PORT ANGELES — Cora Kruger and Lacey Fry climbed a hill above the Port Angeles Waterfront Trail last week looking for homeless people to survey.
The Serenity House of Clallam County staffers found several encampments along the trail and in central Port Angeles but encountered few unsheltered individuals.
“Where did they all go if they’re not at their campsites?” Kruger wondered after several miles.
Similar surveys were being conducted across the North Olympic Peninsula and the nation Thursday in the Point in Time count, an annual snapshot of the homeless population.
About 50 volunteers working with several agencies conducted homeless counts throughout Clallam County.
“If we see any people that might be camping, or happen to look like they’re in need of some services, we just walk up and tell them that we’re doing the national Point in Time count and ask them if we can fill out a form with them,” Kruger said.
The first question on the survey is: “Where did you stay last night?”
State law requires that all counties conduct an annual census of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals.
Rural counties are given extra time to conduct their counts. The Serenity House-led Clallam County Point in Time count was scheduled to be completed Monday.
Results of the 2019 Point in Time count will be made available in May, state Department of Commerce officials said.
Kruger and Fry encountered a homeless man named Mike at the base of the ZigZag walkway near Oak Street in downtown Port Angeles.
“You don’t look like you’re feeling well,” Kruger told the former Serenity House client.
“No, I’ve got a toothache,” Mike said.
Kruger implored Mike to get his tooth examined at the Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics, on VIMO.
“They help you based on your income,” Kruger said.
Kruger and Fry walked along the Olympic Discovery Trail from Hollywood Beach to a homeless camp east of the Rayonier mill site.
“They actually have all their trash consolidated, which is really nice,” Kruger said.
“I’ve never seen such a clean campsite.”
The counters then checked known encampments behind Mathews Glass Co., on Lincoln Street, the Peabody Creek ravine, Veterans Memorial Park and Valley Creek Estuary before moving to Ediz Hook.
Most of the homeless people they encountered had been surveyed earlier in the day at shelters or at the Salvation Army.
“It’s been three years and I’m still homeless, and I’m old and crippled,” a woman told the duo as she walked along Lincoln Street.
Port Angeles Police Sgt. Kevin Miller said he had hiked trails to find hard-to-reach encampments between Port Angeles and Sequim. Miller said it would be difficult to count every homeless person in the county.
“A lot of them are out during the day walking and doing things, staying busy, exercising, trying to live a life,” Miller said while patrolling Veterans Memorial Park.
“Sometimes you have to know where to go, because they try to put their tents where they’re not bothering anybody and nobody’s bothering them.”
Miller was assisting VIMO volunteers who were distributing warm socks, toothbrushes and bus passes.
“We had somebody the other day, we gave them 20 bus passes because they’re working,” Miller said.
“They just spend a great deal of their time here because they have no place to go when they’re not working.”
Miller said the vast majority of the contacts he had with unsheltered people on Thursday were positive.
“I lot of the people I contact through outreach have unfortunate circumstances, which is a different group than most of the law enforcement contacts we have,” Miller said.
Kruger said a common misconception about the homeless is that they are addicted to drugs.
“That’s not always the case,” Kruger said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Cora Kruger, left, and Lacey Fry of Serenity House of Clallam County examine on Thursday a stretch of beach along Port Angeles Harbor that is often used as a hangout for homeless people. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
