PORT ANGELES — Brian Radford and Bryan Lloyd hit the streets of Port Angeles at 6 a.m. Thursday to interview homeless people in the annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count.
Homeless service providers and community volunteers fanned out across Clallam County on Thursday to tally the number of unsheltered people living on the streets, in parks and other places as part of a one-day, nationwide effort.
Armed with their clipboards and standardized survey forms, Radford and Lloyd made their way through the parking lots wedged between First Street and the bluff, up and down Valley Street and along the Port Angeles waterfront to the City Pier.
They found evidence of a homeless camp behind the Port Angeles Food Bank on Valley Street, but no homeless people.
“We’re not hitting too many home runs right now,” Lloyd said.
“Which is a good thing,” Radford added.
After combing their assigned territory, the volunteers headed to a local shelter where groups of homeless people were being served warm drinks and sandwiches.
“I don’t think people realize how bad of a problem [homelessness] is in Port Angeles or even in Sequim,” Radford said.
“It’s terrible. And just from volunteering and learning and talking to these people, some of these people just need a chance, a little structure on how to do things,” he continued.
“Some of these people don’t even know how to wash their own clothes.”
Data from the count, which is overseen by the state Department of Commerce for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, is used to determine funding and to help agencies identify unsheltered homeless people and link them to resources and housing.
Serenity House of Clallam County has been the lead agency for the countywide homeless count since 2003.
Kathy Wahto, executive director of Serenity House of Clallam County, said the data forms had not been processed as of Friday. A preliminary hard count for the county’s homeless will be available early next week, she said.
Last year’s count identified and surveyed 598 people in Clallam County.
Of those, 278 were in sheltering programs; 74 were living in cars, abandoned homes, parks or otherwise unsheltered; and 246 were at high risk of becoming homeless and temporarily couch-surfing.
In addition to the walking routes, survey-takers were stationed at food banks, the Salvation Army, the Department of Social and Health Services building, the Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics clinic and other places frequented by the homeless.
West End Outreach coordinated the homeless counts in Forks, Clallam Bay, LaPush and Neah Bay.
The census was taken over a one-week period in Jefferson County.
In 2010, organizers in both counties said they saw an increase in the number of newly homeless and homeless families. They attributed that to the economy.
But the number of homeless in Clallam County has dropped over the past four years, Serenity House said. The homeless count in 2006 was 1,055.
In Jefferson County, the homeless count in 2010 was 187.
Radford said there were probably 40 to 50 volunteers working in the Port Angeles area Thursday, though the exact number was not immediately available from service providers.
Radford and Lloyd started their foot patrol by predicting that it would be difficult to find people camped out on a cold morning.
“Most of them don’t want to bother anybody,” said Radford, who has also volunteered for homeless counts in Everett.
“They’re not going to go near houses. They don’t want to be messed with, and they don’t want to mess with anybody else.”
Some homeless people choose to live outdoors and don’t want any services, Wahto said.
When asked if the homeless are coming in from other cities, Radford said: “Some are, some of them aren’t — not in this community anyway.”
“Everett has a lot of transplants, a lot of Portland [Ore.] kids,” he added.
“It’s becoming more kids and less adults.”
Through his research, Radford discovered that Washington state is among the U.S. leaders for homeless shelters per capita.
On a scale of one to 10, he rated the homeless services in the Port Angeles area as “10-plus.”
“Places like the Serenity House, there’s Oxford [addiction recovery] houses, there’s family shelters, domestic violence shelters,” Radford said.
“And as far as food goes, if you go hungry, it’s your own fault because there’s the Salvation Army and there’s two food banks.”
Volunteers use standard forms for their interviews.
Homeless people were asked where they stayed the past night, the circumstances that caused their situation, their source of income and basic questions like name and date of birth.
According to the people he has interviewed, Radford said, the common causes of homelessness are drugs, alcohol and lack of a job.
Some encounters are pleasant. Others aren’t.
“And that’s when you just close your mouth and walk away,” Radford said.
But once the objective is explained to them — that the volunteers are trying to help them — most people are willing to talk, Radford said.
Data from the homeless census is valuable to Serenity House and other agencies because it builds credibility for homeless service projects.
“What it lets you do is, it lets you plan and lets you back up proposals with some real facts,” Wahto said.
“It makes you more competitive if you have a good count.”
Lloyd said Serenity House capital projects director Brad Collins, who is also a Port Angeles City Council member, has been a “really strong advocate” for the homeless in Port Angeles.
Port Angeles added 28 new permanent supportive housing units in December with the opening of Serenity House’s Maloney Heights subdivision at 2311 W. 18th St.
Radford and Lloyd carried bags of basic necessities like food and soap, which are provided to the homeless who are surveyed.
“Well, if I were to be camped out, it would be right here,” Radford said near the Valley Creek Estuary as a glimmer of daylight broke through the darkness.
“That’s beautiful.”
Serenity House operates housing resource centers in Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks.
The Port Angeles office at 535 E. First St. is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. It is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays. The phone number is 360-504-1946.
The Sequim office at 203 N. Sequim Ave. is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. It is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The phone number is 360-477-4918 or 360-477-8854.
The West End office at 51 N. Forks Ave. in Forks is open for walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Other times are available by appointment. Phone 360-374-2558.
For more information, visit www.serenityhouseclallam.org or phone 360-452-7224.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
