After piloting a project over the past month with an outside consulting firm to coordinate services with homeless individuals, the Bremerton Police Department is asking the city to consider a year-long contract to continue the firm's homeless management services during 2024.

The department approached Seattle-based Commonstreet Consulting in September after speaking with law enforcement from Fife, where Commonstreet has been working to manage the similarly-sized city’s homeless crisis, BPD Captain Aaron Elton told the Bremerton City Council on January 10. BPD entered into an agreement with Commonstreet for a 30-day trial, with funding from its own budget, as an own attempt to streamline and coordinate homeless services in Bremerton, an issue that has involved officers who respond to individuals in crisis or in the wake of clearing encampments near downtown last fall.

“We've got all these volunteers, we have faith-based groups, we have Rock the Block, you have all these different people that want to come and help, but we have no hub,” Bremerton Police Chief Chief Tom Wolfe said in an interview with the Kitsap Sun. “No one else is finding a solution so we started looking around and we came across this… instead of creating a whole bureaucracy within city government, here's a company already doing this and we can contract with them.”

A city contract with Commonstreet, at a cost of $212,000 for a year of service, will be considered for approval by the city council on Wednesday. The contract would simultaneously initialize a Homeless Response Property Management Program, administered by Commonstreet.

The proposal comes at the same time the council will consider between options for shelter availability that include a plan from Mayor Greg Wheeler for a congregate shelter and a separate proposal for a shelter and pallet community.

Related: Bremerton's mayor favors shelter prior to council vote on option to address homelessness

Navigating services, monitoring encampments

If the contract is approved, Commonstreet would not only manage interactions with homeless individuals, but also monitor sites and advise property owners who request city assistance.

Under the proposed contract, Commonstreet would manage and regularly report homeless camp and camper locations, conduct site visits and connect unhoused individuals with services. They would also manage, reclaim, maintain and clean sites of former encampments, document trespasses and coordinate police response, identify private property and advise owners who are dealing with encampments there, among other responsibilities.

“Being unable to properly maintain and manage property, that's a huge concern because if we can't manage property, it's hard to maintain health and safety in the city,” Brendan Perko of Commonstreet Consulting said at a Jan. 10 council meeting, echoing Elton’s focus on protecting the rights of unhoused and housed people equally.

“We have this balance that we have to seek out and maintain – that is public safety, just preservation of life,” Elton told the council. “But you’ve got this public safety piece where you’ve to got to balance the rights and the needs of these people who are living in this unhealthy situation and then of the residents who are literally living like a fence between them who are either having issues with theft, having issues with threats, having issues with trespass, having issues with drug paraphernalia.”

Commonstreet would also be able to work alongside city departments besides police, Elton told the council. They can partner with code enforcement, public works and work with environmental teams.

Over the last two and a half years in Fife, Commonstreet reported that 100 individuals were housed, 300 individuals received services, 31 sites were cleared with nearly 500 tons of garbage removed and nearly 1,000 individuals contacted, assessed, connected with services or moved from 200 properties, Perko told the council.

And after 27 days in Bremerton, Perko reported that Commonstreet has made nearly 100 unique site visits and evaluations, contacted over 20 individuals, made 13 meaningful connections and conversations, and actively engaged five individuals in a working plan. The organization has a follow-up scheduled for eight individuals who are “keeping in touch, developing trust and building rapport.”

Enforcement without a badge or gun

Over the 27 days of the trial program so far, Commonstreet has operated in the community without the presence of police officers at their side, save for 15 to 20 minutes on one visit to the Bay Vista neighborhood, Elton told the council.

“We spent some time on the phone, going through the different districts in the city, giving them an overview of where we've been and where to look,” Elton said. But ever since, “it's been all them. If they can go out and do outreach at these places with these people who need resources prior to law enforcement being involved, we're big fans of that.”

Taking a step back could not only be beneficial for those in vulnerable places who may be adverse to police presence, but it could also help police refocus some of their efforts elsewhere.

“Our primary mission is not behavioral health, our primary mission is not drug addiction, but we end up being the only ones out here helping people,” Wolfe said in an interview with the Kitsap Sun. “If your solution to homelessness is the police department, you don't have a solution to homelessness.”

Commonstreet workers don’t wear a badge, nor do they carry a firearm, Perko told the council when asked.

“They're social workers, they're compassion based, they're not law enforcement based,” Wolfe said. “They can do things that a police officer can't do – they can get compliance where we can't.

Maintaining a continuum of care

While the city council members expressed interest in Commonstreet’s service, several asked if the company would collaborate with existing homeless and housing service providers.

“A lot of us come with our hearts on our sleeves when it comes to helping our neighbors,” council president Jennifer Chamberlin said. She stressed that it is important a contractor from outside be aware of the community's continuum of care and the grassroots organizations and people who are doing the work.

Bremerton police spoke with the Commonstreet team about partnering with existing service organizations and even volunteer groups at the onset, Elton told the council.

“We're going to be working with current groups, we're going to be looking at new groups,” Perko told the council. “We're the only line until we're not, and so then we can hand it off to other folks who are doing the good work that we know they're doing… Imagine a world where you have alignment with law enforcement and outreach service providers instead of those two groups being at odds as, oftentimes, they are.”

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton to vote on contract for homeless services with Commonstreet