We know we aren’t alone.

We know the systemic inequality that we fight to overcome overlaps with the goals of leaders in the movement for equity. We are grateful to share words of support and care from a Tacoma community leader: 

“In a city already struggling with homelessness, the decision to cut Nativity House services is unconscionable. Tacoma desperately needs more care, not less. And that care depends on the staff who show up every day with compassion and courage. 

To strip away services and disregard the workers who sustain them is to abandon both our neighbors in need and the values of justice we claim to uphold. 

I urge Catholic Community Services to reverse course and protect the dignity of both the unhoused and the workers who serve them,” Reverend Malando Redeemer, President of the Tacoma Branch NAACP and Associate Minister, Youth and Young Adult Pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church in Tacoma.

We urge our supporters and the public to understand that Catholic Community Services leadership has changed the ways their discretionary funding can be spent and those funds will not be used to support essential programs that are not profitable, like the Nativity House Day Center.

At the Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness meeting on May 30, 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBlP7Doq098) the change in the discretionary spending structure is announced during a Q&A response (starting at 24:14). Community partners did not know how this protocol shift would impact Tacoma families. Publicly, CCS management stated the closure was due to the uncertain federal funding landscape and that there has been no change to discretionary funding support to sustain CCS programs. 

CCS leadership’s decisions and lack of communication with community partners, program participants, and clients experiencing homelessness have had unintended consequences and ripple effects across Pierce County. 

First, CCS leadership decides to end Nativity House Day Shelter programming for people facing homelessness. Unsurprisingly, that choice leads to an increase in people living outdoors without the resources (food, shelter, clothing, laundry, mail access and supportive staff members) that Nativity House Day Shelter once provided. Second, CCS directed their community partners and remaining employees to lobby their elected representatives in City Council, Pierce County, and Olympia to generate funding, improve support, and limit impacts to their guests, participants and staff. Concurrently, and despite more vulnerable people in need of housing but fewer resources than in the summer, City Councilmember John Hines proposed an expansion to the Tacoma camping ban: extending the ban to a two-block radius around parks, playgrounds, and libraries as well as areas around permanent homelessness shelters, adding that people caught violating the ordinance would face 30 days in jail, a $250 fine, or both. Thirdly, while CCS dismisses their clients’ and staff concerns and relaying accountability to elected officials, leadership has yet to make a public statement regarding the camping ban extension and the attempt to further criminalize their former program participants. 

Again, we supporters must step up and fill the roles that CCS leaders abandoned, this time by voicing our opposition to the camping ban expansion. We encourage signers to use their voices at the City Council meeting during public comments on Tuesday, October 21 at 5pm in Council Chambers. The agenda has been posted at https://cityoftacoma.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1253182&GUID=F4F523D2-E130-4B99-963F-F4B9D1FE74BB The link to join the meeting remotely can be found at https://cityoftacoma.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=22566&GUID=F23EE68E-8E57-4BEC-8601-B969C461E3B3&Search= 

We ask everyone to share these updates, this petition, and ways to speak up to Tacoma City Council with your friends, family, neighbors, and community. 

We stand together!