PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County’s Point-in-Time count commenced on Thursday.
“The concept is that we’re getting out into the community to gather information about where people who are unhoused or unstably housed are sleeping on the night of January 29th,” said county commissioner Heather Dudley Nollette, who helped unhoused people fill in forms.
In addition to drop-in locations at three main sites and at community centers, among other locations, service providers conduct the Point-in-Time (PIT) count in the community.
“We have service providers all over, as well as some partnerships with (Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office) and (East Jefferson Fire Rescue),” said Chris Hannon, Olympic Community Action Programs’ (OlyCAP) Housing Resources Manager. “We have people all over the Jefferson County area visiting places that are known for either having encampments or people that are experiencing homelessness or places that they might go seeking services. For instance, the YMCA, places like that.”
Along with the sheriff’s office and the fire district, Jefferson County Public Health, Discovery Behavioral Healthcare, Dove House, Reach Out and Owl 360 participated.
Services providers prepared for the PIT count by going to commonly visited locations prior to the count, to communicate the importance of participation, Hannon said.
The PIT count tends to be inaccurate, Hannon said. Last year, the count was 160, but local coordinated entry, a waitlist that includes those hoping to be placed in housing, has about 280 households on it now, he added. A household could include one or more people.
“The PIT count doesn’t capture individuals that either don’t want to associate with services or have felt burned by them,” Hannon said. “There’s a couple of other populations that it’s poor on gathering information on: Young people, since young people typically manifest homelessness via couch surfing; those are hard to track. It’s also hard to find families as they’re typically in their cars.”
The count takes place in counties across the state, with the counties or other lead agencies coordinating the effort.
In Jefferson County, OlyCAP is the coordinating agency. Information is gathered and submitted to the state Department of Commerce and, ultimately, to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Dudley Nollette said.
The data from the count is used to fill out applications for funding homeless services throughout the year.
The count was designed for urban contexts, meant to take place on the coldest day of the year, Winter Welcoming Center founder Julia Cochrane said. The thought being that the cold would compel the highest number of people into shelters, where they might be counted most easily, she added.
“In rural counties, that doesn’t work,” Cochrane said. “In rural counties, people tend to disappear when it’s cold, like the people in the woods, they’re not coming into town.”
In rural counties, the count takes place over a week.
“Even if we ask people on the 30th or the 28th, we’re still asking people, ‘Where did you sleep on the 29th?’” Dudley Nollette said.
The count took place at three main locations across east Jefferson County: The Pope Marine building-based Winter Welcoming Center in Port Townsend, VFW Post 7498 in Port Hadlock and the Quilcene Community Center.
Dudley Nollette filled out forms with unhoused people at the Pope Marine building on Thursday.
It starts with inquiring about whether a person will spend the night sheltered or unsheltered. That will help decide which form to use, Dudley Nollette said.
The sheltered category includes locations like the emergency shelter in the basement of the American Legion building, or transitional housing like tiny houses at the Caswell Brown Village, she said.
A previous count was submitted to include the residents of the tiny houses, with those numbers rejected by the Department of Commerce, Cochrane said.
“Its been really tricky to get clarity from the Department of Commerce around what’s considered sheltered or unsheltered,” Dudley Nollette said. “I think that’s one of the factors that’s contributed to the Point in Time count being less accurate over time.”
Unsheltered includes out-of-doors locations, vehicles, abandoned buildings and recreational vehicles or boats, if they lack any of the following: drinking water, a restroom, heat, the ability to cook hot food or the ability to bathe.
The next step is to ask the person if they are fleeing from domestic violence.
“If they are fleeing domestic violence, we don’t share their name on this form,” Dudley Nollette said. “They can still be counted, but they are considered non-consenting to the Homeless Management Information System.”
Fleeing from domestic violence is the No. 1 cause of homelessness for women, Dudley Nollette said.
The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a HUD database, which states access. Homeless service providers may become certified and trained to submit and access information from the HMIS.
Information from HMIS submissions trickles down to the county, allowing it to create the By-Name List, Dudley Nollette said. That helps the coordinated entry advisory board prioritize who might access available housing inventory, she added.
The Welcoming Center has been a magnet site since it opened in 2018, Cochrane said, barring two years when, during the pandemic, the center was closed.
Pizza from Waterfront Pizza, dry bags, cellphone charging banks, hand warmers and hygiene packs were provided to people at the Welcoming Center — part of what made the location a magnet location, Winter Welcoming Center manager Ben Casserd said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
