The Leader headline reads: “Neighbors angry over homeless shelter at fairgrounds.”

There is no structured homeless shelter at the fairgrounds and that is the root of the problem that the community and the neighborhood must address.

In May, OlyCAP contracted to provide a group shelter in a building at the fairgrounds and use campsites for an overflow of residents for three months. However, at the end of June, the campers were required to leave the property, in spite of the COVID eviction moratorium. And that’s when the problems began.

Four units of campers who had been part of the OlyCAP shelter group and protected under the moratorium returned to the campground, as individuals. As word got out, other campers who were not part of this group settled in at the fairgrounds. Some of these additional people have the problems we often associate with homelessness: mental health, addiction or other issues.

Because there is no structure, no management, no staff support available at the campgrounds now, there are, indeed, impacts that need to be addressed.

The county and the fairgrounds board are being asked to open the gates of this county-owned resource by subletting the management of the essentially unused campground to Bayside Housing to expand the structured support services available to the unsheltered and vulnerable in this winter of the COVID emergency.

Some of us have offered to walk through the grounds with commissioners, neighbors and other community members to have an on-site discussion of the proposal. Please, let’s talk!

We cannot sit passively by and watch members of our community freeze in their tents or be turned out on to the streets with no shelter, no support, no access to sanitation or even clean water.

The OlyCAP shelter is filled to capacity. And on Oct. 1, the campground is scheduled to close.

Barbara Morey
PORT TOWNSEND