Regional Housing Council approves plan to include people with lived experience and outside subject-matter experts

Thurston County’s Regional Housing Council approved a proposal to begin in January a monthly engagement process that will include a member of the Lived Experience Steering Committee (LESC) and periodic presentations by subject-matter experts, and to pay a stipend to the LESC participant, council members said at the meeting.

The change is intended to give council members regular, structured input from people with direct experience of homelessness and from providers and experts so the council can better understand ongoing impacts on the local system. Tom Webster, a county staff member presenting the proposal, said the LESC member would attend every meeting but would have a standing agenda item only every other month, and that subject-matter-expert (SME) presentations would be 20–30 minutes and limited to information, not lobbying. "This is really intended to be informational, educational, not anticipated that you would take any action related to any of these items, but really just to kind of get a sense of impacts that stakeholders are feeling in the community," Webster said.

Under the approved plan, the LESC participant will receive a stipend covered through the existing facilitator contract. The council agreed SMEs would be invited on the alternate months from the LESC presentation; staff proposed inviting two to three experts and providing them two to four guiding questions so remarks focus on the topic. Suggested starter topics included federal policy changes that affect homeless service providers, supply‑side cost drivers such as tariffs, and updates on federal rental‑assistance programs.

Several council members said they supported the structure but asked staff to be careful about timing. Carolyn Cox of Lacey urged scheduling outside the committee’s RFP and funding‑decision window to avoid any appearance of favoritism during the agencies’ application period. "I just wouldn't want there to be any, any blowback on the housing council, from either the public who think maybe we're playing favorites here or from other agencies who weren't allowed to give a presentation during this window. So just it's optics is my concern," Cox said.

Dani Madrone of the Olympia City Council said she wanted the SME presentations to be practical and actionable: "I would be more interested in hearing about gaps of funding ... because there's different changes of funding and policy for federal stuff. There's also state stuff," Madrone said. Michael Altauser of Tumwater questioned how much direct action the council could take on topics such as tariffs, saying, "our influence ... is more informal rather than directive."

County staff also reminded the council that the county receives state funding administered by the Washington State Department of Commerce for homeless prevention and rental assistance and listed locally contracted providers for those services: Catholic Community Services (single‑adult rental assistance), Family Support Center (families), Community Youth Services (youth), and a program to serve Spanish‑speaking residents run by Cielo.

A motion to implement the engagement proposal carried by roll call vote. Carolyn Cox moved the motion; a second was recorded but not named on the record. The chair announced the motion passed unanimously among the eligible voting representatives present. Staff said they would begin the new schedule in January and return with logistics and a roster as part of regular meeting materials.