Clark County might but assist town of Vancouver pay for a deliberate homeless shelter within the Van Mall neighborhood.
The county’s earlier refusal to commit funds prompted a rift between the county and town, which is at present paying for the shelter with out outdoors assist. Metropolis workers have stated individuals from outdoors Vancouver wouldn’t be allowed to remain within the shelter if the county didn’t assist fund it.
On Wednesday, Clark County councilors — together with two not too long ago elected newcomers — stated they are going to think about investing about $2 million within the shelter. The county might faucet psychological well being gross sales tax {dollars} and settlement cash from opioid distributors for advertising practices that helped gasoline the opioid epidemic in Washington.
Metropolis officers say they want the county to commit funding by February, when the idea design for the shelter is predicted to be finalized. The town expects to open the shelter in mid-2026. With out outdoors funding, the shelter should be smaller than the 150 beds initially deliberate, metropolis officers stated.
“Currently, everything we have to pay for this shelter comes from local city dollars,” stated Kevin Kearns, town’s mission supervisor for the shelter.
A lot of that may come from a 0.1 p.c enterprise and occupation tax on retailers particularly for the homeless shelter to start assortment as quickly as Jan. 1, 2026.
The shelter is a key a part of town’s plan to deal with homelessness since declaring a civil emergency in November 2023. Buying and constructing the shelter will price about $16 million. Working it can take one other $6 million to $7 million per 12 months.
The county has flip-flopped on whether or not it can assist town fund the shelter, which might be the biggest within the county.
In Could, town approached the county for fast assist buying a constructing utilizing cash from the psychological well being gross sales tax collected all through the county. The county council denied that request and required town to undergo the identical course of as different initiatives (though the county has made exemptions to that requirement previously).
The town moved ahead with buying the constructing at 5313 N.E. 94th Ave., the previous residence of Naydenov Gymnastics, for $6.29 million in December.
Nonetheless, town went by way of the common course of for psychological well being gross sales tax grants in hopes of receiving assist funding shelter operations, which would come with on-site medication-assisted drug remedy to get individuals off of opioids, corresponding to fentanyl.
In a closed door assembly, a county committee that oversees the psychological well being gross sales tax fund denied town’s request in October on account of an absence of element, in keeping with Jordan Boege, senior coverage analyst for the Clark County Council.
Since then, two new county councilors have changed Gary Medvigy and Karen Bowerman. Matt Little and Wil Fuentes, who now sit on the dais, have expressed help for addressing homelessness.
On Wednesday, metropolis officers introduced their case to the county council and identified that a couple of third of the homeless inhabitants in Vancouver is from different areas within the county.
A number of councilors, together with Little, Fuentes and Glen Yung, expressed help for locating funding for the deliberate homeless shelter by February so town may improve the shelter’s capability.
“We need to support this project and stop pretending that this isn’t a critical issue,” Fuentes stated.
The county has about $4.2 million in psychological well being gross sales tax {dollars}, however County Supervisor Kathleen Otto stated she doesn’t advocate utilizing all of that.
Yung advised utilizing a mixture of the psychological well being gross sales tax and opioid settlement funds, which may doubtlessly be used for the drug remedy facet of the shelter.
Councilor Michelle Belkot questioned the legality of the council making a call on use opioid settlement funds, anticipated to whole $22.3 million over time. (The county has obtained about $3.57 million to this point.) A contract amongst Southwest Washington governments reveals they agreed the Southwest Area Opioid Abatement Council has full discretion over the usage of funds.
“I just want to have the background before the council agrees to anything,” Belkot stated.
If town had been to obtain psychological well being gross sales tax {dollars} earlier than the idea design section ends, that might as soon as once more must occur outdoors of the same old course of for evaluating requests, which occurred round fall final 12 months.
“This is a decision that needs to be made at the council level outside of the normal process,” Yung stated.
Initially, town requested the county to contribute about 30 p.c of the bridge shelter’s price, which might have been a most of $6 million upfront for creating the shelter and about $2 million a 12 months for operations after that.
County workers stated they are going to come again with funding choices for offering town about $2 million for operations earlier than town’s deadline in February.