Tacoma residents who interact with the county's homelessness response system may soon see services coordinated across Pierce County for the first time, but advocates who helped design the new framework say unresolved governance questions could leave it vulnerable to political shifts.

The Pierce County Council passed the Unified Regional Approach to Homelessness in a 5-4 vote on June 9, according to The Urbanist. The council also adopted Resolution R2026-146, the 2025–2030 Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness Update, in a 4-3 vote at the same meeting, according to a Pierce County press release.

Dissenting members wanted to delay adoption to include an accountability framework; the majority cited a July 1 state-mandated deadline.

The URA is not a new agency. It is a coordination framework run by Pierce County that relies on data-sharing among jurisdictions and voluntary financial buy-in from cities. Pierce County hires the program's director, employs its staff, and administers the organization. Council Chair Jani Hitchen, District 6, has led the effort since it was first proposed in 2022 following an assessment by Seattle-based consulting firm Uncommon Bridges.

What advocates are flagging

Sally Perkins, a URA governance task force member who has worked with people experiencing homelessness in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood for six years, told The Urbanist that the county's total control creates a single point of political failure.

"One council seat flips and the whole thing falls apart," Perkins said. "We are a purple county and nobody should kid themselves for a minute that we are not a purple county. And so the back and forth is razor thin."

Perkins has pressed the council on what happens if the URA board directs the program to do something Pierce County disagrees with. Hitchen, in an email to The Urbanist, acknowledged the question remains open and said it will be addressed in an Interlocal Agreement still being negotiated among participating jurisdictions.

No deadline has been set for that agreement.

Kenneth King, a behavioral health provider who sits on the county's Continuum of Care governance board and is running for the District 1 council seat, called the URA "a critical step forward" that could end the practice of forcing people to travel 30 miles from places like Bonney Lake or Spanaway into Tacoma for basic services.

But King warned that data gaps undermine the system's foundation: jails, hospitals, and mental health facilities do not participate in coordination discussions, and their contacts with unhoused people never enter the county's Homeless Management Information System.

King told The Urbanist that incomplete data creates blind spots. If a jurisdiction doesn't fund services, he said, "your service counts will falsely tell you nobody is there."

The numbers

The 2025 Point-in-Time Count found 2,955 people experiencing homelessness in Pierce County, an 11% increase from the prior year. Pierce County spokesperson Kari Moore acknowledged the count is a known undercount, noting that year-round HMIS data reflects a number four times higher.

Since 2015, homelessness in the county has more than doubled, a period during which median home prices also more than doubled, according to Pierce County data.

So far in 2025, more than 17,500 people have entered the county's homeless crisis response system. Only 1,375 exited into permanent housing.

What comes next

The five-year plan requires the county's Human Services department to publish annual implementation reports covering every strategy, with the first report due Monday, February 1, 2027.

The county's stated goal is reaching "functional zero," meaning system capacity to house people always exceeds the number experiencing homelessness.

The fee structure for participating cities remains unresolved. Gig Harbor, population 13,000, may pay $5,000 to $9,000 annually, according to The Urbanist's reporting.

County staff have acknowledged the methodology for calculating fees needs work, and Hitchen said the topic will be discussed at the next elected leadership group meeting.

Residents can weigh in through the CPEH Implementation Advisory Board, which meets the first Friday of each month, 1 to 3 p.m., via Zoom at piercecountywa.zoom.us/j/98249308265.