PORT ANGELES — Clallam County homelessness has decreased by 66.4 percent since 2006 despite a spike in demand for affordable housing, a homelessness report card shows.
There were 354 homeless people surveyed in the annual Point in Time Homeless Count on Jan. 26, down 66 percent from 2006 and down 38 percent from last year.
Of those, 148 individuals were staying in emergency shelters or living on the streets compared with 263 in 2006.
Forty-two people were identified as chronically homeless, down 58 percent from 2011.
Clallam County is in its seventh year of a 10-year plan to end homelessness.
“The report card shows a tremendous amount of progress, not just from the benchmark period of 2006, but in the last year,” said Kathy Wahto, executive director of Serenity House of Clallam County, in a Tuesday briefing to county commissioners.
“The benchmark comparison, I just want to point out, doesn’t really reflect the increase in demand.”
Demand for affordable housing has increased by 30 percent since 2011, when 73 new supportive housing units came online in Port Angeles and Forks.
In 2006, there were 253 individuals and 327 families considered at risk of homelessness .
This year, 29 individuals and 11 families were classified as being at risk of homelessness.
“The fact that we’ve been able to combat long-term homelessness as the result of the economic pressure is really a testimony to the capacity that’s been created,” Wahto said.
“But the demand is there and increasing, so it’s important that we not start to go the other way.”
The county distributed $370,000 last year to shelter providers and to support agencies that work to curb homelessness like the Peninsula Housing Authority, which recently expanded to support Jefferson County.
“I think it’s going to be beneficial for both counties to have that regional solution for affordable housing,” Pam Tietz, executive director of the Peninsula Housing Authority, told commissioners.
County commissioners Tuesday approved a resolution that streamlined Clallam County’s Homelessness Task Force from 26 to 22 members and reduced the quorum from 10 to eight.
The Homelessness Task Force keeps track of the 10-year plan to end homelessness and oversees the funding.
“There’s a lot going on in this county, but we all are working together quite well,” said Bob Dunlap, chairman of the Homelessness Task Force.
“I think we have a good system going, and I think it shows itself in the progress report.”
“It’s an important issue that we need to deal with,” said Martha Ireland, a former Clallam County commissioner who chairs the Shelter Providers Network of Clallam County.
“We cannot afford to have a large homeless population.
“It’s very, very expensive not to deal with homelessness,” she said.
“So we need to deal with it in ways that help these people become as self-sufficient as they possibly can, and many of them go on to really thrive in the community.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
