City council talks options for homelessness

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 20, 2022

With continued community concerns about homelessness, Sequim City councilors and staff focused a conversation last week on potential solutions and ongoing efforts.

Helping unhoused individuals and those at-risk for homelessness has been a city council goal since 2016, Sequim Police chief Sheri Crain said in an April 11 presentation to the council.

The council’s efforts helped start and support a Sequim Police Benevolence Fund for 24-hour emergencies, and they partnered with faith-based community group Sequim Cares to better focus support.

Crain said defining homelessness is case by case as some of Sequim’s homeless population could be couch surfing, living in a garage, in an RV, or in a tent. Some may be a couple who recently lost their home and jobs and “things get hard really fast for them,” she said.

“For 10 years, crisis intervention calls have been going up so there is a growth curve there,” she said.

But “nothing here is insurmountable,” Crain said.

“We have the same impacts as every other city in the state.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Crain said, several efforts have continued — including through the Sequim Health and Housing Collaborative, a collaborative formed in 2018 of six nonprofit agencies responding to issues such as substance use disorder, mental illness, food insecurity and homelessness.

Crain said Sequim is seeing more drugs in the community, including fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin.

“While we’re doing everything we can to stop supply, it’s really hard to do when there is a significant demand element,” she said.

“We’re hopeful some of the efforts on the health care side will make a dent.”

She said Peninsula Behavioral Health restructured its operations and is working more closely with law enforcement in the field to better help people with addiction and “put a dent on real consequences of having drugs in the community.”

Housing

With a low inventory of homes and apartments available at high prices, councilors have talked throughout the pandemic about affordable housing options.

For unhoused people, Barry Berezowsky, director community development, said there are four types of housing options — day shelters, emergency shelters, transitional shelters and permanent supportive housing.

He estimates under the Sequim Municipal Code these would be allowed in about 90 percent of the city limits and city councilors can set guidelines for occupancy, intensity of use (height, width, etc.) and spacing (proximity to one another).

“It’s very important to recognize the adoption of standards to regulate such homeless housing facilities are not intended to try and prevent such facilities,” he said.

“The city has to be very thoughtful about going forward in regards to this issue. It’s a land use issue. A neighborhood issue. A community issue. An important issue.”

As for the best options, Berezowsky said each jurisdiction is getting different results but it’s important to “provide assistance to those most in need.”

“If not, the problem doesn’t get better on its own,” he said. “There’s a place for this in a pro-economic development argument.”

City councilor Kathy Downer said there’s a difference between creating homeless housing and workforce housing as placing a chronically homeless person in an apartment won’t work outright.

“You have to have services to treat why they became homeless in the first place,” she said.

City attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross said issues around homelessness such as policing and housing are difficult to regulate.

“It’s not just Sequim but jurisdictions across the country are reeling with these balancing acts and following the proverbial needle to follow the law to provide help and shelter and protect the quality of life.”

She said legislation has stated for decades that “you cannot have enforcement without adequate shelters and resources first.”

Solutions

Councilor Lowell Rathbun suggested multi-efforts, such as surveying Sequim’s homeless, analyzing the best housing options for Sequim, investigating an area to dedicate emergency parking areas for people to park RVs, and more.

“Let’s get on with solving the problem,” he said.

Rathbun, who said his brother, a paranoid schizophrenic, was homeless for a long time until a Minnesota church organization helped him.

Now he’s cared for, has friends, and maintains chores, Rathbun said.

Stigmatizing certain individuals is tempting, he said, but “the reality is these people are human beings in difficult circumstances with rights.”

“These people are not our enemies. Fear is the enemy. In fact, these people are more often victims of crime,” he said.

“This situation is not a threat. I don’t view it as a threat. It’s an opportunity to be kind and better angels.”

Councilor Vicki Lowe said another effort is that the city agreed to pass a one-tenth of 1 percent sales and use tax under House Bill 1590 to Clallam County for affordable housing.

She encouraged the city to also look at a home-sharing program through the Peninsula Housing Authority so if a homeowner has extra room and needs help around the home they can be matched with a screened individual at risk of homelessness.

To watch the City of Sequim’s presentation on homelessness, see youtube.com/watch?v=pJcdPyrnaD0 and for more about policing issues, see sequimwa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/19610/11-Attach-2-Social-Issues-Fact-Sheets.