities, and using capital resources to create affordable housing across varied types in Thurston County.  

Velasco said the plan aims to provide priority sequence so choices about resource allocation can be made without hesitation when constraints arise. 

According to OHHP’s preliminary resource allocation priorities, maintaining current service levels is first, followed by improving system effectiveness through coordination, data tracking and leveraging of nonhousing resources. 

As capacity allows, the plan seeks to create multiple pathways to permanent housing and add affordable units countywide. 

The BOCC is scheduled to consider the plan in November before submission to the Department of Commerce in December 2025.