Category: OurImpact

Unity Care NW is proud to share that our Chief Strategy Officer, Chris Kobdish, recently accepted the Collaboration Award at the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center’s 22nd Annual Peace Builder Awards on behalf of The Way Station.

This award recognizes the collective efforts of many partners who spent more than seven years working to bring The Way Station from idea to reality. Together, Unity Care NW, Opportunity Council, PeaceHealth, and countless community supporters persevered through challenges, secured funding, and found solutions to complex hurdles — all with a shared goal: to create a safe, welcoming place for people experiencing homelessness to access basic needs and supportive services.

When The Way Station opened in November 2024, it became a first-of-its-kind resource in Whatcom County. Guests can access laundry, showers, and restrooms, in the Health & Hygiene Center, operated by Unity Care NW — which also offers walk-in medical and behavioral health services, including substance use counseling. In partnership with Opportunity Council’s Housing Case Managers, guests are supported in finding pathways out of homelessness. The Medical Respite Program, launched in spring 2025 and managed by Opportunity Council in collaboration with PeaceHealth, provides short-term healing space for people discharged from the hospital in need of a safe place to recover.

While this award is about collaboration, it also recognizes Chris’s central role in keeping the vision alive. For the final 4 years of the planning phase, she lead the convening of partners, raised millions of dollars, and worked tirelessly to overcome obstacles — ensuring the project didn’t stall. And just when she was ready to pass the baton, a staffing shift meant she was asked to lead day-to-day operations at The Way Station for Unity Care NW. She stepped in, ensuring that the Health &  Hygiene Center would be there to serve those who needed it most.

The Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center honored The Way Station and its partners with this award, “for the collective efforts to address complex community needs with compassion and collaboration.” Unity Care NW is committed to bringing this same spirit of empathy and teamwork to all of the challenges that stand in the way of a healthier community until everyone has the opportunity to live their healthiest life.

The Health and Hygiene Center exceeded its goal of serving 750 people in its first year of operations half-way through 2025. What does this mean for Whatcom County’s housing crisis?

When The Way Station opened in November 2024, it aimed to meet a basic but urgent need in Whatcom County: access to hygiene services, health care, and medical respite for people experiencing homelessness. In the months since, more than 1,000 individuals have accessed those services — a number that reflects the scale of the housing crisis facing our community.

The idea for The Way Station began in 2018, when Bellingham’s Homeless Strategies Workgroup identified a facility offering showers, laundry, and support services as a top community priority. Local health care providers and social service agencies saw the need firsthand. Unity Care NW and PeaceHealth were regularly working with patients who had no safe or stable place to go after a hospital stay, or who struggled to manage chronic health issues while living outdoors or in shelters.

After years of planning and pandemic-related delays, The Way Station opened in late 2024 through a partnership between Unity Care NW, Opportunity Council, PeaceHealth, and Whatcom County Health and Community Services. In May 2025, the facility expanded to include medical respite services — short-term stays for individuals recovering from medical procedures or illnesses who would otherwise be discharged to the street.

Today, The Way Station offers a range of services under one roof:

• Unity Care NW provides medical and behavioral health care, substance use disorder treatment, case management, and operates the hygiene center, which includes showers, laundry, and restrooms.
• Opportunity Council oversees the medical respite program and provides housing case management.
• PeaceHealth supplies meals and coordinates medical respite referrals.
• Whatcom County Health and Community Services supports complementary programs based on-site, including Ground-Level Response and Coordinated Engagement (GRACE), Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD), and EMS coordination.

Unity Care NW initially expected to serve about 750 individuals in the facility’s first year. That number was surpassed in just six months. As of July, more than 1,000 people have used services at The Way Station — a clear reflection of the growing number of people in Whatcom County living without housing and without access to basic care.

While The Way Station is not a solution to homelessness, it plays an essential role in the community’s response. Offering critical services, restoring dignity, and helping people stabilize their health while working toward finding a home, The Way Station is one piece of a broader effort to expand health care access in Whatcom County to a population of people left behind by the housing crisis – a population that is significant and growing.

Take a virtual tour of The Way Station and consider making a donation to support these crucial resources.

Son holding father’s hand at the hospital

Homelessness has been on the rise across the country since 2016[1]. In places like Whatcom County, the lack of available housing makes homelessness an even more prevalent and visible issue. Most Washingtonians can relate to the sense that housing opportunities are becoming further and further out of reach. The economics of post-pandemic life and the high cost of living in our region have deepened financial worries for everyone. As inflation and interest rate changes threaten to worsen the housing market and exacerbate challenges for small business owners, economic tensions lead to stress that can result in conflict. Negative interactions between housed and unhoused people are particularly discouraging for anyone hoping we can come together as a community to end homelessness.

Organizations that work to provide services to people experiencing homelessness have unique insight into this public health crisis. Unity Care NW (UCNW), a local non-profit community health center, provides comprehensive health care to people who may otherwise be unable to afford it. Their staff see firsthand, the negative health impacts of homelessness on their patients. Many have symptoms of trauma and are made sicker by their lack of access to basic hygiene facilities. With 15% of UCNW’s patients experiencing homelessness – compared to an average of 8% at other community health centers nationwide — UCNW resolved to demonstrate its conviction that everyone who can do something to combat homelessness must do something.

This launched a partnership for UCNW with PeaceHealth, Whatcom County, and Opportunity Council to better serve the health and hygiene needs of people experiencing homelessness in Whatcom County. The result of this collaboration, a new facility called The Way Station, will provide shower, laundry, and restroom facilities, as well as respite beds for people experiencing a medical event who have nowhere to recuperate. The Way Station will also connect clients to Unity Care NW’s mental health and substance use disorder treatment and Opportunity Council’s housing support services.

The facility will be housed in the County-owned building at 1500 N State Street. Renovations are scheduled to begin in early 2023, with hopes of opening in fall of 2023.

Empathy is the Answer

While researching successful hygiene center models, The Way Station partners visited Urban Rest Stop in Seattle. A common theme in conversations with experts on the issue of homelessness has been the power of dignity to restore hope and create pathways out of homelessness. “The Urban Rest Stop has allowed me to clean up in order to help me get employment,” one client said in a testimonial. “They have treated me fairly and with dignity. Without these services, it would have been infinitely more difficult to improve my situation.” The Way Station will model the empathetic, trauma-informed approach that Unity Care NW has been using to effectively engage with patients and neighbors including those experiencing homelessness.

UCNW recently brought Ryan Dowd, the Executive Director of the second largest homeless shelter in America, to train its staff in using empathy-driven approaches to compassionately and effectively de-escalate situations and manage conflict. UCNW also partnered with the City of Bellingham, Bellingham Public Library, and the Mount Baker Theatre to offer this same training to more than 800 staff from local businesses and nonprofits. Empathy doesn’t mean excusing and accepting all of a person’s negative behaviors, it just asks that we approach others with awareness that their unique experience and biology impact their way of moving through the world. This can make all the difference for a person on the journey out of homelessness.

A person doesn’t need to be specially trained to help in the fight against homelessness and an organization doesn’t have to be focused on social services to contribute to addressing the housing crisis. Everyone one can do something to move the needle on homelessness. Unity Care NW is excited to deepen its own commitment to disrupting the cycle of homelessness. Partnering on The Way Station, with a trauma-informed and empathetic approach, will work to remove barriers to basic health and hygiene needs and help more people get into permanent housing.

To find out more about The Way Station or to get involved, go to unitycarenw.org/health-and-hygiene

[1] Source: The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. January 2021. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).