Pierce County

This year, at the Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo in southeastern Washington, the weight limits have changed — for goats.Compared to last year, market goats…

Behind wooden and chain-linked fencing in South Tacoma, 60 brightly painted tiny homes stand in neat rows on a gravel lot. This is the home of Kingfisher Village, which opened at the end of July, is the newest tiny home community that the nonprofit, Low Income Housing Institute, has established in the city.

The number of students enrolled in Bates Technical College’s carpentry program has just about doubled over the past year. Bates has had to hire more faculty and begin offering an evening course to meet the demand. Dr. Brett McCarthy, the associate dean of instruction for Bates, said with that growth, the college needed more resources.

Outside the Pierce County council building on a sunny early June afternoon, people gathered waving rainbow flags while listening to pop hits like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”They were commemorating a moment in the county’s history: the first time the pride flag has flown outside the government building.

Celina McKenney has bills to pay, and a lot of people rely on her to pay them. As co-executive of Share and Care House, a nonprofit in Pierce County that provides permanent supportive housing to over 140 people, McKenney oversees the money coming in and going out. One of the many things her organization does is pay for clients’ leases.

The Pierce County Central Labor Council is taking on an ambitious task — figuring out the problem of child care for working families.It’s a problem that Nathe Lawver, secretary-treasurer for the council, knows well.“Any conversation on workforce, within twenty minutes you're talking about child care,” Lawver said.

More than six months after the Pierce County AIDS Foundation (PCAF) closed, community members and service providers say there is still a void for people in the county seeking testing and care for HIV/AIDS.“It's been going on six months now that the community doesn’t have these services available to them,” said Chace Hunter in April. Hunter is the executive director of Affordable Housing and Treatment (AHAT) Homecare, an organization that provides housing to people living with HIV.

Recent funding from the Washington State Department of Commerce will help keep one Pierce County housing project running. Project Open Door serves people experiencing chronic homelessness.

This weekend, big service changes will go into effect for Pierce County’s public transportation system. While Pierce Transit makes service changes throughout the year, Rebecca Japhet, who handles communications for the public transit operator, said these service changes are the biggest the company has made in seven years.

The tide of evictions many predicted, has come.As the pandemic waned and rental assistance dollars from federal programs like the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act dried up, some feared there would be an increase of evictions.