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Gig Harbor resident urges clearer transit and warming-center access for people experiencing homelessness
Summary
A Gig Harbor resident told the City Council on Feb. 25, 2025, that people experiencing homelessness face barriers using Pierce County Transit to reach warming centers, including reliance on smartphones, locked facility doors requiring phone calls and limited advertised resources.
At the Feb. 25, 2025, Gig Harbor City Council meeting, resident Ashley Wells urged better public information and transit support for people experiencing homelessness seeking warming centers and other inclement-weather services.
Wells said she tested the system by attempting to use Pierce County Transit’s free-ride program to reach warming centers and found the process difficult without a smartphone. “Accessing its schedule, pickup and drop off is nearly impossible without a smartphone,” she said. Wells described a bus driver unfamiliar with the free-ride program, difficulty with QR codes and printed-material gaps: “Maybe a solution here is to educate our drivers, provide them with printed flyers containing a list of resources and a map to handout, not a QR code.”
Wells also described arriving at Chapel Hill and finding a locked door that required calling a number to gain entrance, a step she said also required a phone. She praised a later encounter in which volunteers provided water, coffee and granola bars but warned many people will not leave belongings to go inside for warmth out of fear of theft. Wells questioned why some local resources were not more prominently advertised, citing the YMCA’s limited shower schedule and a policy that showers are made available when temperatures drop below 20 degrees; she also asked why nearby options such as the library and Saint Nicholas Catholic Church are not more clearly promoted as resources.
Wells concluded by urging the city and partners to better advertise existing resources and provide non-digital ways for people to access warming centers and transit assistance. The council did not take action on the comment during the meeting; no staff response was recorded in the public-comment segment.
