PORT TOWNSEND — A task force preparing a five-year plan to address affordable housing and homelessness in Jefferson County is taking stock of available resources.
They’re finding the ones that exist are overcrowded and, in some cases, turning people away.
“It’s pretty sad on our behalf,” Kathy Morgan, the director of housing and community development for Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), told more than a dozen task force members last month. “There aren’t too many options for help out there.”
Morgan sits on the Affordable Housing and Homeless Housing task force, a subcommittee of the Joint Oversight Board, which is a collaborative effort between the county and the city of Port Townsend.
The volunteer group has an Oct. 1 deadline to provide updated plans to address housing issues, starting from a document most recently published in 2015.
They’re considering hard numbers and housing inventory as well as zoning regulations that either encourage or prevent developers from building affordable or multi-family homes. It includes resources such as those provided by OlyCAP, Dove House Advocacy Services, Bayside Housing & Services and the American Legion shelter in addition to existing apartment complexes and senior centers.
They also are analyzing demographics that show mostly seniors at the shelter, some with medical conditions, and a lack of services for youth.
“For kids under 18, we refer them to Dove House or Bayside,” Morgan said. “Sometimes churches will use discretionary funds to put them up in a hotel until we can find a place for them.
“Technically, we have zero beds for young people in the county.”
The county’s “point in time” homeless count found 199 total homeless earlier this year, either sheltered or unsheltered, Morgan said. Comparatively, there were 97 counted in 2014, the low point in a downward trend from 141 in 2006, according to the February 2015 10-year plan to end homelessness in Jefferson County.
Sarah Rogers reported to the task force last Wednesday that 566 Dove House clients from the past 12 months were victims of domestic violence. She said an additional 99 were general crime victims and 57 were sexual assault victims.
Dove House has served 722 clients since July 2018 and provided shelter for 63, including 32 women and 29 children ages 17 and younger, Rogers said. There were also 191 unmet requests for shelter, she said.
Rogers added the average length of stay is up to 106 days in 2018-19 from 71 days during the previous 12 months.
“I think it’s a direct result of not having enough housing in our area to put anybody,” she said.
Many of the agencies operate with short-term and long-term goals, from satisfying the immediate need of providing food or gas to the more permanent solution of housing, Rogers said.
County Administrator Philip Morley said a change in state law has increased the amount of funds generated through recording fees to go toward housing services. They originally were going to sunset but have now become permanent, he said.
An additional resource may come from a portion of sales tax in a new state law, substitute House Bill 1406, designed to encourage investments in affordable housing. That law goes into effect July 28.
For now, the task force will focus on a set of priorities for a plan that eventually will be submitted to the state.
The group will meet on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 2 p.m. at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St. in Port Townsend.
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
