Submitted by Unity Care NW
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.
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