The first step for people to exit homelessness in Pierce County nearly went offline over the weekend, requiring work over the holiday weekend and an emergency declaration to fix it.
Contracts for service providers that operate the Coordinated Entry System—the ‘first door’ for people exiting homelessness that creates a profile to connect people to services they need to be successful—expired Saturday night. Salaried county employees worked over the holiday weekend to prepare emergency contracts to fill the gap and at the start of business Tuesday, Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier declared an emergency to initiate the contracts. The declaration was first reported by the Tacoma News Tribune.
“We worked over the holiday weekend to ensure when offices opened Tuesday morning [organizations] had notices to proceed and deliver services that the County will pay for.” Dammeier said in an interview with KIRO 7 News.
Dammeier says it was an “administrative mistake” that caused the issue—he says the county’s human services staff were under the impression that a pandemic-era law that allowed contracts to be amended in order to extend services were still in place. The Finance Office and Prosecutors Office confirmed that the law had expired and amendments could not be made.