‘This is not KCRHA 2.0’: Tacoma mayor explains how Pierce County’s regional homelessness approach will differ

Tacoma has joined Pierce County and neighboring cities in a unified regional approach intended to coordinate homelessness services. The city council voted unanimously to join the effort, which includes shared information and planning across local governments.

Speaking with “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Tacoma Mayor Anders Ibsen emphasized limited initial goals and distinguished the effort from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.

“This is also not the King County Homeless Authority 2.0,” Ibsen said. “This is not just big urban centers trying to force their problems onto our neighbors. This is about neighbors joining hands and just trying to do the right thing.”

Tacoma mayor calls for a shared regional response

Ibsen described Tacoma as carrying a disproportionate share of the region’s response.

“Forty percent of the population, 80% of the beds and services,” Ibsen said. “And we’re absolutely working to change that.”

Pierce County’s 2025 point-in-time count identified nearly 3,000 people experiencing homelessness countywide, according to the city. Pierce County, Fife, Gig Harbor and Lakewood had adopted resolutions supporting the regional effort by August.

Ibsen credited cooperation among elected officials but also pointed to public frustration.

“It’s more than just who’s in power, who’s in charge,” Ibsen said. “It’s the fact that things have come to such a head locally and nationally that people are done with the bickering. People are done with just loggerheads, and they actually want to see practical results.”

Shared data intended to reduce duplicated services

When asked how residents could be assured money would be managed properly, Ibsen described the effort’s initial priorities.

“We want to deal with the real scale of the problem, which is folks getting the help they need, and it’s about neighbors feeling the relief, and it’s about neighbors making sure that their money is going to a good use,” Ibsen said. “It’s to make sure that we’re not duplicating services. That we’re not just perpetuating a nonprofit industrial complex.”

Ibsen said shared information could help providers coordinate shelter, addiction counseling, and job-placement services.

“They’re not having to constantly retell their story, relive their trauma, and organizations aren’t duplicating efforts time and again because that’s the waste,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest cruxes of the waste.”

Weather planning among the first goals

Ibsen also described plans to coordinate responses to extreme heat, cold and smoke.

“These are purposefully modest goals,” he said. “But we’re flexing the muscles of regional collaboration, and in so doing, we can do grander things. We’re going slow to go fast.”

Shelter funding faces challenges as pandemic recovery funding runs out. Ibsen is seeking funding for 100 permanent supportive housing units.

“For those who do fall through the cracks, they’re out of the cracks as fast as possible, and they’re not consistently cycling through the jail or the emergency room,” Ibsen said.

He described accompanying outreach staff on visits to encampments and hearing reports of improvement.

“I’m not going to say that things are hunky-dory because this is a huge multifaceted problem, but they’re optimistic that they are seeing visible changes,” Ibsen said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.