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Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission

BEL-MNA-2025-02-19 February 19, 2025 Committee Meeting City of Bellingham
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The February 2025 Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission meeting featured a comprehensive presentation by Jason, the city's new Strategic Initiatives Manager for Health and Human Services, who provided an in-depth overview of his first four months in the role. Jason, whose position is funded through opioid settlement money, has been working to coordinate city responses to homelessness, encampments, and behavioral health issues while building partnerships with local service providers. The presentation highlighted significant developments in the region's health and human services landscape, including new mobile medical units providing medication-assisted treatment stationed at Division Street, Lummi Nation's groundbreaking ceremony for a secure withdrawal management center, and ongoing coordination efforts around encampment responses. Jason emphasized the complexity of addressing homelessness, noting that while Bellingham is a "passionate and empathetic community," the issues require nuanced approaches that balance compassion with public safety concerns. A major portion of the meeting focused on potential federal funding impacts to city services, with Mayor Strickland revealing that Bellingham could lose over $5 million in Medicaid reimbursement for EMS transport services, which would equate to 32 full-time positions — nearly 20% of the fire and EMS department. Senator Maria Cantwell's office had contacted the city that same day requesting quantification of these vulnerabilities. The discussion also covered the severe weather shelter operations, which have been staffed by overworked county employees due to lack of qualified organizations willing to operate emergency shelters. The county had put out a request for proposals to run the winter shelter but received no responses, highlighting broader challenges in staffing and supporting these critical services.

No formal votes or decisions were taken during this advisory meeting. This was primarily an informational session featuring presentations and discussi…

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**Health and Human Services Coordination:** Jason detailed his role as the city's first dedicated liaison for health and human services, explaining how this work previously fell under community development at an "opportunity cost." The position allows economic development staff to focus on catalytic projects while providing dedicated resources for health and human services partnerships with the county and nonprofits. **Encampment Response Coordination:** The city has implemented a new process for providing advance notice to service providers before encampment actions. Public works creates detailed maps showing exact locations of remaining individuals, allowing outreach teams to provide targeted interventions. This coordinated approach has received positive response from service providers and has resulted in success stories, including a woman and her son from the Walmart camp who connected with Lighthouse Mission services. **Federal Funding Vulnerabilities:** Mayor Strickland outlined significant risks to city operations from potential federal cuts. The most serious threat is loss of $5.2 million…
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**Jason (Strategic Initiatives Manager)** emphasized the complexity of homelessness issues, noting his previous work was in an "echo chamber" of advocacy without seeing public safety perspectives. He stressed that while everyone needs housing, people also need to feel safe in neighborhoods, requiring balanced approaches to encampments that address drug crimes, trafficking, and violence. **Mayor Strickland** highlighted the importance of having Jason in encampment coordination meetings to ensure human services perspective isn't lost among attorneys, police, and public works staff. She emphasized maintaining city values and services despite federal uncertainty, stating local government has "priv…
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**Jason, on the complexity of homelessness issues:** "Everyone does need a home. That's what I've been doing for the last 10 years, operating just out of that mindset. But then, also, people need to feel safe in their neighborhoods. And we need to make sure that you know we're protecting people from sex trafficking and other assaults and crimes and drug crimes that are happening and violence." **Mayor Strickland, on federal funding risks:** "We were contacted by Senator Maria Cantwell's offic…
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- Jason and Mayor Strickland meeting with lieutenants to discuss bike patrol expansion around Lighthouse Mission - Planning for additional tiny home village site after current relocations complete - Summer preparation for heat and smoke respite centers, with site identification and staffing solutions in development - Potential embedded behavioral health services with Bellingham Police Depa…

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**New Health and Human Services Position Established:** Jason's four-month tenure has created the city's first dedicated resource for health and human services coordination, shifting this work away from community development to allow economic development focus. **Enhanced Encampment Coordination Process:** The city now provides advance notice and detailed mapping to service providers before encampment actions, improving coordination and outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness. **Federal Funding Vulnerability Assessment I…
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## Meeting Overview The Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission convened on February 19, 2025, for their monthly meeting, with Mayor Kim Lund returning after missing the January session due to state business in Olympia. The evening's agenda centered on two major presentations: an introduction to the city's new strategic initiatives manager for health and human services, Jason (whose Norwegian surname proved challenging to pronounce), and a discussion of potential federal funding impacts on city operations in the wake of recent national political changes. The meeting drew neighborhood association representatives from across Bellingham, reflecting the ongoing community concern about homelessness, housing, and public safety issues that have dominated local discourse. What made this meeting particularly significant was the detailed look at how the city is attempting to coordinate its response to homelessness through dedicated staff and improved communication with service providers. ## Strategic Initiatives Manager Introduction Jason opened his presentation by sharing his personal connection to Bellingham, where he lived from 1999 to 2014 and developed what he called "the only place I've ever lived where I felt like I was truly part of a community of people who cared about the place they lived." His background in community psychology from the University of Washington led him through a career trajectory that began in emergency homeless shelters and progressed through various housing and therapeutic court roles in King, Snohomish, and Skagit counties before returning to Bellingham in October 2024. "Community psychology is a branch of what you call regular psychology kind of came to the forefront after World War 2 when there's a realization that all the vets coming back and suffering PTSD, it was a bigger problem than could be addressed on an individual basis," Jason explained, setting the context for his approach to systemic health and human services challenges. His four months on the job have been intensely focused on relationship-building and field experience. "I've really done a lot of stuff since I've been here, and I also started to worry that I forgot some stuff, too," he acknowledged while reviewing his extensive list of community partnerships with organizations including Lighthouse Mission, Lummi Nat…
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### Meeting Overview The Bellingham Mayor's Neighborhood Advisory Commission met on February 19, 2025, with Mayor Satya at City Hall. The meeting featured a detailed presentation by Jason Kvistberg, the city's new Strategic Initiatives Manager for Health and Human Services, who discussed his work coordinating services for the unhoused community. The commission also discussed potential federal funding impacts on city services. ### Key Terms and Concepts **Strategic Initiatives Manager (Health and Human Services):** A newly created position at the City of Bellingham focused on coordinating health and human services partnerships between the city, county, and nonprofit agencies. Jason Kvistberg holds this role and his salary is funded through opioid settlement money. **Alternative Response Team (ART):** A specialized team that responds to mental health crises and other non-emergency situations, providing an alternative to traditional police response. **Ground Level Response and Coordinated Engagement (GRACE):** A street medicine team that provides wound care and medical treatment to people in encampments. **Functional Zero:** A goal where a city or county maintains the capacity to house any unsheltered person within one month, keeping the number of unsheltered homeless below that capacity threshold at all times. **Continuum of Care (CoC) Dollars:** Federal funding that flows from the federal level through state agencies to support homelessness services and housing programs. **23-Hour Crisis Stabilization Center:** A planned facility that would serve as an emergency room diversion for people in behavioral health crisis, currently in development. **Designated Crisis Responders (DCR):** Mental health professionals who handle involuntary treatment assessments for people experiencing mental health crises. **Keep Washington Working Act:** State legislation that limits local government cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, recently prompting the city to form a compliance working group. ### Key People at This Meeting | Name | Role / Affiliation | |---|---| | Mayor Satya | Mayor of Bellingham | | Jason Kvistberg | Strategic Initiatives Manager, Health and Human Services | | Janice | Mayor's Office staff member | | Jake Charlton | Happy Valley neighborhood representative | | Michael | City Council member | | Councilmember (unnamed) | Streets neighborhood representative | | April | Commission member | | Raman | Beach Neighborhood Association representative | ### Background Context The City of Bellingham created the Strategic Initiatives Manag…
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Social Services Budget & Finance Public Safety Government Operations Defy Gravity Lake Whatcom Center Lighthouse Mission Lummi Nation Northwest Youth Services Peace Health Saint Joes Whatcom County Greg Baker Janice Jason Jason Strategic Initiatives Lance Jones Maria Cantwell Marilyn Strickland Michael Behavioral Health Bike Patrol County Coordination Crisis Response Encampment Coordination Federal Funding Functional Zero Homelessness Lighthouse Mission Medicaid Reimbursement Mobile Medical Units Opioid Treatment Public Safety Service Providers Severe Weather Shelter Tiny Home Villages