Thurston County anticipating $5.5 million in state funding for Rights of Way Initiative

Three months after the Thurston County Board of County Commissioners found that critical funding for its Rights of Way (ROW) Initiative appeared to be excluded from Gov. Bob Ferguson’s budget, the county will receive funding after all, albeit reduced.

Thomas Webster, county senior program manager, told the commissioners during a Wednesday commissioners check-in meeting that the county is anticipating to receive $5.55 million annually in ROW/Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding. Staff were told by the Washington state Department of Commerce, which manages the funding, that a final number should arrive in May after the state budget is approved.

Thurston County is one of five counties in the state participating in the ROW Initiative because it has encampments on the Department of Transportation’s state rights of way, referring to the highways and freeways that the state oversees. The initiative provides funding to these counties with the goal to move people living on ROW sites into better living situations and permanently clear these encampments.

In June 2022, Thurston County and the cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater partnered through the Thurston Regional Housing Council on a proposal submitted to the Department of Commerce for funds through the initiative. Commerce has provided funding for four capital projects that has created 198 new beds, either enhanced shelter or permanent housing, representing a capital investment of over $300 million, according to staff reports. In addition, the department is providing operational funding for 10 activities, plus administrative costs for the county and the City of Olympia, that total approximately $9.5 million annually.

Thurston County requested nearly $10 million to maintain ROW-funded projects in whole, including continued operations, ongoing monitoring and outreach to ROW sites. These projects include ROW Families through the Family Support Center, the Unity Commons Shelter and Sandy’s Flats both through Interfaith Works, Maple Court housing through Low Income Housing Institute, and outreach activities through Olympia Mutual Aid Partners. Six of the seven ROW programs the county operates were budgeted for more funding in the 2025-26 maintenance budget than in 2024-25 in order to maintain current service levels.

“Our expectation is once the budget is approved, we will receive a request for proposal from the state indicating our allocation and asking as a region how we want to allocate those funds,” Webster said. “We would be expecting a contract from the Department of Commerce that we would come and ask the board for approval to sign that contract.”

Webster added that staff are expecting no new ROW sites under the state initiative and that funding will just be for maintenance of existing projects.
County Manager Leonard Hernandez told the board in January that the funding was “in suspect right now” and that the “delegation was fairly conclusive that it is an uphill chance” that the counties involved would receive the funding. Webster said the total amount the state would provide for the initiative would be a projected $45 million, down from $75 million it previously provided.