BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – As Whatcom County faces a tightening budget, an advocate is calling for a change in how the county helps its unhoused. 

Tukayote Helianthus created a petition that would raise the winter shelter threshold to 40 degrees from its current 32 degrees. This is up from last year, where the threshold that activated the shelter was at just 28 degrees. 

“This is really about more than sheltering,” he said in an interview with My Bellingham Now. “It’s about saving lives, rebuilding trust amongst the community members and unhoused folks and using resources effectively to create a safer and more compassionate community.”

Whatcom County Health and Community Services (WCHCS) department Director Erika Lautenbach says the change is not feasible given their budget, staffing, resources and planned shelter model. 

“Our model is really to be a therapeutic environment, not just a place to lay your head at night,” Lautenbach said. 

Between nurses on staff doing wound care, providing replacement clothing for clients and giving opportunities for people to find resources to get back on their feet, WCHCS’s current shelter model is costly, but effective according to shelter employee Kathi Ethier. 

Ethier agrees with Helianthus, who believes that the shelter should stay open more nights. Helianthus wants the Severe Weather Shelter to open every night, which allows for staff scheduling consistency and reliability for clients. 

However, Helianthus thinks that the method of shelter should be simpler than Lautenbach’s model, advocating for the Road2Home shelter style that is more cost effective. 

“If we expanded it to the 70 beds the county is offering, it’s about $7,777 a night to operate with the Road2Home model. The county projects a shelter will cost nearly triple that—$21,111 a night for 70 beds—which far exceeds the cost of proven models like Road2Home,” Helianthus said. 

Road2Home ran the Severe Weather Shelter at Civic Field that had multiple overdoses and one death last winter.

But Lautenbach said that if a shelter is a waiting room that leads nowhere, then it is not helping people. 

Both Ethier and Lautenbach agree that the county needs another shelter. The problem is that the county has asked for non-profits or community members to come forward with plans for housing and no one has come forward with a plan in the last two years. 

“I don’t think we as a small community can bear the financial burden and operational model of having a second shelter, but I do think our region needs another shelter,” Lautenbach said. “This is a statewide challenge that we’re all as local governments trying to solve locally without the resources to be able to do that.” 

Ethier wants there to be another choice of shelter in Bellingham beside Lighthouse Mission Ministries as it isn’t for everyone. She has heard from a client at the Severe Weather Shelter that people feel freer when not in the faith-based facility. 

“He likes the Severe Weather Shelter because it’s not as much like a correctional institute,” Ethier said. “Which doesn’t mean there aren’t any rules. It’s just that it’s not as rigid.” 

Ethier, who slept in a van for a time in the past, said that is gets very cold in the winter here and empathizes with the clients that come through the shelter. 

“I’m just incredibly frustrated that there’s people out on the street when it’s cold and wet and windy,” she said. “There’re families out there. I ran into a really sweet family the last time we were open, and they’re out there somewhere, and that just makes me want to cry, you know?” 

Ethier signed Helianthus’s petition but acknowledged that Lautenbach’s hands are tied. In an interview with My Bellingham Now, Lautenbach mentioned that the county is currently fighting an outbreak of pertussis, or Whooping Cough, which is something that could not be adequately staffed if the same nurses were required to be at the Severe Weather Shelter for the 150 nights she predicted. 

“We have intensive case managers that work with high utilizers of the criminal justice system and also answer 911 calls in lieu of law enforcement, and they would be not able to do that day job if they were working at the shelter every night, overnight,” Lautenbach said.

Ethier finds that both Lautenbach and Helianthus are intent on the needs of the homeless in Whatcom County.

“They both want what’s good,” she said. “But there’s limitations, and Erika has to deal with those limitations.”

Whatcom’s limited resources can only be allocated in certain ways, and the winter shelter is one of many things the county is looking to fund. “For everything that we invest in, we’re not investing in something else that is a proven, known need in our community,” Lautenbach said.