Here’s what we know about the Lakewood apartment building where a baby was shot Friday

A man charged with injuring a 3-month-old infant after he allegedly shot into his neighbor’s apartment at least 22 times on Friday had received a housing voucher to live at Lakewood’s only homeless service nonprofit.

The shooting took place at a mixed-use housing development at 8956 Gravelly Lake Drive, a permanent supportive housing community operated by Living Access Support Alliance (LASA).

The center serves families who are chronically homeless and have disabilities and operates 15 individual apartments that have one to three bedrooms, said Betty Beer, a lead case manager for LASA. “Chronically homeless” is defined as being without permanent housing for 12 consecutive months or without permanent housing four times in three years to total at least 12 months.

Charging documents indicate 40-year-old Earnest Hamilton had been a resident at the apartment complex for at least a year and qualified for Section 8 housing vouchers. According to court records, Hamilton had prior felony convictions dating from 2000 to 2016 in California for offenses including robbery and possession. In 2021 he was arrested in Texas for allegedly possessing a firearm.

Background checks

The Pierce County Housing Authority receives federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to issue vouchers to help low-income people afford housing in the private market. To qualify for a housing voucher, HUD requires someone to pass a one-year felony criminal background check and receive an income screening based on total annual gross income and family size, said Pierce County Housing Authority executive director Jim Stretz.

The Pierce County Housing Authority conducts the criminal background check by referencing the Pierce County Legal Information Network Exchange and records kept by the Washington State Patrol, Stretz said. A conviction of any felony in the last year would result in denial of the voucher, he said.

Under federal law, the Pierce County Housing Authority must provide 75% of its vouchers to applicants whose incomes don’t exceed 30% of the area median income, which is $101,800 in the Tacoma metro area. As of 2022, to qualify for a housing voucher in Tacoma, one person would have to make between $21,350 and $56,850 a year.

After the Pierce County Housing Authority confirms eligibility, a potential renter’s name is put on a wait list for a housing voucher, Stretz said. Once issued a voucher, renters must re-certify their income annually and the Pierce County Housing Authority’s support goes up or down based on that, he said.

“The intent of the program is to help people with all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of troubles,” he said. “Eventually, a lot of them graduate out of using [the voucher program] as their income goes up.”

In Pierce County there is currently a wait list of about 10,000 people for 3,000 housing vouchers, Stretz said. The average tenant is in their 50s. About half of households have children and 77% of tenants are female, according to demographic data collected by the Pierce County Housing Authority.

Although Stretz said he could not discuss specific circumstances like Hamilton’s due to privacy reasons, he said it is ultimately up to the landlord to choose whether to accept a tenant. Landlords can conduct additional background checks on tenants as well, Stretz said.

Beer said she could not provide specifics about Hamilton’s case but said he was screened by an outside housing agency for Section 8 housing and referred to LASA.

“He was screened, I believe quite extensively screened, and I don’t know how he passed the screening,” Beer said. “It wasn’t LASA who did the screening, it was the housing authority.”

Additional questions from The News Tribune about LASA’s screening process were not immediately answered Thursday.

How many homeless shelters are available in Lakewood?

Last week the Lakewood City Council approved an ordinance that would ban overnight camping on public land starting April 19. Enforcement of the ban requires that there be open shelter beds available within 15 miles of Lakewood City Hall. Refusal of shelter would result in a misdemeanor for the first offense.

In 2021 Pierce County estimated that about 3,300 residents are experiencing homelessness. According to March 2022 data, 191 people indicated they were sleeping in Lakewood and 67% of that group last lived permanently in Lakewood prior to becoming homeless.

There’s not many places for people experiencing homelessness to go in Lakewood.

The City of Lakewood “pays for an allocation of bed nights” at three shelters in the area: Catholic Community Services, Tacoma Rescue Mission and Aspen Court, according to the city’s website.

Ex-workers at Aspen Court recently described unsafe conditions and mismanagement at the transitional shelter, according to an investigation from The News Tribune published Friday.

Beer said LASA’s permanent supportive housing building on Gravelly Lake Drive is not a shelter but is “one of very few [places] for families in Pierce County.”

“Most agencies that do the permanent supportive housing model [focus on] individuals. It’s not families. Families who are in those circumstances have to wait a long time,” she said. “I think there’s a need for more affordable housing.”

On March 10, the Lakewood City Council allocated $1 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds to support additional development of the LASA housing project. The development is targeted at residents within the 30-60% area median income bracket and the anticipated groundbreaking is in 2024. Pierce County has committed $3.5 million in ARPA funds for the project and the city of Lakewood is seeking $2.5 million in additional federal funding, according to LASA’s website.

The first phase of building 25 permanent low-income housing units and LASA offices is already finished. A second phase will add a hygiene center with two showers, laundry and space that will double as a warming and cooling center during extreme weather. A third phase is planned to build 25 additional units and a fourth phase will include another 30 units and an affordable daycare center.