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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024 12-13 Unsheltered Needs Assessment SummaryHousing Needs Assessment People Facing Chronic Homelessness, Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Heath Challenges December 13th, 2024 Convened by: Data and Needs Assessment Committee, Joint City of Port Townsend/Jefferson County Housing Fund Board Introductions: Viki Sonntag - facilitator, Housing Fund Board Heather Dudley-Nolette, Bayside Housing Peggy Webster, OlyCAP Mike McCutcheon, advocate, Reach Out! Anya Callahan, Harm Reduction, Jefferson County Public Health Dept. ocean mason, Harm Reduction, Jefferson County Public Health Dept. Gabe Van Lelyveld, film maker, Whale Heart Productions Brian Richardson, Recovery Cafe Ben Casserd, Winter Welcoming Center Julia Cochrane – scribe, Housing Fund Board, Winter Welcoming Center and Help Now Fund Needs Assessment Purpose: To design effective programs and policies to address homelessness, we need to understand who is experiencing it, how they became homeless, what their experiences are, and what is preventing them from exiting homelessness. Summary Takeaways Emergency housing availability is limited relative to the number of those unsheltered. Both OlyCAP and Bayside have wait lists. Both recovery (substance-free or sober living) housing, also referred to as SUD housing, and no barrier housing (e.g. housing first model) are needed to address the continuum of needs. Sud/recovery housing offers individuals substance-free environments. In Housing First, the focus is on harm reduction. Anyone can access shelters or housing programs regardless of their current sobriety status, treatment participation, or other potential barriers. Housing, health and social service providers proposed forming a network for pooling basic needs resources (e.g. showers, heat, light, laundry tokens) for unsheltered individuals. Existing Conditions Emergency Housing Bayside Housing and Services began as a social enterprise. With growth, they turned to public funding. Bayside’s emergency shelter services include: Bayside Tower (23 units) classified as an Emergency Shelter (ES) as of 2024. As of July 2024, the American Legion night-by-night emergency shelter. Bayside is also working with Fletcher Group, a national non-profit providing best practice technical assistance for service providers with substance use disorder (SUD) clients, to determine need for SUD/recovery housing. Bayside does not permit people to use illegal drugs in their facilities, but does not typically strongly enforce those rules if they do not consider residents to be causing problems.  OlyCAP emergency housing includes: NW Passage (18 units) includes 4 units designated for Discovery Behavioral Health clients (with support services), adding 2 additional units in future. 7th Haven has 5 units of permanent housing for SUD clients. Haines St. Cottages operates as an emergency shelter. Did a Capital Needs assessment on Haines St and it will cost 1 million dollars to bring up to code. Caswell Brown is adding 15 tiny shelters (to replace RVs) and a kitchen, bath, laundry facility and planning for a new 16 unit congregate shelter. Currently there are 20 tiny shelters and 20 RVs. Policy of no drugs or alcohol use. Cost to clean units after meth user’s occupancy is operationally prohibitive. Housing service providers are not specialists in managing people with SUD Dove House also offers emergency shelter for domestic violence survivors. Services for Unsheltered Public Health serves people who are housed and unhoused with harm reduction. They do outreach to encampments to those with active substance use. People without goals for ending substance use still need housing. People who use drugs deserve access to housing. Every death is a policy failure. Prioritize the most vulnerable people – those using substances. The number one need is housing. Recovery Café is a peer support organization focused on recovery. (Open five days/wk. Free lunches.) “Meaningful belonging to community is essential for recovery.” Everyone is recovering from something. Over half of community is either unhoused or underhoused. The Winter Welcoming Center serves about 21 people a day, some are chronically homeless. Their policy is no barriers access with the exception of a prohibition for destroying property. The Shelter Coalition is discussing how to house folks during severe weather events. Currently, emergency services can call emergency access to public facilities (e.g. Cotton Building) at 30 degrees, where 40 degrees would serve better. Goal is to ensure there is always at least a day shelter open somewhere in the county and work to support overnight emergency shelters.  Currently, they do not have a shelter location for after the winter 2025 season. Experiences of Unsheltered Some people who are unsheltered are not capable or interested of being in institutional settings. People have agency even when they’re using substances. They can  choose whether or not to engage in treatment, and shelter is still a basic  need.  There are a lot of folks who do not want structure and that are happy to not be in congregate housing. They have been harmed by institutions, and trespassed, or feel they are giving up their agency. How shelter access is perceived by unsheltered from the CASPEH Study: “[S]ome living in encampments held negative views of congregate shelters. They reported concerns about COVID and other health risks of sleeping in close quarters. They noted burdensome rules about securing a bed, curfews, and the need to vacate during the day as disincentives to shelter stays. Those living in unsheltered settings perceived the case management services offered in shelters to be ineffective for securing permanent housing.” Stories can increase compassion for unsheltered individuals. Film connects people with real stories, as present tense as possible, showing how one thing leads to another. Show how individual lives intersect with that of institutions Film excels at asking the right questions and getting people to care. Behaviors make it difficult to live in community. At the same time, those experiencing being unsheltered engage in behaviors to seek safety. The CASPEH study participants reported that substance use “caused them problems … [it] had also played important roles for them (helping them cope with trauma, pain or depression; helping keep them alert; or numbing them to their circumstances).” Folks need to find stability in their lives. Housing can lead to success in recovery and dealing with trauma. Port Townsend is a small town with not many options. Winter Welcoming Center is seeing more people struggling with mental health. Barriers and Gaps Essential Basic Services Essential basic services – laundry, heat, showers, bedding, gas vouchers – are needed for unsheltered individuals. Available public funds run out before the end of the year. Everyone is working in silos, where we need a coordinated effort. Critical gap is a laundry facility. Public Health gave $18,000 in laundry vouchers in last 6 months and won’t have more till next year. Recovery cafe spends $1,000 a month on laundry voucher. Showering facilities are also needed, whether mobile or permanent. There are significant costs on body wipes and 1st aid kits. Need to identify costs of providing essential basic services to unsheltered. Propane heaters are expensive to fill. One tank/person/tent is needed. Privately funded Help Now Fund can help with propane costs. Question on whether new Caswell-Brown shower/laundry facility will be open to non-residents. OlyCAP has a building permit design that they can share. Providing hygiene and safety support to encampments on public lands should be a priority for addressing homelessness. Proposal: Housing, health and social service providers work together to foster an emergent network for pooling basic needs resources (e.g. showers, heat, light, laundry tokens) for unsheltered individuals. What are we actually spending? Email 1 year of basic needs costs to Heather Dudley-Nolette at the county. Email address will be forwarded in a week. Include the REAL Team, St. Vincents, Free Store, Dove House Closet. Hadlock Methodist. We could get laundry numbers quickly. Housing for Those Experiencing SUD Barrier: Tension between housing availability (and cost to house) for those with SUD in current system and housing needs of people experiencing SUD. We all use substances. We need housing that covers the continuum. The allocation of resources is not just and equitable. Need for substance use disorder housing: We don’t have “recovery housing”, ie Substance Use Disorder housing. The biggest challenge is staffing this housing with people who can work with this population. And when you do find people to work, they can’t find housing. Bayside is not filling this gap, but it does serve people who are currently using. Bayside is not clean and sober housing which is also needed as part of the continuum. There is a frustration from tenants who want clean and sober housing. Need for no-barrier housing: We need to advocate for what is missing. “Clean and sober” assumes that people who are currently using substances are unclean. Neither the state or feds are going to give money for recovery/SUD housing. People responding to a survey that asked how their substance use would be affected by stable housing, overwhelmingly said that their substance use would diminish or stop. Housing First is needed. Government funding can be a barrier. Oxford Houses are all private investors. (Oxford Houses are self-run, self-supported homes for individuals in recovery from SUD.) It might be time to look for private investors. There is a need for consecutive conversations [between housing and health providers in Jefferson County] to assess needs and put people with SUD on pathways to housing that meets their needs. Barrier of Layers on Layers of Stigmatization. How do we create a more humane environment for everybody? How do we raise the level of awareness in the community. Being able to tell people’s stories counteracts what you hear in the media. Stories that humanize people in a nuanced way. Film, photography, poetry. Music. Christmas morning breakfast is a way to bring the community in - interact with the people who serve and the people who are hungry. Bring community back, human beings into their lives. Listen. Drug addiction - alcoholism is not a choice. Recovery is a choice. Public Health display of photos of people who were unhoused. We have all been conditioned by the myth of meritocracy. The Housing Fund Board was challenged by the request from Recovery Cafe. Looking at the goals of our 5 year plan, we need to include support for destigmatized spaces. Housing is not a separate need and siloed; we need to provide the social infrastructure that creates belonging and acceptance. [The question of] who is to be served equitably is a central one in public policy. Who deserves to be served with what and why? Do we deserve services because we have worked hard? Is being in recovery mean we deserve service vs. everyone deserves basic services. We need to make arguments for providing essential services on top of telling the stories. We need people with the resources and funding [the service providers] to stop stigmatizing. People need to get service to take first step. Trauma and healing are scary. Need people in housing services to understand to begin with. Our individual healing is helpful. Stigma is part of trauma and healing. We come from our own trauma. Storytelling and leading by example counter stigma. Need for continuing conversation. There is a potential harm reduction training - early 2025. Post Meeting Addendum At the December 16th, 2024 City Council meeting, city staff gave an update on the unsanctioned encampments. While the city authorized funds to serve the encampments with sanitation and garbage service, and continue to devote staff time to this service, they expressed the need for a zero-barrier shelter. See City Council 12.16.24 meeting video and supporting documents. Agenda Bill AB24-189: “While the 2025 budget includes funds to continue these services, it is not a good investment, fair, or liability risk averse to enable marginally acceptable living conditions forever. Also, the City must fairly enforce nuisance conditions posed by private property owners as well as its own property. Camping is prohibited within City limits outside of the Fairgrounds and Fort Worden. Camping in conditions that are ill equipped with services is a nuisance per City code. The City is currently in a reactive mode, becoming more coordinated to ensure sanitation in that area, but people in the camps struggle with mental health and drug addiction have inadequate services for assistance.”