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Residents and commissioners press homelessness, addiction and affordable housing as top priorities
Summary
Public commenters and commissioners used the open forum to press for a local approach to homelessness, calling for treatment facilities, stricter enforcement against dealers, and clarity on affordable housing funding. Commissioners discussed constraints from state policy and local options to pilot alternative approaches.
A sustained public-comment and commissioner-level discussion at the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners’ first 2025 meeting focused on homelessness, substance abuse treatment, affordable housing funding and the role of local enforcement.
Bill Youngren, author of a county public-safety document presented last year, said he and others are building a coalition across jurisdictions to address public safety tied to homelessness and urged focus on creating treatment capacity. “The biggest part in my, my estimation, the biggest part of this whole thing is a mental health facility and starting to deal with having a place to put the people,” he said.
Residents described the difficulty families face when a relative is addicted and homeless. One commenter recounted locating a 31-year-old…
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