Editor’s note: CDN published an initial story on the report on Aug. 22. This version includes interviews with officials and more details from the report.
Six months since the City of Bellingham’s executive order on fentanyl and the deteriorating downtown, city officials and the business community are celebrating what feels like movement to improve the health of the city’s center.
In February, Mayor Kim Lund issued an executive order committing to 11 actions, including establishing a downtown public safety response office, expanding the community paramedic program and looking into increasing access to methadone and opioid treatments. Cascadia Daily News spent weeks with the community paramedic program to document the unit’s work.
In a report published Thursday, Aug. 22, city officials outlined those completed actions, as well as metrics to show progress: The city boasted investing over $1 million in downtown services and amenities this year, removing 28 tons of garbage, 44 graffiti tags and issuing 53 drug citations. Public works staff also spent 3,000 hours cleaning downtown streets and police conducted 91 “emphasis patrols.”
In the first eight months of 2024, police issued eight infractions for sitting and lying, compared to three issued in the first eight months of 2023, according to Lieutenant Claudia Murphy.
The report says the city has seen progress on overdoses due to these actions: The city received 0.4 overdose calls per day in July, down from 1.1 calls per day in March.
Whatcom County numbers seem to reflect this trend: in March, EMS received 114 calls for suspected overdoses. Aside from a spike to 156 in May, numbers since have been slightly lower with 100 in June and 90 in July.
Mayor Kim Lund told CDN that city leaders are cautiously optimistic about the overdose trends, but they’re aware of overdoses that aren’t tracked because people are revived and don’t call 911.
There’s also variability month-to-month. Lund said in May, there were drugs on Bellingham streets that were more Narcan-resistant.
“We saw the impacts of that, both in requests for overdose support to the EMS, calls for help to 911 and also the number of people that we weren’t able to revive,” she said. Seventeen people in Whatcom County likely died by overdose that month, the highest monthly number since March 2023 when 22 people died by overdose.
Lund said the city continues to work on bringing more treatment options to Bellingham, with a medicated treatment program in the works in partnership with the Swinomish Tribe and the Whatcom County health department. That program could serve up to 400 people a day, Lund said.
Return of bike unit, murals downtown
Other promises for the future include a return of the police department’s downtown bike unit, a proposed study of downtown economic conditions, a continuation of the “activation and beautification grant program” to install murals downtown, and renovation of the Central Library and Lee Memorial Park.
The bike unit hasn’t been operating due to police department shortages, and will operate seven days a week starting in 2025.
Lund said conversations are ongoing about how the new bike unit would work in collaboration with police foot patrols and security firm Risk Solutions Unlimited (RSU). The bike patrols will likely focus on public right of ways and alleys, and foot patrols may not continue, Lund said, adding they’ve received many requests from the Birchwood neighborhood for foot patrols there.
The study of economic conditions downtown would focus on eliminating vacancies and encouraging redevelopment of “underutilized buildings.”
Lund said vacant buildings have been a block for the city in revitalizing downtown. She said she hopes a study would allow them to look at what other communities are doing and document “how much vacant or underutilized space” exists in downtown Bellingham.
Lund connected the city’s stagnant revenues to the challenges with downtown. The city is anticipating an operating deficit of $3.5–4 million this year. The city’s sales and B&O (Business and Occupation) taxes are flat or down, and feed the city’s general fund.
“It pays not just for city staff, but it pays for our programs and investments on partners, nonprofit partners, and other really important programs that the city has made investments in,” she said.
Downtown business leaders have expressed excitement about the future actions outlined in the report.
“Seeing that these resources are being recommitted to address the challenges we’ve been facing over the past couple of years is really refreshing,” Downtown Bellingham Partnership Communications Director Jenny Hagemann said.
Executive Director of the partnership Lindsey Payne Johnstone said they’ve heard from businesses that staff morale is higher now.
Lund, Hagemann and Johnstone all mentioned Downtown Sounds this summer as an example of the shift in downtown’s energy.
Hagemann said it was a “wild success” with over 3,000 attending at some point each week and beer garden sales up 30% from last year.
Hagemann said the partnership plans to keep the pressure on the city as the outskirts of downtown are now starting to experience more challenges.
Crina Hoyer, the CEO of Daylight Properties which manages 21 buildings downtown, said she appreciated the city team’s transparency and willingness to be accountable to their promises with this report.
She said she’s interested in the possibility of pop-ups or incubator spaces in vacant spaces, and applauded the city’s intention to identify long-term strategies to address vacant spaces.
Hoyer told CDN in April that Daylight had reduced its private security in anticipation of the executive order. She said this week they haven’t had to re-up security since.
“I don’t think we field nearly as many complaints from tenants about their safety and security than we had before the executive order,” she said.
She recalled an experience a couple months ago of walking across downtown completely through alleyways, some of them, she said, she hadn’t walked through in years.
“That feels like a vivid difference,” she said. “I also know that I get to feel safe walking through an alley, not because we’ve solved the problem, but because we’ve moved the problem. Addressing the long-term systemic issues that led to addiction and homelessness and crime, et cetera, is a much heavier lift.”
Homeless outreach ongoing
In April, the Homeless Outreach Team told CDN that after the executive order, they saw homeless people more dispersed into more “remote and residential areas,” with more calls about people in abandoned buildings and houses or attempting to set up camp by freeway entrances and exits. It impacted HOT’s “turnaround time” to assist and connect people to resources, Whatcom Homeless Service Center Director Teri Bryant and HOT Coordinator Marisa Schoeppach said in April.
Schoeppach told CDN this week the team still has challenges reconnecting with people who are told to move from where they’re camped.
However, Schoeppach said her team has worked hard to reconnect and plan ahead with clients, asking them where they might go if they’re asked to move and trying to get them cell phones to stay in touch.
“But honestly, this team has been just pounding the ground and going for it,” she said.
Schoeppach said Lund went on a ride-along with them, which Schoeppach said was useful in giving the mayor experience “firsthand of what your orders do and how it can create challenges for teams like mine.”
Lund said they lack good metrics to see whether homeless people have really moved out of downtown or not, but said there appeared to have been a shift.
She said she’s requested updates from Opportunity Council leadership, and said she’s heard that the delivery of service to clients is continuing.
The city is hiring a health and human services project manager, which its narrowing down to three finalists this week, Lund said. That person will expand efforts on behavioral health and homelessness in the city.
Lund also pointed to Bellingham Municipal Court’s efforts to launch a Community Court this winter to address and reduce low-level crimes like shoplifting.
The city is inviting community input into a new vision for downtown at a Downtown Forward Celebration on Sept. 19 at the Chuckanut Bay Distillery and is seeking feedback through Engage Bellingham.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
