By Erin Hawkins
Olympic Peninsula News Group
Whether a two-year anomaly or the beginning of a trend, homelessness might be on the rise in Clallam County.
The Point in Time (PIT) count for total homeless people in Clallam County increased by 117 from 2015-16, including both sheltered and unsheltered individuals. The number of unsheltered individuals alone also increased from 41 in 2015 to 105 in 2016.
Unofficial PIT count numbers for 2017 reported by officials from Serenity House counted 26 unsheltered homeless in Sequim, six of those living with family and friends, and 93 in Port Angeles, 24 living with family and friends.
The Homelessness Housing and Assistance Act requires an annual count of homeless people in Washington. The guidelines state: “The census shall make every effort to count all homeless individuals living outdoors, in shelters and in transitional housing, coordinated, when reasonably feasible, with already existing homeless census projects.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development directs Continuums of Care to perform a PIT count and housing inventory count of homeless people during the last 10 days of January.
This year, the state mandated count was done Jan. 26. Official PIT count results usually are released in July.
The count includes people living in emergency shelters (hotel/motel vouchers), transitional housing or unsheltered (cars, sidewalks, abandoned buildings) and people living in a dwelling lacking any of the following: drinking water, restrooms, heat, ability to cook food or bathe.
Throughout the course of 11 years, the total number of homeless people in Clallam County has shown a consistent decrease since the PIT count was first completed in 2006.
Although numbers today are much less, the recent counts throughout the past two years show an increase in total homeless and unsheltered people in the county since 2015.
The first eight years of the count included individuals living with family or friends. Since 2014, federal officials stopped including those living with family or friends in the PIT count.
Panel discussion
On Feb. 10, the Sunrise Rotary Club hosted a homeless panel consisting of speakers from Serenity House of Clallam County, Sequim Community Aid, Olympic Community Action Programs and the St. Vincent De Paul Society.
Charlie Bush, Sequim city manager and member of the Rotary program committee, moderated the panel and asked questions regarding what each organization does and recommendations for assisting the homeless in the region.
All four organizations in the community work together to aid homeless people in Clallam and Jefferson counties. While Serenity House and OlyCAP provide temporary housing assistance through programs such as Coordinated Entry Systems and Housing First, St. Vincent De Paul and Sequim Community Aid help with other services such as energy, transportation and rent assistance.
Kevin Harkins, operations director of Serenity House of Clallam County, said the solution to homelessness is diverse.
“Getting folks under the roof is only the first step,” Harkins said. “Maintaining and stabilizing those folks under that roof is what leads to long-term success.”
A consensus communicated throughout the panel was that the lack of affordable and available rentals makes it difficult to provide housing for individuals who are living paycheck to paycheck.
“You have your wages, but it’s not increasing like the cost of housing, and so you’re seeing people being pushed into homelessness or their cars because of this,” said Kathy Morgan, OlyCAP housing programs director.
Morgan explained that for the first time in the nine years she has been working at OlyCAP, she has seen more families and individuals coming into the shelters when in the past, they only needed assistance with utilities or rent.
Bob Murphy, speaker and a representative of St. Vincent De Paul, pointed out that for some rental agencies, just to apply for housing costs between $2,000 and $3,000 for first and last months’ rent and a security deposit.
Sequim currently does not have temporary housing such as a local emergency shelter; the closest single adult and family shelters are located in Port Angeles through Serenity House.
“Sequim, for both single adults and families, is in need of a small emergency shelter,” Harkins said.
He explained there was a family shelter located in Sequim through Serenity House, but it was shut down because the cost of operating the shelter was too expensive. Harkins said the cost of operations under a sublease from a landlord in Sequim was double what it paid for a shelter in Port Angeles.
“Between getting staff out here to support it and the overall costs of just leasing, it makes it incredibly difficult to have it in Sequim,” he said.
If a single adult or family were in need of a shelter, Harkins added, Serenity House would provide the transportation and availability to a shelter in Port Angeles.
The other top reasons the panel attributed to homelessness included mental health, substance abuse or chemical dependency and eviction or criminal histories that make it difficult for these individuals to apply for housing.
Solutions
At the end of the panel, speakers discussed possible solutions to help the homeless.
Harkins said if community members come across homeless individuals on the street, the best thing to do is to to make them aware of local social services available. He did not encourage giving these individuals cash donations.
Other suggestions included supporting local businesses such as the Serenity House Thrift Shop in Sequim at 551 W. Washington St., which provides non-restrictive funds for short-term solutions; more job opportunities and affordable housing; an emergency shelter in Sequim; and looking into the development of tiny houses.
Morgan explained that Jefferson County is in the process of zoning in tiny houses but it is an effort that must be approved by the whole community.
“I think that your community members and your city planners and city council must come into agreement that this is something we want to do,” she said.
She explained that tiny houses would be only one solution for ending homelessness and might work only for certain individuals, such as those in the service industry who don’t make enough to afford a rental or conventional home. She said Jefferson County is allowing some tiny homes to come in but added it is difficult because of zoning restrictions.
“It’s certainly fantastic for certain demographics such as veterans and folks that have social issues,” Harkins said of tiny homes.
He explained that Serenity House has done a room-and-board program where they took part of the men’s and women’s wings and put three lockers and three beds into a room and individuals could rent a certain square footage for $150 to $200 and permanently lease that small footprint fully protected by landlord tenant rights.
Bush added during the panel that Sequim also is having conversations about the idea of tiny houses, but working with the zoning codes and implementing it into the comprehensive plan for the city is a tricky process because it was not originally envisioned in the plan.
He later elaborated on the idea of tiny houses, explaining there would be a lot of elements for the city to consider as far as density, zoning and hookups for a tiny house development. He said the comprehensive plan did not exactly call for tiny houses but did include cottage housing and affordable housing.
Bush said there is a council priority for homelessness and affordable housing, noting that the city is having discussions about the best way to address homelessness.
“The data is really important, and we haven’t really identified the problem,” Bush said.
Homeless Connect
The Clallam County Project Homeless Connect is this week.
The countywide annual event offers on-site services and builds community connections with people experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of becoming homeless in Clallam County.
This year’s event will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
There will be 45 services, resources, vouchers, meals and giveaways. The event is open to anyone who is unsheltered, in transitional housing or at risk of homelessness.
There will be free bus fare to and from Vern Burton from anywhere in Clallam County.
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Erin Hawkins is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.
