PORT TOWNSEND — Representatives of a group seeking housing for homeless people after the winter shelter closes plan to meet with management of the Jefferson County Fairgrounds and county Commissioner David Sullivan today to discuss alternatives.
All parties want to avoid contentious feelings that arose last year, when the winter shelter closed and homeless activists set up a tent city, said Barbara Morey, a member of the Affordable Housing Action Group.
Morey said she wants to improve the relationship between her group and the Jefferson County Fairgrounds management, which reluctantly allowed the homeless to camp there last year.
The winter shelter closes April 1.
After the shelter closed last year, Morey’s group set up a tent city for up to 10 people at a time that moved between the fairgrounds at 4907 Landes St., in Port Townsend, or at Fort Worden State Park.
That plan was embarked upon with little or no preparation.
This year, the group has had several months to plan what to do when the shelter is closed.
“We have support from a lot more people this year,” Morey said.
“We are combining resources with the Port Townsend police, the sheriff and Jefferson Mental Health to provide services.”
Last year the group requested space at the fairgrounds. Manager Bill McIntire said he did not want the group to camp at the fairgrounds but they stayed there with camping fees paid for up the 10-day limit.
The maximum stay limit was enforced, and the dwindling group shuttled back and forth between the fairgrounds and Fort Worden State Park.
The group could still stay at the fairgrounds in the same way it did last year, Morey said, but the group is seeking a more amenable solution.
She hopes to work out permission to stay at the fairgrounds without a limit, in a way where expectations are clear and each party respects the other’s position.
Fairgrounds co-manager Sue McIntire declined to discuss the matter on Tuesday, only saying “we’ll know more on Thursday.”
“We need to find a long-term solution for this,” Sullivan said of the local homeless presence.
“We need a year-round shelter that could combine the resources of the city and the county.”
One permanent solution, Morey said, is the construction of 10 “tiny houses,” which have only a few hundred square feet of living space.
The portable structures could be grouped together to provide lodging for homeless citizens, the group has said.
Members of Affordable Housing Action Group have built a prototype house, which cost $6,000 and meets permit requirements.
The group plans to rent the house out to qualified applicants, with an affordable rent structure based on income, Morey said.
Group members hope to group 10 such houses in a single location where residents would enter into a home owners agreement for joint management of the new neighborhood.
Morey said her group can secure the funds to build 10 houses but needs a location.
The group has pushed for use of the county-owned park adjacent to the Tri-Area Community Center in Chimacum.
Morey sought to use the park last summer as a tent city location but was turned down by county officials who said denial was necessary to maintain public park status.
She has again made the request to use the area for tiny houses. The commissioners responded negatively in a Jan. 14 letter.
“We encourage your organization to find properly zoned property where multiple tiny houses are allowed and where they would be compatible with existing land uses,” the letter read.
Said Sullivan: “We don’t have anything planned but we want to protect that area as a park.
“If we want to change that, it requires a public process, and if it’s used for tiny houses it won’t be available to the public.”
Sullivan said the group should seek private land on which to construct the village.
Sullivan said that Morey was inappropriate in going public with the intention to use the park.
“If you want to use a piece of property, you need to make sure that it’s going to work out before telling everyone you are going ahead,” he said.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
