Olympia’s Homeless Response Coordinator Resigns
Thurston County faces challenges to homeless response during the COVID-19 crisis
In a surprise move, Colin De Forrest, the City of Olympia’s Homeless Response Coordinator resigned as of April 12, 2020. City officials say that DeForrest wanted to work closer to his family, avoiding daily commutes from Puyallup. A city representative said there will not be an immediate replacement hired.
DeForrest was brought in to oversee homeless response in Olympia based on his similar work in Tacoma. His salary was partially funded with a $300K grant from local churches, $100K for each of three years. There is at least one year left on his contract and it is not clear what will happen with the remaining funds.
Praised by coworkers as a hard worker and a great guy, he was described as being “clear-eyed” in his work. However, he does bear some responsibility for the outcome at the Mitigation Site, which had devolved into a solution this reporter could no longer advocate for. One official said, “we have to be comfortable with the risk of failure” as we learn lessons on the cutting edge of formulating new models.
Management of the site was recently turned over on April 1 to Catholic Community Services, who are promising to provide better service but at nearly three times the cost, $674K. As Olympia News…
