PORT TOWNSEND — A Five-Year Homeless Housing Plan aimed at improving affordable housing has been approved for Jefferson County.
The 47-page six objective plan, created by the 21-person Affordable Housing and Homelessness Task Force, was unanimously approved by commissioners Monday.
Following a presentation by Vicki Kirkpatrick, the director of public health for Jefferson County, the commission conducted a public hearing on the plan and eight other members of the Housing Task Force gave comment, as well as one resident not connected to the task force.
The plan was created through the efforts of a three-part Affordable Housing and Homelessness Task Force, which is comprised of a Joint Oversight Board of five people: District 2 County Commissioner David Sullivan, City Council member Michelle Sandoval, and three other members of the total 21-person task force.
The task force is comprised of people of different backgrounds, such as government, housing consultants, shelter managers, housing advocates, and other residents of Jefferson Country of various backgrounds.
The two administrators for the overall task force were Kirkpatrick, who served as director, and Lizanne Crines Coker, the facilitator of the Five-Year Plan.
The Five-Year Homeless Housing Plan is titled “Making Homelessness a Singular Occurrence: Homeless Crisis Response and Housing 5 Year Plan for Jefferson County,” which the commission hopes can serve as guidance and as a prioritized road map for actions taken by organizations, volunteers and local governments working to reduce homelessness in Jefferson County, commission documents said.
“We’ve got some real details to hammer out,” Sullivan said. “But this committee has done a great amount of work so far in meeting deadlines and we want to get this process going at the beginning of the year.
“We want to get the money out the door by the end of winter and that’s going to require a lot of work by this community and work from the county once we get the contracts for everything.
“This is a good plan, I really appreciate the work that has gone into it.”
An estimated 199 people were experiencing homelessness in Jefferson County in January of 2019, according to a Point in Time study conducted by the state Department of Commerce, the plan said.
“This number includes only 41 of the 96 youth in Port Townsend and Chimacum School Districts who self-identified as homeless,” according to the plan, citing the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) from a 2018 study.
“Furthermore, it does not address the 191 individuals in need of shelter that Dove House has had to turn away,” the plan said.
The plan identifies a total of six objectives that task force hopes to address during the five-year time frame.
They are:
• Objective one is to quickly identify and engage people experiencing homelessness by expanding outreach agencies such as county and city law enforcement, food banks and churches and coordinating information gathered through a Coordinated Entry System.
• Objective two is the prioritization of homeless housing for people with the highest needs by utilizing the Coordinated Entry System and evaluating who has no shelter at all and understanding each individuals vulnerability to get them the right services.
• Objective three is to operate an effective and efficient homeless crisis response system that swiftly moves people in to stable and permanent housing while providing services, accomplished by enhancing case management to understand what is keeping people out of stable housing (income, education, etc.) and maximizing resources needed to house people.
• Objective four is a two-part projection, showing the number of households and individuals left unsheltered and a projection of the impact of the fully implemented local plan on the number of households or individuals housed, which will be done by an annual report of homelessness by Jefferson County that shows data on homelessness and affordable rental options.
• Objective five is to address racial, ethnic and gender disparities among people experiencing homelessness by utilizing the equity tool and data collected by the Department of Commerce to understand the disparities within the different groups.
• Objective six is to support efforts aimed at ending homelessness, such as supporting the development of more shelters and housing and applying for grant funding to end homelessness within subpopulations.
Jefferson County does not have a housing department, and so relies on the collaboration of various service providers and service partners.
The service providers include Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), Peninsula Housing Authority, Choice Voucher Program, Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, Tenant Based Rental Assistance, Dove House, Bayside Housing and Homeward Bound, the plan said.
The service partners include Jefferson Public Health. Proctor House, Juvenile Services, Olympic Area on Aging, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Port Townsend Police Department and Jumping Mouse Children Center, the plan said.
“I think this effort has really galvanized all of the partners to come to the table together and try to address this as a community,” commission chair Kate Dean said.
“It’s not one government’s responsibility. It’s not the faith community’s responsibility. It truly is everyone’s.”
The full plan can be found at tinyurl.com/PDN-HousingPlan.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
