Dear Friends,

             
Most likely you are aware of the County’s proposal for a Pierce County Village. There is a great deal of information, correct and incorrect, in the social media arena. Below is a summary with links to information that you may have already seen in the Executive’s blog, but I wanted to share it again. The County is working on outreach, and I am in a listening/reading mode.  
 
Pierce County Executive Dammeier proposed, and the County Council allocated $22.3 million last November in the 2022-2023 biennial budget for a village modeled after Community First! Village - Mobile Loaves & Fishes (mlf.org) in Austin, Texas. The Tacoma Rescue Mission and Pierce County have been working since then to bring the stunningly successful model to Pierce County. The Pierce County Village would address the biggest challenge to homelessness in Pierce County: permanent housing for the chronically homeless. This very different model of permanent housing is designed to provide hope, dignity, and purpose to the chronically homeless through purposeful work, restorative relationships, and onsite treatment. And we believe housing alone will never fully address the problem, but community will.  
 
We would love for you to take a look at the information below and learn more about the site, the plans, and the goals of this project. Please visit the website to learn more:

1. Visit the landing page where future community meeting information, project updates and videos will be posted: www.piercecountywa.gov/village
2. Link to the interactive web version of the full proposal
3. Watch the short video about the project.
4. Watch the presentation to the County Council on October 18, 2022, or view the slides.
   

• The Tacoma Rescue Mission will own, develop and operate the site.
• The village will be roughly 3,700 feet off the road surrounded by a greenbelt and wetlands.
• The first 50 residents would be housed by the end of 2024. The full site with a total of 257 homes won’t be complete until the fall of 2028.
• Every applicant will go through background checks and full screening process.
• There will be 24/7 staff, controlled access, fully fenced property, surveillance system and volunteer residents who will live on site creating community.
• Along with dignified housing, residents will have case management and mentoring services and they will be required to pay rent. There will be on-site microeconomic employment opportunity from maintenance staff to master gardeners.
• And there will be a community asset of a farmers' market where locals can come, and purchase produce grown on site.

Thank you for analyzing the project. Your input means more than you know. I will do my best to keep you informed.
 
Grateful for you!