Tacoma and Pierce County have a youth homelessness crisis. These young people want to help

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards was kind enough to let the young people speak.

They had arrived, at least remotely, with the same intention of dozens of other Tacoma residents: to make their voices heard during the Nov. 16 meeting of the Tacoma City Council. But unlike many of the more seasoned public commenters on the line, they weren’t accustomed to the Council’s formalities or procedural rules — like the one requiring would-be speakers to address a specific ordinance or resolution on the agenda.

Still, they persisted, and perhaps realizing that shutting down seven young adults who had taken time on a Tuesday night to share their experiences with homelessness and housing insecurity wasn’t a good idea, Woodards relented and gave each of them the floor, allotting the standard 90 seconds apiece.

It was a start, according to Selena Woods, coordinator of the REACH Center’s Pierce County Youth Action Board.

All seven of the young people who spoke during the Nov. 16 City Council meeting are members of the upstart group, and together, according to Woods, they’re determined to force their way into the conversation.

The board was informally created roughly two years ago and has been operating more recently thanks to $30,000 in funding from the REACH Center. It ultimately hopes to influence how Tacoma and Pierce County make funding decisions and serve young people with experiences of homelessness and housing insecurity, Woods said.

“Being the coordinator, I know that this is going to be a process, right?... We’re not all going to come to one meeting and be heard. But I also know that with consistency and continuing to come together as this big body of people, that we have an opportunity,” Woods said. “That’s the whole goal: to reach that point where our experiences and our interactions with people in positions of power are seen as valuable.”

Surveying the current situation in Tacoma and Pierce County — where roughly 300 children and young adults were counted as homeless during the most recent Point in Time Count — tells you everything you need to know:

Local leaders would be wise to take the Youth Action Board up on the offer.

To hear them tell it, the city and county are in the midst of a homelessness crisis that uniquely impacts young people, and current efforts to address the problem are failing — at least in part because no one seems very interested in listening to the voices they aim to represent.

“(The city and county) are creating programs and setting policies about youth homelessness and housing insecurity, but … they have no lived experience,” said Haili Crow, 24, who first experienced homelessness as a child and later “bounced around the foster care system for seven and a half years.”

“There’s this huge emphasis in our city on equity and youth voices and then, like, it’s all fake,” Crow said.

So what would the Youth Action Board like to see done differently?

Together, the 19 members of the group — who are all paid for their time and range in age from 12 to 24 — expressed various goals and motivations. They need to secure funding to sustain the group once the money that the REACH Center has secured to coordinate the group runs dry, they said, and they’re also planning an event for early next year in hopes of expanding the group’s breadth and reach. In short, they want to be heard, recognized and called on for their expertise.

Many also told The News Tribune that one of their most pressing concerns is what’s currently happening at the Beacon Center young adult overnight shelter. All have experienced homelessness in Pierce County at one time or another, they explained, including several members currently staying at the shelter.

As the TNT reported earlier this year, Valeo Vocation took over operations at the shelter in June under a short-term contract with the city. At the time, Comprehensive Life Resources was on its way out the door, and Tacoma needed an agency to step in and take the reins at the facility it owns at South 13th and Fawcett Avenue downtown. From June through the end of this month, Valeo will have been paid roughly $230,000 for the work, according to figures provided by the city.

With Valeo’s contract set to expire on Nov. 30, a third provider in less than a year will soon be stepping in at the Beacon Center. According to Tacoma spokesperson Megan Snow, the city is negotiating a new deal with the Seattle-based Life Enrichment Group, which is expected to work with Valeo to ensure what Snow described as a “smooth transition” at the shelter.

Life Enrichment Group did not respond to a request for comment from The News Tribune.

What many described as a lack of continuity and long-term vision — coupled with what some described as a history of inadequate resources at the shelter — has some members of the Youth Action Board concerned for the future.

If the city wants the Beacon Center to be successful, they said, it’s going to take a much bigger commitment.

Many are also skeptical of an out-of-town provider with no history in the area operating such a shelter, they indicated.

At a Council meeting where significant time and effort were spent discussing Tacoma’s imminent growth in the coming years, Rosemary DeLuna, 22, couldn’t help but note what she described as a glaring contradiction.

As the city hammers out plans for where all the new high rises will go, DeLuna said the young people she’s looking out for at the Beacon Center are concerned about issues like adequate staffing, and access to showers and laundry.

“There are these insanely (expensive) plans going on for rezoning and giving a ton of money to a handful of people that feel like building mid-level rises in the city, and we can’t even get good meals at the shelter,” DeLuna said.

Alan Hartman-Hasch, 23, said he stayed at the Beacon Center youth overnight shelter for about seven months, until recently, when he secured housing with the help of a case manager from Comprehensive Life Resources. Overall, he doesn’t have many fond recollections of his time at the shelter, he said, with complaints ranging from bedbugs to the general treatment he said he received.

By participating in the Youth Action Board, Hartman-Hasch said he’s trying to make sure that more young people are provided a similar chance to exit out of homelessness, and have more help getting there.

“I feel like it’s always been my job to give back to my community. I’ve been dealt a (expletive) hand, but I feel like there are people that are much worse off than I am, and if I can go through this then I can help someone go through it, too,” Hartman-Hasch said.

“I always want what’s best for people in my community, even if that’s holding … everyone in power accountable.”