Ending homelessness: Old issue, new plan, new players

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Developing affordable housing has risen to be one of the six top priorities identified in a new 10-year plan aimed at ending homelessness in Jefferson County.

The 30-page plan, a year in the works and similar to two other 10-year plans, is expected to be reviewed by Jefferson County commissioners and the Port Townsend City Council within the next two months.

It also is expected to be discussed more thoroughly at the next meeting of the Jefferson Shelter to Housing Partnership, tentatively set to take place in April. A meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 25 was canceled. Details of the April meeting are to be announced at a later date.

The plan was facilitated by Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) officials, with input from citizens, volunteers, service providers, homeless and formerly homeless people, as well as representatives of various governments and agencies concerned about homelessness.

The plan is required by the state Department of Commerce, which funds various programs aimed at helping people with housing needs, said Kathy Morgan, housing services program and asset manager for OlyCAP.

Typically, the county and the city adopt the plan as presented, Morgan said.

More than 80 people are on Morgan’s list of citizens interested in housing issues and homelessness as part of the Jefferson Shelter to Housing Partnership.

Morgan led a meeting of those people on Feb. 25 at the Tri-Area Community Center.

Six issues were identified as top priorities to be addressed by the community, including:

1. Extending the Jefferson County Winter Shelter, a program that now operates from the end of November to mid-March in the basement of the Marvin G. Shields American Legion Post 26, 209 Monroe St. (The shelter closed for this season on March 13.)

2. Developing effective partnerships between the various agencies that help homeless people

3. Developing more affordable housing units, from rentals to permanent housing

4. Educating the public about homelessness and such things as bank financing and credit

5. Expanding the sewer system in the Port Hadlock area to allow for more multifamily projects

6. Creating a coordinated entry point for anyone at risk of becoming homeless to access help anywhere in the network of providers – from OlyCAP to Dove House or to the state Department of Social and Health Services, for example

SOLUTIONS, SEWER

“No. 3 sounds like it will bubble to the top,” said Morgan midway through the Feb. 25 meeting about the priorities, which were posted on the wall and up for discussion.

DeForest Walker, who runs the Winter Shelter, voiced concern about waiting for Jefferson County to build a sewer treatment plan in the Tri-Area, which could allow more multifamily housing to be built.

“If this is going to be eight to 10 years down the road [building a sewer], we don’t have that kind of time. We need permanent, supportive housing in Jefferson County. We needed it 10 years ago and we need it now,” Walker said.

She suggested that the county look at allowing multifamily housing to be built with its own sewer systems and then grandfathering them in to avoid the high cost of connecting such housing to a sewer system.

Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan said the sewer project is shovel-ready, with designs in place as well as property acquired. All the county needs now is $25 million, and he said the only place to get that large sum of money is from the state capital budget, which has a waiting list of projects.

Jamie Maciejewski, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of East Jefferson County, a nonprofit that builds affordable homes, noted a concern about the proposed sewer expansion in an area where a lot of low-income housing currently exists in Hadlock.

“Adding 85 units of affordable housing but displacing 150 is not going to be a good equation, so we have to figure that out,” Maciejewski said.

Katherine Baril, former executive director of the Washington State University Extension Office, said she had been on the committee concerned about affordable housing 20 years ago and again 10 years ago, and then was part of the Housing Action Plan Network, which convened in 2006. She expressed frustration about not seeing anything happen, as agencies work in silos.

“I want our community to be at least as good as New Orleans and Philadelphia and say we have zero homeless veterans. At least we can do that. That’s a different way of thinking,” Baril said.

She noted that there are widows living in big homes in Port Ludlow who might welcome a single person living with them, and she has lots of friends who have an extra bedroom who might welcome a homeless teen. The question, she said, is how those who have can connect with those who have not.

Morgan said OlyCAP and Dove House currently are the main points of entry for people needing housing help; Dove House connects with victims of domestic violence, and OlyCAP connects with everyone else.

The group has the challenge of figuring out which populations need help first – veterans, single moms, teens, seniors, people with disabilities, for example.

“The ones that are hard for Nancy [Blackmer] and I to house are the who are chronically mentally ill,” Morgan said, adding that many of them also have substance abuse problems. “They are the hardest to house and there is no housing for them whatsoever,” she said.

Kevin Coker, who is with Greenpod Development LLC and chairs the Jefferson County Planning Commission, said he would like to see the group come up with specific proposals for the Planning Commission to work on in terms of zoning.

“I can’t act on ‘Would you help us, please?’” Coker said.

Morgan said she is excited by a project Coker is working on that turns steel shipping containers into dwellings, complete with a bedroom, bathroom and laundry. Coker said a fisherman told him about the containers and he’s able to develop them for about $25,000.

Housing advocate Barbara Morey suggested it might be quicker if the county bought foreclosed homes at discounted prices.

NEXT MEETING

Morgan asked those attending the meeting to come up with three ideas to pursue for the group’s next meeting.

“We’ll be able to get things done if we have a lot of participation. We have a lot of passionate people in different areas and that’s what we need,” Morgan said.

In a January 2015 Point in Time Count, 355 people were identified as being homeless in Jefferson County. That definition includes people who may be living in cars, cabins without power or water, or trailers without cooking facilities. That number, up from the 97 homeless people counted locally a year ago, included 23 veterans, a newborn and a 92-year-old woman.