City staff recommend making Safe Stay pilot a longer‑term homelessness response; council raises siting, design and cost questions

City staff recommended that the council consider transitioning the Safe Stay community pilot from a temporary emergency model to a longer‑term component of Vancouver’s homelessness response during a March 3, 2025 council workshop.

Jamie Spinelli, who led the presentation, said Safe Stay began as a 2021 pilot to address a shortage of year‑round non‑congregate shelter beds and has grown into four sites that to date have served 424 individuals across Clark County. "Today we're gonna talk about the future and whether council would like to transition safe stays from a temporary pilot model, to a long term more embedded component of our homelessness response strategy," Spinelli said.

Why it matters: Staff told the council Safe Stays have produced measurable outcomes including housing placements and fewer emergency service calls around sites. Formalizing the model would require changes to city permitting and possibly the comprehensive plan, staff said; councilors expressed broad support for keeping the model but raised questions about facility form, durability, shared public costs and neighborhood impacts.

Reported outcomes and data: Spinelli summarized program outcomes and system…