Articles & News

February 1, 2008

Tacoma group won't get ex-con housing grant after all

Posted by Joe Turner @ 01:10:25 pm

Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, just dropped by the office to tell me to expect a letter from the state Department of Community Trade and Economic Development. The letter will say the agency is not going to award the $1.1 million grant to Citizens for Responsible Justice to provide transitional housing to recently released prison and jail inmates.

"This is good news," Carrell said.

Sure enough, the e-mail just arrived. CTED doesn't come right out and say C4RJ was lying in its application, but it's pretty close.

CTED Director Julie Wilkerson, in a letter to the Tacoma City Council, said "in the absence of sufficient supporting documentation, CTED has withdrawn our conditional approval of this project application. C4RJ was formally notified today that we will not enter into a contract with them for this project."

Wilkerson specifically mentions C4RJ's failure to back up what it said when the group applied for the grant to provide transistional housing to about 70 prison and jail inmates over the next 18 months.

She said there was "insufficient documentation of . . . collaborative partnerships...regular meetings or close working relationships with neighbors and law enforcement agencies, non profit status, housing availability and a valid business license."

Here's the news release Carrell just sent out:

Sen. Carrell statement on CTED offender housing grant decision

OLYMPIA… After announcing in December that a group called Citizens for Responsible Justice would be awarded a million-dollar grant, the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development has reversed its decision. The Pierce County group planned to use the money to establish high-risk offender reentry housing in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood. State Senator Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, who represents parts of Tacoma, made this statement:

“I’m very pleased about the outcome of this situation. I don’t believe that anyone is at fault here, and I’m glad that that Debbie (Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma) and I were able to help CTED work its way out of a difficult situation.

“I know the Tacoma City Council was very upset by CTED’s decision to award the grant to a group planning to site a new halfway house in the heart of its city. That’s why we did a lot of work behind the scenes to help CTED find ways to ‘unring the bell,’ so to speak, and respond to the concerns of the community. We were able to help develop avenues to pursue other options, and we ended up with a win-win situation.

“I think the agency treated us very fairly in addressing our concerns, especially given this extremely difficult, emotionally charged issue. This is really a compliment to the agency that it took the time to investigate the appropriateness of this grant. The issue was handled the right way, and it proves that the system works.”