By Marianne Lincoln

Over a month ago, the board of Family Promise of Pierce County voted to add a dba (doing business as) name to its license. The name Family Promise of Puget Sound was added due to interest from Kitsap, Thurston and King Counties, in the project started in Spanaway.

With all the noise and commotion surrounding the tiny home village in Spanaway ‘s wetland watershed, Family Promise of Pierce County quietly slipped into existence and started housing families in the area. The board formed in 2023, wrote up some grant proposals based on their National model. The Bethel School District provided a portable near Pacific Avenue as an initial office and Day Center. The Spanaway Methodist Church donated its former parsonage as an overnight facility.

In November 2023, the decision was made to hire a paid CEO for the organization. Steve Decker was chosen from the applicants. Decker worked tirelessly to get the organization up and running, building a website for information and intake, and linking it to the other services needed. He knew how to make it pop up on top in a Google search. The model was so effective, a person could apply for intake from Michigan or Texas and find services local to them.

By May of 2024, the parsonage had been remodeled for tenants and the Day Center was operational with employees to provide services. In September of 2024, the Parkland Community center was coming online and FPPC contacted with them for space in the building at 121st and Pacific Avenue for offices. That freed the entire portable for Day Center needs.

Then in January of 2025, the weather dipped to below freezing and a call went out from Pierce County to Decker asking to have the Parkland School location operate as a warming center for a few freezing nights. It’s location, next to the Parkland transit Center was ideal. Well, that few days turned into several weeks of freezing nights. The impact to the programs required taking on additional volunteers and overworking staff. The costs were estimated to be an additional $56,000 that was not budgeted. It did, however, keep 367 people warm over that period and save countless lives.

At a Mid-County Leadership meeting in April, County Executive Ryan Mello touted the work of Family Promise. The video of that speech can be found at this link on Facebook.

In the meantime, over 144 families have been returned to regular housing, only 4 of those being in subsidized housing by HUD. Most were returned to a regular life like the rest of us. Presently, numbers of unhoused families are increasing rapidly. The moratoriums cities have on evictions over winter months have ended. At the end of April there were 53 families in need of housing, three weeks later, as of today, there are 90 families without homes.

So there is certainly plently of work to keep them busy. But compare this to a housing project currently estimated at $62,000,000 that has only started removing trees and building a road and is not projected to have any housing ready for up to four more years, FPPC is truly slaying it. And they are doing this with current housing inventory and minimal money compared to the other project.

Way to go Spanaway, proving there was another way, a better model, to help the homeless population!

Family Promise continues to need volunteers and donations of cash, household items and food, to provide these effective services for our communities. As they expand, they will be looking for board members, preferably people who have experienced homelessness themselves, in the other 3 counties. They will need contacts. They will need housing and day centers in other areas. There is a lot of work ahead to tackle this problem. Homelessness happens for many reasons including job loss, lack of skills to return to work, medical issues, as well as mental health and addictions. One illness, layoff, or injury can change a life for the worse.

Today, Governor Ferguson finally put out the signed budget with his list of line item vetoes. The line item for homeless services survived. To quote CEO Decker, “Attached, please find the Veto Letter for the state budget.  While many projects were cut, ours was not one of them. This means that as of Oct 1, we will aim to be recognized as Family Promise of Puget Sound, and open at least 2 additional shelters to serve Pierce, Thurston, Kitsap, and King Counties.”

Here is a link to the website for Family Promise of Pierce County, soon to be Family Promise of Puget Sound. [Congratulations, Way to go!]

Remember, grants require receipts and reimbursements from government entities. Family Promise needs donations to build a nest egg so they can meet payroll and expenses, while they wait for the government to pay back those bills. So, donations from the public are also crucial to make this model work. If you are able, please go to their website, you will see a link to their donation site, help the cause in a way that works.

A recent fundraiser, based on the Wizard of Oz theme was held in the gym of the Parkland Community Center. Here are a few photos.