HomeMy WebLinkAbout031625 email - friends of homeless_low-income advocacyALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
My name is Maggie and I'm homeless. Last year Ocean of the harm reduction unit in the Jefferson County Health department myself and Ben who works every winter with the interfaith coalition
warming center went to look at the Port Townsend Yacht Club as a potential site for a year round Homeless/low-income day center/Urban Rest Stop. Bill Leland is the listing agent and
he showed us the inside of the building. Our chief Concern was the ADA accessibility of all the features of the building. I am happy to report that in addition to handicap parking and
an ADA entrance on the water side of the building, inside has ADA toilet stalls, showers. An office with a closet, a commercial kitchen, a capacity permit for 85 folks. There is laundry
across the street at mom's Laundry. Enough room for locking day storage for people looking for jobs and housing.
The reason the Port Townsend Yacht Club is selling; their lease is up in 2026 and the Port of Port Townsend is raising the lease for the shoreline and land underneath the building from
125 dollars to 350 dollars. The Port Townsend Yacht Club says that's to much for them so they have decided to sell the building. It was built in 1985.
After Bill Leland ( has background in public service) showed us the building he emailed me to say that "They are going to say" they meaning ,the folks at the city and the Port of Port
Townsend that would have to sign off on a permit for shoreline use "are going to say "homeless people are a threat to the shoreline ecology.". I sent an email to the Port of Port Townsend
to apply for a permit for land use and my email was blocked.
I went to a city/ Port shoreline master plan public comment/ input meeting. The department of ecology was there and denied that they said homeless people are a threat to a shoreline
ecology, but they understand someone at the city/Port did. A few years ago the state of Washington changed the zoning laws for homeless day centers. They are now allowed in commercial
areas where there are hotels. Which the Port Townsend Yacht Club is zoned in this type of area. In addition the feds state,city and Dept of ecology have a mandate going back to 1972/1990
to increase the access of shoreline use to marginalized groups and those with a disability. What this means is the Washington State Port Authority can override objections by the City
and the Port of Port Townsend and the public can take it to state court for denying the permit application. Also the feds can overrule the Port Townsend and the Port if they think
they are not honoring the mandate to increase access to marginalized groups and communities, and individuals living with disabilities.
Did I mention this building is all ADA accessible.
The reason homeless and low income people want this building as a day center are many. Right now the access to showers at parks and marinas that are supported by tax payer dollars have
blocked access to their showers to the public. the YMCA has limited and unreliable hours, one must go to one social services provider for a voucher then another place for a shower.
The other is getting a shower at the shelter is very difficult, sometimes the showers are down for months and the service provider and the county don't fix them, same for toilets shelter
under sea level toilets have pumps they break the provider doesn't want to fix. These are hierarchy of need issues for people who are elderly and disabled and homeless.
Same with laundry must get on a bus and go one place to get a voucher and another place to do laundry, if they are open, and if providers have not run out of vouchers which they do in
the middle of the month. So Jefferson County and providers are not doing a good job of meeting people hierarchy of need or essential life needs.
Having the Port Townsend Yacht Club with moms laundry across the street as an Urban Rest Stop and homeless people having a reloadable card for laundry and showers every month would go
a long way to making these essential needs easier to access all in one place.
So even though the feds pay providers to provide services, they are frequently not doing it at all or doing it very badly. There are many reasons: not enough funding for the number
of consumers, but also as media outlet covering homeless issues INVISIBLE PEOPLE has done lots of research on government contractors, finding a shocking amount of financial corruption
one example is the article "Unveiling Corruption; The Dark Reality Of The Shelter Housing Industry". They have numerous articles this is just one. If you care to look into the history
of local governments and shelter housing contractors you will find it here as well.
Other issues at the 209a Monroe st Shelter are it's an elderly group mostly, people with disabilities even though government and the media like to go on and on about addiction, the contractors
love to overcrowd the shelters and block services because this is how the make a profit and it is a business with a seven percent growth rate.
So shower number two has never worked in the 209a Monroe st Shelter and neither contractors nor government have ever bothered to fix it. One of the sinks never has worked in the women's
bathroom. The toilets break in the women's bathroom.
There are homeless people at the shelter who are not physically or mentally able to shower themselves or do their laundry. Behavioral Health REFUSES to take these folks to the hospital
get them showered and help them with their laundry.
The Monroe st Shelter sits below sea level underneath the American Legion Bar. The Washington State American Legion was Axed from the national organization because 5-6 officers in Two
or three countries embezzled three quarters of a million dollars. So they do whatever they want stomping on their floor which is the shelter ceiling until 3am . The shelter lights
come on at 5. No one sleeps. No one is inspired here, they are demoralized while waiting for empty units of supportive housing to become available.
Jefferson county is number one in homeless folks per capita by county population as a chunk of entire population. The US ranks dead last in social housing.
The staffing at 209a Monroe st shelter are addiction peers with no training in serving the elderly disabled population that occupies the beds here at night many have walkers. Or the
mental health population.
Contrary to misinformation by addiction services, government and law enforcement, addiction is not a big killer of homeless folks.
Congregate shelter has the highest rate of infectious disease transmission according to the NIH and CDC. Out of all the homeless people who die every year ( between 6-7000) a year,
45 out of 100 will die of infectious disease. 17 out of 100 will die of heart attack. Of all the viruses in the shelter,COVID,flu,RSV, whooping cough, MERSA,TB, that thrive in overcrowded
unventilated congregate shelter these diseases spread quickly because these are vulnerable populations that don't recover. Everyone at Monroe st Shelter is sick all the time.
FDA approved vaccines are delayed by one or two months all the time. Homeless folks are prioritized last for vaccines if there's any left over and by then it's too late medically speaking
it doesn't matter.
Antibiotics are problematic because they become resistant to all the bugs so doctors don't want to give them out and everyone would have to take them; they have nasty side effects.
And this is how the larger community becomes infected through poor service, neglect and indifference by government and government contractors.
This night by night shelter system is very expensive; this abysmal system cost taxpayers exponentially many more dollars than permanent supportive housing with connecting services.
What we know; the County and the City and Provider services, the Port of Port Townsend, don't want the extremely financially efficient and highly popular among consumers Urban Rest Stop
on Washington Street in Port Townsend.
The building is 375,000. A lease would be 4200 a year, over 50 years that is 200,000 dollars. A total of 575 thousand for the building and a 50 yr lease. The public should be running
at this as if it were a fire sale, as if it were black Friday and Christmas is just around the corner. This site and the amount of money it would cost are amazing there is nothing
out there at all, it would have to be built to do it elsewhere; that would be exponentially more expensive.
The icing on the cake about this site are the two cement docks that come with the Port lease that can be used for shoreline ecology restoration, shoreline climate change mitigation by
non motors vessels, indigenous harvest by local tribes. Under the HEAL Act through the department of commerce and department of ecology which is designed to provide marginalized groups
and communities opportunities to create and participate in environmental justice and restoration. So the Port Townsend Yacht Club homeless/low-income day center would be both social
and environmental justice together as a long term relationship.
I don't think there is a better idea out there.
At this site there could be medical triage also.
A plumber and a nurse could run it. The plumber can make sure amenities are working,a nurse can triage, consumer could meet all their essential life sustaining needs in one Urban Rest
Stop.
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