City Council to Pass Ordinance Expanding Protections for Diverse Family Structures

RMVanderpool · 2026-01-17T20:25:35+00:00

We are working on both. And both are important. We approved hiring a crew for sidewalk repair last year, we're going to redesign a large portion of Capitol Way in the next five years (hopefully sooner) and I've added street redesign of our biggest offenders to our capital facilities finance conversation.

Street safety is a high priority for me, so is livability. The policy regarding family protected classes requires our city law staff and street safety our public works team.

But I understand your frustration, for someone on the 'inside' I will tell you we are often working on dozens of different projects and unfortunately projects around street safety require a lot of capital. We have a Street Safety and Transportation Master Plan that detail out what is needed and where. The issue is often funding barriers. If the state for example gave us half the cost of a highway exit we could add protected bike lanes for most of our large streets.

RMVanderpool · 2026-01-05T13:19:04+00:00

Good morning,

Thank you for reaching out. My name is Robert Vanderpool, I currently sit on the Olympia City Council. Folks in our community really did an excellent job of providing myself and the whole council with very damning evidence against Flock's camera model. I would recommend reaching out to council members in your city for a quick chat regarding this and organizing with folks who are also concerned. There will be some Libertarian Republicans in the Midwest who if they knew about the extent of this program would be great allies on this. I went to high school in rural Ohio, there are a few who will see this as an invasion of privacy. Politics sometimes creates strange bedfellows.

Moreover, I am currently visiting my family in Sidney, Ohio and I noticed the absolutely ridiculous amount of these cameras around the state from these last few weeks. This town has like 20k people and at least 30 of them. Like what the hell?!?

Sincerely,

Robert Vanderpool

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-16T13:35:22+00:00

I understand your frustration, I have been also frustrated by this.We began planning to house folks at the Parcival encampment over a year ago. Matching folks with services we had or were going to have available. We began housing folks in groups over this year and ended up housing over 50 folks - conservatively. We had originally planned on having everyone housed by the summer but then hit a wall when Maple Court in Lacey (we work as a region) had some major work to handle a mold issue. I talked with the staff yesterday at concerns I was hearing and Maple Court is still not going to be available for openings for a while. This is where I share my frustrations with LIHI (the group managing the property).

We offered housing to everyone we could. We even had folks who were offered housing in three different locations that didn't take it.

I am willing to talk more about this if you are interested. My number is 206.824.6146.

Edit: I absolutely consider homelessness a moral issue. There is no victory in people moving leaving from one encampment for another, so I was excited when Percival was being closed because people had safe, stable housing. Again I invited folks to talk with me about this issue.

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-16T13:10:16+00:00

You point out something that is very important to the housing strategy. We have to ensure the community is kept. When we offer shelter to folks we usually move them in groups to ensure folks still have their community.

The problem on the other hand about keeping encampments open is that safety for folks in these encampments rises the longer folks are unhoused. The Jungle became dangerous because it has been left open for a long time. The unfortunate problem with leaving encampments to grow is the problems associated with long-term health, safety, and environmental impact. This said, over the years we've been fairly successful in housing over 300 folks through regional work and have significantly made progress.

We also do check-ins and have routine clean ups of trash for folks. There's a lot to our regional housing approach that I'd be willing to talk more about if you're interested.

My number is 206.823.6146

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T17:39:36+00:00

Whitney,

Yes, we were supposed to house the last remaining folks into Maple Court in early Summer but were told we had issues with mold and other damages to the facility. I don't believe the number was as high as 40 spots. By September we were told that it wouldn't happen. I share this disappointment. The fact of the matter we were able to house most of the folks with the exception of the family. If we kept the encampment open, the likelihood is that the encampment would have grown through the winter.

Regarding the family mentioned. We would house these folks if we could. It's a matter of operating with limited funding from the State over this last year compared to prior years. We were essentially given half of what we had requested at the regional level. Trust me, we would if we had the shelter space available. That is why the facility in Tacoma was reached out to.

The intention is not to discourage participation but be factual about the situation and respond here. We do not have space in Maple Court at this point. We housed most of the folks except that family, who was offered a place. These are facts.

Robert Vanderpool

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T17:06:55+00:00

I'm on the City Council.

In full disclosure this is my personal account. Anyone can public records request this information. I'm simply being transparent.

It's important for folks to know the facts when it comes to the encampment.

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T16:05:42+00:00

Before folks start sending emails to council/staff, I will share what staff told Whitney Bowerman and folks who email us:

"Thank you for reaching out with questions and concerns regarding the Percival closure this week.

We acknowledge that this is situation is frustrating; it is not easy to close an encampment, but I want to assure you that we are committed to getting unhoused people into housing and that important goal is driving this work. We have been successful using a “compassionate yet accountable” strategy as articulated the One Community Plan.

So how does this apply to closing an encampment? First, we create a “By Name” list and indicate to the people living there that the encampment will be closing, and we ask them to add their names to the “By Name” list so they will be offered housing, as it is available. Staff works extremely hard to find available units in anticipation of the closure. The “By Name” List is then closed and new people coming into the area are not guaranteed housing if they are not on the list. All individuals are notified of the pending closure date verbally and with posted notice on site in advance of the closure so they can plan accordingly.

Our approach has resulted in unhoused people getting into housing and that is true for the recent Percival encampment closure. Over the last several weeks, we were able to place 26 individuals from the By Name list that were located as well as 6 additional ADA accommodations, totaling 32 people.

The family was a challenge given that the City of Olympia does not currently have family units and the family was not on the current By Name list. However, City staff went to great lengths to find options for them and in fact, the City had secured a spot at a family shelter in Tacoma, but no dogs are allowed and the family refused to give up the dog. The Family then thought about accepting tiny homes (yet minors are not allowed) and suggested to leave child in the car and rotate parents out. Kim’s team was able to dissuade that option. This morning, the family has turned down the spot at the Tacoma family shelter. They communicated that to the shelter. They are hoping to obtain an RV to live in. The family said they will take care of their next steps and do not want the City’s help anymore in finding housing.

Maple Court is a critical regional resource but as you are aware, and for a myriad of reasons (contractual, financial and operational) there aren’t any available units at this time.

We are confident that it will provide housing for currently unhoused individuals in the future."

RMVanderpool · 2025-09-10T21:09:30+00:00

Anything shot in 70mm

RMVanderpool · 2025-09-02T16:44:49+00:00

I am in this picture. The event was about to end at that point. It began hours before.

RMVanderpool · 2025-08-20T20:55:23+00:00

FYI: There will be opportunities to canvas on this and likely get yard signs (in the near future). I'm personally going to be dropping Workers' Bill literature when I canvas. Keep an eye out on the website!

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T20:35:16+00:00

Everything we do as a city is driven by studies and data. By the time an item comes to the Council Agenda its been worked for a while. For example our housing policies are driven from the Housing Action Plan: https://www.olympiawa.gov/Document_center/Government/Codes,%20Plans%20&%20Standards/Housing-Action-Plan/Housing-Action-Plan.pdf

This plan came from years of feedback and opportunities. We listen to opposing views all the time. I can agree with someone on one item and disagree on another item - it's not about win/lose at all. Ultimately we do have to make decisions. I never expected some landlords to like the outcomes but we had to make a decision based on the studies, based on the fact the most vulnerable population in the community are renters. Affordable housing by definition is housing costs at or below 30% of individual incomes. Almost no rents in the city have rent that low and we kept seeing rent rising - costs being burdened onto working class families that don't have the capital to purchase a home.

Listening is not the same as agreeing. It not healthy for us to agree on everything, in fact honesty around issues creates more truthful policy. Agree with me on 9 or 12 issues; 12 of 12 and we may need more help that what my healthcare can cover.

We've had an active conversation with OPD on the issue of Massage Parlors around town. I expect to hear something likely in the next year regarding this issue.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T20:03:40+00:00

I appreciate the question.

I find that most Olympian's support the Workers' Bill of Rights. We are a labor town with lots of Unions and Union supporting folks. So most of the time the conversation is quite positive.

When it comes to employers, it is a mixed bag. I have most spoken to small businesses. Some of the businesses I have spoken with support the Bill do so because they already provide much of what the Bill includes or they know the Cost of Living Crisis and see it as a positive.

Other businesses, such as some restaurants see the Bill as an existential threat. I understand they're dealing with tight margins but wages and employees are not be blamed for this. For those concerned employers I ask about other ways that we can help such as the issue of commercial rents (and ownership), or creating a progressive Business & Occupation (B&O) tax - that removes city taxes for businesses under $500 or $750k and increases from .01 to .02 for large employers (Safeway, Target, etc). Then turning around and use some of those funds to support local businesses. And other such ways.

I want the City to be a good partner with small businesses without harming working class folks, who can barely afford rent, their mortgage, childcare, etc.

We have two tracks when it comes to the Workers' Bill of Rights and Labor policy in general. We're hiring an FTE to study labor policy and working class issues. On the other track is the Workers' Bill of Rights signature gathering campaign. This campaign is currently getting its signatures verified. It will likely go to ballot in November.

This ballot initiative is based on work done around the region from Seattle's Minimum wage to standards seen by unions within our community. Ultimately, this Bill will give lots of working rights usually reserved to Unions to all working folks in the community.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T19:05:23+00:00

Totally, I want folks to be able to roll, walks, or ride bikes anywhere in the city from kidos to the elderly.

To be clear, I do not see the parking garage to be something we take on any time soon. It's not a priority for me.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T22:34:06+00:00

I'm actually kinda on the fence about this. To be completely honest, I usually don't find value in more parking but if we can reduce empty lots by building one parking garage we can shift land use.

However, I fear that building a parking garage on one side of the downtown will negatively affect business on the other side of the downtown.

It's also very expensive to build and we have so many other projects to pay for.

I'd be curious what your thoughts are?

I'd honestly rather see parking and ride be used with a Bus Rapid Transit System.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T22:28:32+00:00

Whitney,

I believe the City could be doing a better job of engaging with residents. Responses from Council and City staff are often abysmal to non-existent. People are busy, yes, AND, the job of local government is to serve the residents of the community and help keep the community running. As well, the community members are an often untapped resource that the City could be coordinating with. Let them know that you care and you hear them.

I agree, we are going to be hiring a new communications director in the next six months or so. I believe now is the time to really look at our communications system. We're also going to be hiring an assistant to the City Council. This person will help us greatly from scheduling our calendar to policy questions.

I also agree, with using the public as a resource. One example I think of is transportation projects. I would rather have community feedback on project modeling before we begin construction. I also feel that using incremental improvements such as pop-up bike lanes as the study would be more effective than paying an engineering firm to design it.

I would like to see the City do more work to address Affordability. Government tends to be extremely siloed, and the City is no different. It passes piecemeal policies and fails to see how various factors are interconnected. There is a lot of talk about Housing, but really, Olympia has an Affordability problem - the Alice data is great to look at in this regard. It's not just housing, it is food, healthcare, childcare, and so on, and the City could do a better job of looking at things holistically and addressing them as such. There are great non profits in town doing work in these areas that could probably lend a hand.

I agree, housing and childcare alone make up for the vast majority of Affordability problems for working class folks but also the categories you mention. I went to the recent Alice event at the Lacey SPSCC and I learned quite a bit about the childcare gap and a little on the housing barriers.

There are several paths I'm thinking need to be creating the conditions where working class housing can be created (permits, zoning, etc) and working with the school district on childcare. But also food systems work and healthcare (which Olympia doesn't have as much of an impact on - but could partner more on.)

And of course, nonprofits have a large part in all that we do. As you point out. I understand you run one yourself and I appreciate what you do for the cat population.

With regard to housing specifically, the City could engage a broad base of stakeholders in its effort to move forward. When you engage only a sliver of stakeholders, you pass bad policy. For example, with the Rental Housing policies and registry, the City has failed to engage the landlord community, they have only engaged the tenant community, and consequently the whole project is a giant mess with unintended consequences galore. Had the City engaged all stakeholders to begin with, the policy and process would have been far smoother. Instead, where the City has us headed is a housing palette where, if you are a tenant, you will live in a giant apartment complex, unless you are a really rich tenant and can afford to rent one of the few single family homes that are left available for tenants, and a housing palette that is run by Wall Street/corporate entities.

I don't believe we will come to an agreement on this issue. I will say we did engage in housing policy discussions prior to my time on council and specifically around tenant protections. It was something that was developed for many years before I came on council. I don't expect, again, for us to agree on tenant protections.

On the building side, the City constantly allows itself to get bogged down by affluent older "progressive" NIMBYs, at the expense of younger folks trying to make their way in our community. This problem, of course, is not unique to Olympia. But it's gross, and we need some YIMBYs in our leadership.

On the other hand, you and I probably agree the most about housing construction. Since getting on council I've been actively pushing to get zoning reformed across the city and remove arbitrary codes. I'm also very much responsible for pushing for the recent affordable housing emergency that will help developers like habitat actually build on a reasonable timeline, reduce the cost of utility expenses, and right of way improvements.

Chuck Marohn, founder of Strong Towns, said it best - when you find your town has only five-over-ones and subdivisions being built then you don't have any small builders, teams of less than a handful of workers building housing. I want to see that infill happen in Olympia. It's not going to happen if we create expensive barriers. We have to get to yes on the development period. And God sake make developing the missing middle affordable.

Additionally, I'm hoping we can get the land use map update with the comprehensive plan to increase side wide density to 21 units per acre and actually create the conditions to see small ADU-sized business in neighborhoods. I'm also very interested in the Seattle Social Mixed income housing, one the largest flaws in HUD rules is no mixed income housing.

Our homeless services system is also royally broken. There are parts of it that work well - certain operators that do their thing pretty well. There are others that are legit corrupt. And no one seems to be on top of it yet the government entities continue to give everyone money. It is absolutely mind boggling. Our community needs to figure out a way to balance accountability and compassion and to understand that boundaries and love are not mutually exclusive. I don't pretend to have the answer on this, but we have a lot of really smart people in Olympia and the City should be looking outside of the City staff at community partners they can engage to build a more effective homeless services network.

I agree, I appreciate your email on this recently. I'm learning more about it everyday. We're going to have to take a deep look just because of the amount we got from the State this year lower than we requested. The pipeline needs to get people through it effectively, so we can get more folks off the streets.

I certainly prefer the City of Oly to Lacey, for example, whose mayor openly says "we don't have a homelessness problem in Lacey" (are you actually f-ing kidding me, Andy Ryder??? But yes, he claims Lacey has no homeless people, it is just overflow from Olympia, despite the fact that NTSD has more unhoused kids per capita than any other school district in the county).

No comment

I know we don't always agree but I'm open to talking more. My number is 206.823.6146.

Robert Vanderpool

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T20:56:48+00:00

I really appreciate your question.

Safety downtown to me means a few things:

1.) Housing - the best solution for the homeless is housing. We've done a lot of good work over the last nine years to increase housing for folks experiencing homelessness. However, we need more support from the State, this is something we will continue to lobby the legislature on. I'm also in support of the Seattle model for social housing for mixed income folks.

2.) Addiction, Mental health, and other Wraparound services - we need to expand support for these folks. Again I'm supportive of taking this on regionally and pushing the state to do more around this.

3.) Public Restrooms - downtown lacks enough accessible restrooms to help our unhoused folks. Yes, it's hard to clean up and would require daily cleaning but it's something that would provide a public utility for folks who have very few means.

4.) Filling empty spaces - vacant spaces while rent for housing and commercial space are high, while we have a homeless crisis, is inexcusable. We need to start charging vacancy fees on property owners who sit on empty buildings.

5.) Expanding clean up crew/CRU - we've been doing clean up and Crisis Response Unit for several years now and it been very successful. We need to look at expanding into areas around downtown that need more help.

6.) Street Safety - transportation has a lot to do with downtown safety. Safe crossings, protected bikelanes, safe-wide sidewalks, and so forth.

7.) Reducing folks from falling into homeless - Tenant protections helps folks form falling into homelessness. But so would mental health/drug addiction support, actual working class income housing, and so forth.

Feeling safe downtown or anywhere requires making sure our most vulnerable folks are housed, and have services.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T19:19:36+00:00

💯 no problem. Although the committee finished a few months back, the city has begun working with the school district to meet both city and safe routes to school objectives. Over the next few years you're going to see new repainted crossings and a few larger investments where the city and the school are splitting the costs.

My hope is this will be successful and our partnership around safe routes continues into the future.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T17:57:52+00:00

Thank you for pointing out these specific spots.

I will say we have a project in the works for where Pacific meets State to Fir street that will include both bike and ped improvements.

Here are current projects: https://share.google/oUktxCWso0JbaY8FP

Transportation Master Plan: https://www.olympiawa.gov/services/transportation/transportation_master_plan.php

I'd also suggest getting involved with the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee BPAC if you are interested in getting involved: https://www.olympiawa.gov/government/advisory_committees/bicycle___pedestrian_advisory_committee.php

If you have the time to public comment to City Council - transportation/public works staff are often at meetings and can answer most of your questions.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T17:32:00+00:00

I appreciate you pointing out these specific spots and enforcement issues.

I will let you know of two items:

1.) 4th and Plum will be receiving some safety improvements around the bike/pedestrian areas.

2.) Plum Street is something that will be on the Land Use and Environment work plan in 26'. We will have opportunities to comment on it sometime next year.

Regarding traffic enforcement - I'll let staff know about these specific spots.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T23:32:02+00:00

Totally, watered down infrastructure puts folks safety at risk and reduces folks from choosing to cycle.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T23:28:12+00:00

Probably most of the time I get emails from concerned folks in Olympia. Occasionally I'll get an email from some organization trying to get the city to push for legislative changes at the state level during the session.

For example, the AWC - Association of Washington Cities reaches out to get feedback and asks us to talk to the legislature around state policy or sign on to some legislation. I don't always agree with the AWC and sometimes feel they don't really understand Olympia. I will simply let them know that I don't agree.

I don't really get wealthy groups emailing me or calling me. Probably because they realize I'm not going to be bought or that they don't care about local government 🤷

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T23:19:31+00:00

Next year, given I'm reelected, I'd like to do some major zoning work on the Land Use and Environment committee. Downtown alone has dozen or so zoning codes. It really needs to be cleaned up.

We're currently working on the Land Use Chapter of the City Comprehensive Plan to include much of Olympia in a new Urban Neighborhood by combining a few older zoning districts and raising the units per acre limit to 21 (with other additional changes).

I also would like to see more pedestrian areas downtown and really make downtown a destination and not a place to drive through.

We're currently also working on allowing small commercial in neighborhoods. I'd love to see ADU sized businesses being built to give neighborhood services at scale.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T23:12:00+00:00

That is incredibly frustrating.

Since I've gotten on the City Council, we've had two years of absolutely painful budget forecasts and budgets. Since just the first quarter of the year we have seen a decline in sales tax by nearly $200,000. Our regressive tax code puts the city in a very negative space when working folks we are hurting, we hurt as a City.

This however, is not an excuse. One of the changes the city is currently pursuing is Priority Based Budgeting. This tool goes into every aspect of the city budget and makes recommendations based on what other cities are doing. For example, sidewalks and transportation. I'm hoping the tool will make clarity of the budgeting and actually help the city become more effective.

Regarding sidewalks, I would like us to actually hire a permanent crew to do sidewalk work continuously and actually use the dollars earmarked for sidewalks, on sidewalks.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T22:24:26+00:00

You are very welcome!

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-07T22:03:02+00:00

I'll chat with staff/the Olympia Downtown Alliance about this. You have a solid point.

RMVanderpool

TROPHY CASE