WATCH: Spanaway’s planned village for the chronically homeless clears another hurdle

(The Center Square) – Years after plans first emerged for a village of cottage homes in Spanaway for those transitioning out of chronic homelessness, the Pierce County Planning Department has officially approved the site permit for Good Neighbor Village.

Tacoma Rescue Mission is behind the 285 single-cottage home community, modeled after the Community First! Village in Austin, Texas. Residents will be expected to work, pay rent, and adhere to village guidelines and regulations, including sobriety.

A few dozen cottages will be reserved for community members and volunteers who will live on site to provide support, including medical services and behavioral health.

As part of January’s annual Point-In-Time Count, Pierce County leaders, service providers and volunteers surveyed people living on the streets, in vehicles or in shelters. “We counted 2,955 people on our streets and in our shelters – an 11% increase from last year,” according to Pierce County’s PIT results page.

Homelessness is one of the key issues in the contest for the Pierce County Council District 5 seat.

Pierce County District 5 encompasses communities and neighborhoods including Browns Point, Dash Point, Fife Heights, the city of Fife, Midland, North Clover Creek/Collins, Parkland, Spanaway, Summit-Waller, the Port of Tacoma, and parts of Tacoma's Eastside and Northeast Tacoma.

Terry Wise, a real estate broker, land use consultant and former land use commissioner in Pierce County, is challenging incumbent Bryan Yambe for the District 5 seat. Wise spoke with The Center Square about his support for the Good Neighbor Village.

“I went down there for two days and came back and said, ‘I'm all in,’” Wise said of a recent tour of the Community First! Village. “So my concern up front was that it was too expensive per unit, right? That it'd be cheaper to do a big apartment block or whatever. But when I went down there, I saw not only all the services it provided, but that it actually was a bargain for that value.”

Wise explained that seeing the quality of life for village residents, many of whom had spent years, even decades, on the street, convinced him it was a model that should be replicated in Pierce County.

“Once it's built, they pay rent, they have jobs, they have a community store [where] they sell their own produce. And they even have an event center where they put on corporate events and those kinds of things. They even have Airbnb’s on site,” he said, choking up at how the project has transformed lives. “I can't really talk about it without getting emotional, because it changed my view on homelessness. It changed my view on how we deal with those issues. And whatever the recipe they have down there, it was incredible.”

Stephen Stanford is the project manager for Good Neighbor Village and spoke with The Center Square on Thursday.

“I will tell you as soon as we got that permitting, we're ready to go,” he said. “We started envisioning our infrastructure, started setting a pathway to getting all of the grading done out there at the property, road service, getting our sewer lines hooked up. We haven't cut anything, we haven't broke ground, but we're actually in the process now.”

Some of the years-long delays were the result of community opposition to the project, including from the Spanaway Concerned Citizens group, which argued over potential harm to local wildlife and wetlands.

“I understand the pushback. We see some of these tiny homes, and we see some of the environments they're in. Now you're saying we're going to put 285 of those right in our backyard?” Stanford noted. “I get it. Not understanding that this is an amazing, beautiful community with grace, but with accountability. Right? You're not going to be able to just run around and do exactly what you want. We're going to hold a certain standard, and our expectation is to reach that standard, and then push right past that standard into your own.”

Wise said he’s getting bipartisan support from voters in his district for the Good Neighbor Village, and even some who have expressed opposition are starting to change their minds.

“People don't want a homeless community in their backyard, but this is different,” Wise assured.

Stanford agreed that the community being created is unlike any other approach to the homelessness crisis tried so far in Washington.

“Our goal is to incorporate community as much as possible,” he said. “And I'm not talking about just the base community within the village, but all of the community: the churches, the businesses, public officials, organizations. I want to bring everybody in as much as possible and create this community of support and growth.”

The Center Square reached out multiple times to Yambe for comment on his election challenger and his feelings about the Good Neighbor Village. Just before publication on Thursday, The Center Square received an email stating he would be unavailable for comment.