Tacomans struggle with high temperatures, heat and access to cooling varies across the city

By Lauren Gallup
Tree canopy over a paved pathway through Tacoma's South Park on the afternoon of Friday, July 12. (Credit: Lauren Gallup / NWPB)
Four days a week, Kevin Ruby’s team is responding to calls and, often complaints, about people experiencing homelessness in Tacoma. “We always are trying to put people in touch with resources,” Ruby said. “It's just the resources right now, this week, last week, this time of year in general, include a lot more often water, cooling shelters, transportation to cooling Read More

Funding for some Tacoma homeless shelters reduced

By Lauren Gallup
The downtown campus of the Tacoma Rescue Mission, who's men's and women's shelters are set to be at capacity July 1 due to budget cuts. // Lauren Gallup NWPB
This year’s funding for Tacoma Rescue Mission homeless shelters has decreased. That means next month, the mission will have to decrease the number of shelter spaces available. As of June 23, the mission had 24 spaces available in their women’s shelter and 39 in their men’s shelter. But by July 1, those will go away, according to the mission. Read More

Rural Homelessness Is Very Real — But Harder To See And Help

By NPR News
Homeless residents often live outdoors in tents in rural Kentucky. Rarely pitched out in the open, like this one in Lexington, most are hidden in thick bushes of wooded areas. CREDIT: Mary Meehan/WEKU
Homelessness is often considered an urban phenomenon. But those who work on homeless issues say rural homelessness is a growing problem, too. That's true across the state and across the country. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reported in May that one in three rural Americans say homelessness is a problem in their Read More
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