The Whatcom County Council approved roughly $4 million for Opportunity Council contracts for a variety of homelessness services in the community on Tuesday, Dec. 3. This included nearly $649,000 for 22 North, which faced increased public scrutiny earlier this year after an attempt by council member Ben Elenbaas to defund the low-barrier housing facility.
Elenbaas’s resolution came in the wake of at least nine people dying within the facility since February 2022 and dozens of criminal incidents investigated by police.
While the resolution was deemed unfeasible as written and spiked by the council on July 30, the county has added a number of amendments to the new contract that are designed to increase reporting, accountability and tenant safety.
Elenbaas said although the resolution didn’t pass, the threat of defunding “got the outcome” that he wanted: better results. Nonetheless, he is not convinced the “Opportunity Council has a culture of accountability and results with their current leadership.”
“I need to see better from their leadership before I have confidence the organization has made any significant changes for the betterment of our community,” Elenbaas told CDN ahead of the vote.
Greg Winter, the executive director of the Opportunity Council, told Cascadia Daily News on Wednesday morning that he understands Elenbaas “continues to have concerns” and welcomes “the opportunity to provide him with more information about the impact our work has on hundreds of lives every day.”
The new contract and associated funding for 22 North was approved in a 4-3 split on Tuesday night, with council members Elenbaas, Tyler Byrd and Mark Stremler voting against it. Since July 1, 2021, the county has spent roughly $2.1 million on the project.
“It’s not that I don’t support housing case management or homeless services or any of those things, because I absolutely do,” Elenbaas said of all three Opportunity Council contracts he voted against. “I just don’t know that this is the right contract at this time.”
The Opportunity Council, a nonprofit serving Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties, bills 22 North as 40 units of affordable, permanent, supportive housing in downtown Bellingham with “wraparound support services” for adults experiencing homelessness, helping them find stability and opportunities.
As a low-barrier facility, the apartment complex serves adult survivors of chronic homelessness, living with physical, mental, behavioral and/or health diagnoses.
Elenbaas rebuked claims about 22 North in July
Elenbaas, who has visited the facility and reviewed police data for the area, in July rebuked claims of 22 North being a safe space for at-risk residents.
Contract changes designed to increase county oversight of 22 North include a requirement for tenant well-being verification. The welfare check is slated to happen if a client is unaccounted for by staff for a period of one to five days, depending on a number of risk factors.
“There’s a balance to be struck here with safety, privacy and legal issues related to landlord-tenant laws,” explained Marie Duckworth, Whatcom County Health and Community Services communications specialist.
“A ‘big brother’ approach will discourage people from wanting to be there, a hands-off approach could lead to problematic and unsafe behaviors, and non-compliance with landlord-tenant act laws will create legal problems that undermine lease enforcement,” she said.
Duckworth explained that the county can enforce such stipulations in the contracts through on-site monitoring, which it can conduct at any time.
“We exercise this right regularly to learn more about how things are going behind the scenes,” Duckworth said, noting the county works with contractors to resolve issues before taking punitive actions.
“The 22 North project is continuing to evolve to best meet the needs of tenants and the community,” Duckworth said. “The facility had a particularly challenging few years with the trifecta of COVID-19, the eviction moratorium and the onset of the fentanyl crisis.”
Behavioral health services
Included in the approved budget for 22 North is roughly $90,000 for third-party behavioral health services.
“Since July, we’ve been making progress on our goal to integrate more support for addiction recovery and behavioral health into onsite services at 22 North,” Winter said.
He explained to the county council that Ideal Option, an addiction treatment center, has already agreed to provide regular substance use disorder peer counselor services at 22 North. He also told the council that his organization was working on ironing out the details with Lifeline Connections to provide additional substance use disorder services.
“This is going to be a major advance for the program,” Winter said, noting that discussions with county staff have been instrumental.
In July, Elenbaas was clear that he was not calling for the abandonment of the at-risk population served by 22 North, but a change in course. That dramatic shift included developing a secure detox center, as the council members sought to work toward solving the homelessness crisis in the community by tackling the drug epidemic.
22 North has faced years of criticism with frustrated neighbors telling CDN in 2022 that the facility was a failed experiment in the “housing-first” model for supporting homeless people.
“Further refinement to this contract is expected in mid-2025 following a comprehensive evaluation of the community’s permanent supportive housing programs,” health department Director Erika Lautenback wrote in a memorandum.
The additional funds approved for the Opportunity Council Tuesday night included about $1 million for housing case management services and more than $2.3 million to operate the Whatcom Homeless Service Center.
While the $2.3 million contract received the same vote split as the 22 North contract, council member Byrd voted differently on the one for housing case management services.
Byrd said he has historically voted against nearly every contract for Opportunity Council because he shares the same concerns as Elenbaas. However, he voted for the housing case management services contract because the Opportunity Council’s presentation that morning “gave some good data and showed some good results for that specific program.”
He said if contractors can be transparent, respectful and come forward with clear information, he may change his stance on an issue.
Isaac Stone Simonelli is CDN’s enterprise/investigations reporter; reach him at isaacsimonelli@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 127.
