Tacoma hosts about 85% of Pierce County's shelter beds, yet more than half of the unsheltered people counted in the county's 2025 Point-in-Time survey said they lived in a Tacoma zip code before losing housing. Now the Tacoma City Council is set to decide on August 25 whether to formally join Pierce County's Unified Regional Approach, a system meant to replace the county's patchwork of city-by-city homelessness responses with shared data and coordinated service delivery.
The resolution up for a vote would commit Tacoma, the largest population center in Pierce County, to work with other jurisdictions on the regional system, according to KOMO News. Pierce County Councilmember Jani Hitchen presented the proposal to the Tacoma council, and if it passes, city staff would begin drafting an interlocal agreement spelling out Tacoma's specific role. That agreement, not the resolution itself, would settle the details of what Tacoma and other cities are actually responsible for — details the outlet reports remain unresolved for now.
Tacoma isn't alone in weighing this move. Lakewood, Fife and Gig Harbor have already adopted resolutions expressing intent to join, and Pierce County itself has done the same, per the station's report. Presentations are also planned for Ruston, University Place and Fircrest, according to a City of Tacoma announcement — suggesting the suburban momentum was building well before the county seat's own vote.
What the Regional System Would Actually Do
At its core, the Unified Regional Approach is built around shared data and cooperation among governments and service providers rather than a new bureaucracy. Participating governments and nonprofits would use the same database and coordinated entry process, Tacoma council member Sarah Rumbaugh said, per the same account. A shared database could help providers spot available shelter space and service gaps in real time, and it's expected to improve the accuracy of countywide homelessness counts.
The goal, as described in the KOMO report, is a consistent response for anyone entering homelessness anywhere in Pierce County, rather than the current mix of separate municipal systems. That expanded data-sharing includes wider use of the Homeless Management Information System already in place across some providers.
Notably, Pierce County's version diverges sharply from the model next door in King County. Unlike the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, which operates as an independent public entity pooling funding from Seattle and King County, Pierce County's system will not be established as an independent agency and will not pool participating governments' money into a single joint fund, according to The Urbanist. Hitchen said participating governments will still be able to see each other's spending and contributions, with city responsibilities established through the interlocal agreements rather than a merged budget.
A Six-Year Path From Planning to a Council Vote
Pierce County began developing the regional approach back in 2022, and the county council voted 5-4 on June 9 to formally adopt the framework's structure, The Urbanist reported — a narrow margin that hints at some political division over the plan's shape. The county had originally hired Seattle-based consulting firm Uncommon Bridges to help design the system, but the two sides mutually terminated that contract in March, six months ahead of schedule, according to a Pierce County notice, shifting direct management of implementation to the county itself.
The framework traces back to Goal 1 of Pierce County's Comprehensive Plan to End Homelessness, first adopted by the county council in March 2022 and updated this past June. Funding for local housing work also flows through the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act, a 0.1% local sales tax enacted in March 2023 that generates roughly $20 million a year and has supported more than 1,300 affordable housing units in its first two years, the county has said.
Money, Numbers and a Leadership Shakeup
The financial stakes are substantial on both sides of the table. Tacoma's Neighborhood and Community Services Department has budgeted $25.5 million for homelessness-related spending during the current biennium, per KOMO's reporting — a figure that doesn't include associated first-responder costs, such as firefighters responding to medical calls at encampments. Pierce County, meanwhile, spends about $50 million annually on homelessness programs countywide.
Nearly 3,000 people were identified as experiencing homelessness in the county's 2025 Point-in-Time count. The rollout comes as Pierce County Human Services has faced its own turbulence: County Executive Ryan Mello removed Human Services Director Gary Gant in May after less than a year on the job, following internal reviews and deputy executive memos citing incomplete briefing materials and inadequate oversight of homelessness housing contracts, as Hoodline previously reported. Whether that leadership turnover slows the regional system's rollout remains an open question.
The county has notched some recent wins on the youth homelessness front, having prevented 171 youth and young adults from falling into homelessness through a HUD 100-Day Challenge completed in January, and subsequently directing $3.1 million in federal Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program grants to six local nonprofits. Tacoma has also faced its own internal friction over encampment policy — in April, the city council directed staff to study the cost of removing decorative boulders installed to deter encampments, after advocates argued the tactic wasted money needed for shelter space. If the council approves the August 25 resolution, Tacoma's interlocal agreement negotiations would begin shortly after, setting the terms for how the region's largest shelter provider fits into a system it did not design alone.
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