Port Angeles City Council seeking shelter proposal

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 21, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council has taken more action regarding homelessness in the city.

The city council has been hearing about the issue since Feb. 3, when camping and encampments were discussed.

On April 7, the council had a work session on the topic. Between the two meetings, the council heard presentations from several organizations that work with the unhoused and work toward building more affordable housing within the city.

Following the work session, the council directed staff to bring back information on topics to the second meeting in May.

On Tuesday night, the council heard presentations on four topics relating to homelessness and passed several motions directing more city action.

The first presentation, given by City Manager Nathan West, was about managed sheltering.

“Staff took the opportunity to draft specifically a request for proposals that would enable application or proposals for a variety of managed sheltering situations, whether it is safe parking, whether it is a tiny home village, a lot of variety can be accommodated through the request for proposals that has been adopted and presented to city council,” West said.

The request for proposals (RFP) drafted by city staff seeks responses from a qualified organization to develop and implement a managed sheltering project, according to the RFP.

“The goal of the project is to provide efficient, cost effective and safe living alternatives for unhoused individuals/families to provide a foundation for gaining stability and access to services that will lead to permanent housing,” the RFP states. “The ideal organization shall possess the technical, operational, legal, staffing, financial means and resources to provide the services.”

Council member Drew Schwab pointed out that a motion to direct the issuance of the RFP seeking proposals for a managed sheltering project is not the city doing anything about encampments or cleaning up encampments or enforcing laws on encampments.

“The specific conversation right this second is the city recognizing that encampments are a thing and we don’t have the resources to handle it responsibly or in a way that works for the community at large,” Schwab said. “But in the request for proposal, specifically, each proposal must include at minimum a community outreach plan for developing the proposal and communicating with the neighbors and the broader community throughout the process, design, implementation and operations.”

The motion passed unanimously.

The council then heard from Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith about the police department’s encampment response procedures.

“One of the questions I heard about was, when we get involved with facilitating a cleanup, how does that work for the police department and other departments?” Smith said. “And that’s really situationally dependent.”

Smith provided the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the council to illustrate the factors that go into law enforcement involvement with encampments, which include available resources, time and how bad the problem is.

During questions, Mayor Kate Dexter stated one demand the city council regularly hears is that people want anyone who is using drugs arrested. She asked Smith to go into the legal frameworks around that situation.

“It, of course, is illegal to possess any illegal drug like, say, fentanyl or heroin, but it’s a misdemeanor,” Smith said. “So the fact that something is a misdemeanor means we have to actually see it. … In many situations, when we make a drug case or arrest, it’s incidental to an arrest for something else: An arrest warrant, another crime, the person’s possessing drugs, so we discover it, we process it, we send it off for testing, it gets added as a charge.”

In order to make the SOP, as well as the answers to frequently asked questions, available to the public, council member Amy Miller made a motion to direct city staff to develop a clear, accessible public-facing summary or educational tool derived from the SOP to ensure that encampment response priorities, reporting methods and city actions are transparent and predictable for all Port Angeles residents and for the initiative be brought back to the council for the 2027 budget review period with progress updates included in staff reports.

That motion also passed unanimously.

Another topic West addressed was current trash receptacle locations and future capital facilities plan locations.

“Staff felt it was appropriate to take more time to ensure that we’re building in design, efficiency, innovation and staffing needs, all of those details into the equation, and for that reason, our recommendation this evening is to direct staff to create a holistic trash can receptacle and servicing capital facilities plan item with the goal of, one, reviewing the current garbage collection process; two, identifying areas of innovation and improvements; three, design; four, efficiency; five, safety; six, adequate staffing; and seven, additional receptacle locations in the downtown core and at key park/open space locations,” West said.

That motion, made by Miller, also passed unanimously.

Due to time constraints, the last issue the council discussed was that of 24-hour public restroom availability and next locations.

The next two 24-hour restrooms are planned as a new one at Erickson Playfield and the replacement of one on Ediz Hook. A third facility is planned for Elks Playfield in 2027-28.

During a previous discussion on the restrooms, the council heard from the Parks & Recreation Department employee who is responsible for cleaning the restrooms, and that often involves uninstalling toilets because items have been shoved down into them.

Miller said the city can’t expect an increase in the level of services without an increase in staff and made a motion to direct city staff to analyze options for increasing Parks Department personnel capacity, specifically evaluating the addition of a full-time-equivalent position or potentially expanding the future homelessness navigator position and to report their findings and recommendations back to city council as part of the 2027 budget review process.

Miller also pointed out that the Parks Department has been at 1.3 staff members since 1991, and since then, the city has added 18 large park facilities.

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.