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Five-Year Homeless Housing Strategic Plan
2025-2029 Strategic Plan Update Process
One of the primary objectives of the Yakima County Homeless Coalition is the development and maintenance of the 5-Year Plan.
The Yakima County 5-Year Homelessness Housing Strategic Plan serves three critical purposes in our community:
- Establishing a strategy to address homelessness in Yakima County.
- Setting clear, measurable goals to achieve that strategy, and to hold stakeholders within the system accountable to their roles.
- Creating concise objectives generated by local experts that can be used in making funding decisions for Yakima County.
The goals defined in the 5-Year Plan have a direct impact on informing funding priorities and allowable uses, as well as the focus for data and general homeless response system strategies.
Strategic Sessions
In 2025, Yakima County invited stakeholders and community members to participate in the 2025 5-Year Homeless Housing Strategic Plan Development Process. Participants were asked to commit to all three full-day, in-person Strategic Sessions on February 18th, May 13th, and August 11th.
Full timeline of the 5-Year Plan Update process was as follows:
| Month | Date | Meeting | Purpose |
| February | 2/18/25 | Strategic Session #1 (full day) | Developing a shared understanding of the issues and identifying needs, gaps, and opportunities. MANDATORY for those wishing to participate in the strategic plan development process. |
| March | 3/3/25 | Community Listening Session (Upper Valley) | Providing an opportunity for community members who were not able to attend the full-day Strategic Sessions to contribute feedback on the Objectives. |
| March | 3/10/25 | Data Committee | Creating measurable goals based on the feedback from Session #1. |
| March | 3/12/25 | Community Listening Session (Lower Valley) | Providing an opportunity for community members who were not able to attend the full-day Strategic Sessions to contribute feedback on the Objectives. |
| March | 3/14/25 | Community Listening Session (Mid Valley) | Providing an opportunity for community members who were not able to attend the full-day Strategic Sessions to contribute feedback on the Objectives. |
| April | 4/14/25 | Data Committee | Creating measurable goals based on the feedback from Session #1. |
| May | 5/13/25 | Strategic Session #2 (full day) | Reviewing goals developed based on Session 1 input and Data Committee feedback. MANDATORY for those wishing to participate in the strategic plan development process. |
| June | No meetings – staff developing first draft of Five-Year Plan document | ||
| July | No meetings – staff developing first draft of Five-Year Plan document | ||
| August | 8/11/25 | Strategic Session #3 (full day) | Reviewing first draft of Five-Year Plan document. MANDATORY for those wishing to participate in the strategic plan development process. |
| September | No meetings – staff developing second draft of Five-Year Plan document (possible Data Committee meeting) | ||
| October | No meetings – staff developing second draft of Five-Year Plan document | ||
| November | 11/18/25 | Strategic Session #4 (partial day) | Report-out of final draft of Five-Year Plan document before BOCC approval. Optional to attend. |
| December | 12/9/25 | Public Hearing and Plan Adoption | Public Hearing, BOCC approval and adoption of final plan. |
Community Engagement Sessions
In addition to full-day Strategic Sessions, Yakima County hosted three Community Engagement Sessions that were shorter, held in the evenings, and hosted in multiple locations across Yakima County to increase accessibility for community member participation in the Five-Year Plan Development Process.
Community Engagement Session information found below:
Upper Valley
Date and Time: Monday, March 3, 6-7:30 PM
Location: Yakima County Resource Center, 2403 S. 18th St, Union Gap
Mid Valley
Date and Time: TBD, 6-7:30 PM
Location: TBD, Toppenish
Lower Valley
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 12, 6-7:30 PM
Location: Law & Justice Center, 401 Homer St, Sunnyside
Community Engagement sessions were promoted in both English and in Spanish, and professional Spanish translation services were offered at each location.
Public Hearing
The Board of County Commissioners hosted a Public Hearing to review the plan, invite community feedback, and discuss moving forward to formal adoption. Notice of Public Hearing was published in both Yakima Herald-Republic and the El Sol de Yakima newspapers on November 4, 2025; 36 days prior to the Public Hearing on December 9, 2025.
Additionally the following poster was made detailing the Public Hearing information:
This poster was published on the same webpage as the Notice of Plan Development, was distributed to local service providers who might be providing services to individuals experiencing homelessness (with a request to print and display it in visible areas), and was distributed to Lived Experience Committee members. Two emails notifying members of the Public Hearing were also sent to the Homeless Coalition Distribution list.
A draft of the Five-Year Homeless Housing Strategic Plan was made available in advance of the hearing, and can be found here. The Public Hearing slides reviewing the Five-Year Homeless Housing Strategic Plan can be found here. Spanish language translation is always available upon request for Yakima County Public Hearings.