Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompiled Needs Assessments Document May 2025 1 2024-2025 Qualitative Housing Needs Assessment By: Data and Needs Assessment Committee – Housing Fund Board May 2025 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. This document is a compilation of individual reports for a series of housing needs discussions involving housing service providers, activists and lived experts. List of Individual Sessions and Starting Page Numbers 2 Lived Experts Listening Session 5 South County Listening Session 13 People Facing Chronic Homelessness, Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Health Challenges Needs Assessment 18 Renters and Underhoused Needs Assessment 25 Low Income Workforce Needs Assessment 30 Mobile Homes Park Needs Assessment 31 Seniors and Youth Needs Assessment 35 Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Trafficking Victims/Survivors and Sex Workers Needs Assessment 38 Families Needs Assessment 42 BIPOC/PGM and Immigrants Needs Assessment 50 List of Attendees 51 Still to be Completed There are two different discussion formats, one focused on hearing the experience of lived experts, referred to as “listening sessions”, and the second focused on the experience of both service providers and lived experts, referred to as “needs assessments”. 2 LIVED EXPERT S LISTENING SESSION JANUARY 31ST, 2025 Summary Takeaways • Priority material support includes safe storage, laundry and showers. • Client-Driven Service Delivery puts the focus on what people need rather than reviewing what the client is eligible to receive. • Information resources allow people to make their own choices and are valuable as such. o People have fears around case management. Additional resources needed on what case management is, addressing what the case management role is and is not. • While material support is important, there is an equal need for services that address social and spiritual dimensions of people’s lives (e.g. need for safety through community). What Support Would Help Prevent or Would Have Prevented You Becoming Homeless? What does that support look like? Social Support • Family support • Having spiritual connections [and belonging] • Positive reinforcement. Everything seems discouraging. Material Support • Phones to communicate • Had a house fire. • Housing affordability and all the money [needed] to get into housing. • Transportation • Help from getting evicted Client-Driven Service Delivery • Service that asks me my needs • Help accessing resources: The process of getting SSI [is] so difficult. More streamlined systems that [support] being fully aware of the choices. [For example], how long it takes to get on SSI. If I had understood how long it took, then I would have looked for a job. • Miscommunication in the system. Making sure we are in system – Not having tenure. • Need to observe confidentiality, such as HIPPA laws on sharing medical information 3 • Assumptions about what we need. o More attention given to folks who are drug addicts. They get more than the rest of us. • Outreach. [I was] Afraid to go to shelter [as it was] a stigma thing. What Support Would Help Make the Experience of Homelessness Less Stressful or Traumatic? What does that support look like? Material Support • A place to leave car, keep possessions safe. • Storage, storage, storage • Laundry !!! Hardest thing is to carry your dirty laundry around – a tax • Showers Social Support • Placement into housing is not the total answer. You still have the same problems, if you [lived] on the streets. • Legal support, legal advocacy especially around issues where there is criminalization of homelessness. • How do we communicate with service providers, elected officials. • Part time job or someway to pay back. [Need for] a sense of purpose. • People who are going to walk with you through your fears. ADVOCATES. • Social activities. Places for people to engage with others in safe environment. Client-Driven Service Delivery • Placement into housing for safety. • No one told me what the criteria was [for receiving support]. [There was] nowhere to go to have an actual conversation [about] actual facts. • Communication. People providing services need training in different communication styles as everyone has a different style. Because I speak a little differently, [I need] patient communication. How to have good communication [to build trust]? • Service providers not trained to communicate with people with disabilities. Everyone who is homeless has a disability, often invisible. o Lots of intelligent folks who are neurodivergent – living with disability – and the social service people are not trained to deal with them. • More one-on-one support instead of a list. • People have fears around case management. Additional resources needed on what case management is, how case managers can help. People don’t understand what they do. [Suggest] webinars on what is the power of case 4 managers. Address what the case management role is and is not. (Deal with peoples’ fears.) • Clear messages about what it takes – honesty – this is how it looks – like this is the process for getting what you want. Trusted information. No sugarcoating how it is hard. o Wish they had the information sooner. o Oxford home programs, it took too long to get help, to get in their programs. Client has to do the foot work. o There is less of a wait time for the landlord accepting vouchers. • Help with mental issues, substance use, health care. Resources on what mental health issues available. Help with rental subsidies. Information on different programs – so many of them. What Support Would Help You End Your Homelessness? What does that support look like? Material Support • Last month rents – covering. Ability to pay for housing • Daily [access to] showers would allow me to look for a job. • Storage • Laundry – 24 hours a day. For night workers. o Need to be able to have clean clothes. o Dirty clothes are a tax for when you take a shower. • Rides – transportation. Gas vouchers. • Ids with actual address or c/o (in care of) at general delivery. Social Support • Continuing support to help stay in a house. • Caregiving. • Learning personal accountability [in addition to] government accountability. People being placed need to be accountable too. [Accountability needs to be in] both directions. • Things that require a residential address • Stop discriminating against the homeless. See us as people. o [We are] ignored and blocked. ▪ People prevent access to showers. ▪ [There are] people who don’t want you there and say it. • Jobs [are] pathways back into community [provide] sense of purpose and opportunity to care. Chance to participate. o Volunteership, such as picking for trash. – compensate. Ability to make a little money, 5 Client-Driven Service Delivery • Training as some services are restricted because you need address. Making sure everyone knows how to access resources. o Education around technology – peer support. • Empowering people who choose to live outdoors • More facilitated conversations like this. System Barriers and Gaps • Systemic abuse is a cause [of housing instability and homelessness] • SAFETY. I wasn’t safe in low income housing in Colorado. Moved here because of transportation, then moved into an unsafe place here. SAFETY • Landlord died. It would take months to get subsidy, and get the care I needed. • [Stigmatization] People judge one and apply it to all. • Filling empty units of supported/subsidized housing S OUTH COUNTY LISTENING SESSION APRIL 17, 2025 Summary Takeaways • The systemic challenges of housing inequality are hugely apparent in people’s everyday experience in south county from people losing access to water and basic hygiene, to insupportable rents, to the in-migration of [comparatively] rich people acquiring second and third homes, often left vacant. • Addressing access to basic essentials of water and sanitation is a key issue in south county. • There is a need for county government to focus less on regulation and to find ways to permit affordable alternatives. • As people move out to the county for lower housing costs, they lose ready access to community services. There is a need to increase transportation options and service hours. • Meeting intersecting needs requires depth of resources and coordinated service provision across different service delivery systems, including outreach and communication. 6 Discussion of Systemic Challenges • Housing is the number one issue with living in this community. Been here for 15 years and housing [crisis] is getting worse and worse. Thinking about moving because it’s so hard. At the same time, people are moving here en masse. o I am professional builder and I keep building peoples’ second and third multimillion dollar homes. o Port Townsend has a lot of homes that people aren’t living in. • Working with the houseless community, the reality is that people will solve their own problems if we don’t get in the way. We tell people that they can’t do things. Any opportunity that we can take to stop doing that is great. • So many things are like do you want a job or do you want services [speaking to difficulty of accessing services]? • Who are the people who have been living here in generational poverty? What community supports would help prevent or would have prevented you from becoming unhoused or underhoused? Help with Rental Costs • [Lack of] available and affordable housing. Housing vouchers are a great option. o Prefer vouchers over just low-income [public] housing. [I am] not opposed to public housing having lived in system but prefer vouchers. • Difficulty with landlords asking for first and last month’s rent plus moving in funds. This can be up to $10k. o Who can come up with this crazy cost? Never been able/had a job that can provide those kind of savings that would allow me to move freely. • Prices are becoming astronomical. o Disability income pays $ 900/m, 1/3 of that income is $300. There is nothing available for that price. o The lowest rent is my entire income. • Interested in rental caps. Rented for five years at under market value but rent was raised. Now living in my car. • Landlord had to sell although supported affordable rents. Other Supports 7 • Access to work. Consider myself to be highly employable but it is hard to find work. • Cost of living. Looked at where I spend money and it goes to gas and food. Just got on food stamps but now I’m getting kicked off because of a third - party system. • Habitat has very high income cutoff. Easing Regulations • The burden of making the land useful going through the county is/was insurmountable. o Cannot make bigger or better without getting hit with improvement [permitting costs] and running up against many codes. o Get that we need proper electricity; that the codes are there to protect people for example from burning down the house but it drags on and on. ▪ Even if you’re trying to do it the right way, you can’t get someone to come and check your work because there’s only one guy for the whole county o Would like to put a small house on my property (1.5 acres) for family member or to house a teacher. • Codes are too strict. o Folks want to share space. o Running into problem of trailers only permitted for 180 days [on given property]. After that, property owner faces penalty fees per day for violating permits, [forcing] them to evict. o Not a choice to live in trailer. Family was given trailer to keep them safe and housed. o Families with children are being displaced. Families have to leave our school because there is no housing here • Lack of freedom to use land in ways that you want. o What do people think about ‘where is the right spot for regulations to be?’ – could they exist in a way that benefits community? o Need for alternatives: Legalize composting and incinerator toilets. o County say you can’t. ▪ Rents bedroom in 4 bedroom house. ▪ Feels like there are many regulations at all time. 8 ▪ County restrictions on well that serves several properties, around 10 to 12 people. o Long argued that we should permit privets and outhouses. o What I’ve heard from people in my community is that currently there is only one way to do it. County’s way or no way. And so many people say – I can’t do it the county way. So I’m going to do it my way. • The county is an agent of the state. Can say that county did regulatory reform so that we can be almost as flexible as the state septic code, for the reason that we value our environment and always have. o We [the county] wants regulations that work for people. o From harm reduction standpoint, wants us to come down to ground level. How to educate people [in county]. o We are very close to sea level. Would argue that in some cases a septic can be worse for the environment than a composting toilet. • Some of these regulatory standards are very costly. o Both Habitat for Humanity and REPAH (Real Estate Professionals for Affordable Housing) help property owners upgrade to permissible levels. o Understand that this is not a complete answer. But wondering if it would be helpful for home owners to know about septic grants. o The program is for landowners only. • Airbnb thing is chaotic. Protections for Renters • What could the county do to support renters in unpermitted housing? • Renters might be living in unpermitted housing might be able to pay significantly less than they would if they were in Port Townsend. • Have community as resource but friends also lack secure housing. What community supports would help make the experience of being unhoused or underhoused less stressful or traumatic? Unsheltered Protections • The county [should support people through] buying tents. o People are asked to move their tents. o Reminding people that sweeps hurt people. 9 Material and Social Supports • Basic hygiene being taken away. Believe in right to have basic hygiene services (showers, laundry) as human right. o Re-open the showers at Boat Haven and at the Port o Community shower in Quilcene Community Center ▪ Could laundry a part of the shower? ▪ It’s going very slow putting in showers at the Quilcene Community Center. County is hoping to upgrade the septic and turn the kitchen into a community kitchen. o Agreement that the Quilcene Campground [next to community center] free water spigot is important. People universally get water here. Could serve as convening place for basic services. • Food bank is great. It would be great if it was open more hours and on weekends or evenings for working people who are unable to go during the day on weekdays. o Food banks could prepare a CSA-type box that could be picked up after hours. o Suggest exploring different days and hours. • Transportation [in south county] is impossible to use for most jobs. o County transportation is free but need more routes and greater frequency. o From my old house it took 3 hours round trip to get to a bus stop. o As soon as you’re away from Port Townsend it is impossible to get around. o There are no sidewalks o Physical accessibility to services is needed. o There are plans for another #1 bus route this fall. o Micro transit [feeder from doorstep to hub] might be an option. o Also need a taxi service. o Sight impaired friend who lives in Port Townsend has a hard time getting around. • More public spaces • Lack of medical services. o Need for medical respite in community, that will allow patients to bring family and pets. 10 ▪ Medical respite in Clallam is out of community and restrictive. Not good to have people removed from their community while recovering. ▪ PT would be ok. OlyCap is exploring on bringing respite to Jefferson. o Elderly people do not have option. It takes 15 min to get to Quilcene. o Need for clinics that come to south county. o Mobile services that come are critical. ▪ We just lost care van immunization clinic in Brinnon. ▪ When we need medical services, we go to Silverdale. Had a student in Brinnon who wasn’t able to get an appointment for a concussion check in Quilcene. • Takes 15 min to get to Quilcene from Brinnon. ▪ We had the Smile Mobile and filled three days of appointments from just the school. Hoping we get that back next year. ▪ They were doing adults and flu shots and we’ve got elderly people. o Have DSHS come into community to sign people up for services. ▪ Nice having DSHS be present at the food bank. That’s how I got back on SNAP. ▪ [Sign-up is] a vulnerable process. ▪ Calling is an administrative burden. Who to call can be a challenge o Trash services Outreach and Communication • There are challenges to doing outreach. If an event only happens and no one comes. then there’s this tendency to not do it again. • Communication gaps in service [in south county]. We are doing these things but nobody knows about them. o Multiple means of getting word out: “The Crier” – which is open up to the whole public; email list; facebook; mavens (influential people in community spread word). Facebooked, emailed, postcards, radar board, sign, in the newsletter. We plastered the town and there were still people who said “I had no idea this was going on. o People are isolated. Older people use different communication methods. 11 • Schedule events regularly, so people can expect. o Do outreach through schools. • How did people hear about tonight? Saw on FB, mavens. Flyer for this event was rough. Help with Land Improvements • Suggestion of classes/training related to alternative land improvements and vouchers to pay for related gear o Provide vouchers for rainwater collection barrels as cisterns are expensive and related classes. o Water filtration and composting classes. What community supports would help you end homelessness or find stable affordable housing? • Provide access to tiny homes and rebuilt shipping containers that have full amenities. o Community Build is building tiny homes for $40 thousand apiece. Their program is being held up by a bottleneck at the state level. The whole factory needs to be permissible. o If we could figure out workable low-cost options, could be tiny homes or modular homes, would the information valuable? ▪ It’s always valuable when people know the options. ▪ But if every option is a dead end then it’s not an option. • Provide access to vacant housing (second housing) at an affordable rate. o Cap AirBnbs. o Impose 20% tax on any second homes. • Property has 3 bedroom septic system, while we are using 2 bedrooms only. Could I bring a tiny home on and hook it up to my septic? o County errors towards the side of conservative. They are not going to give you overcapacity of what they think you will use because they are worried that it will create a failed system. o Regulatory fixes are great but they get more complex. 12 PEOPLE FACING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS, SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS AND BEHAVIORAL HEATH CHALLENGES NEEDS ASSESSMENT DECEMBER 13, 2024 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: o Bayside Tower (23 units) classified as an Emergency Shelter (ES) as of 2024. o As of July 2024, the American Legion night-by-night emergency shelter. o 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. o Bayside does not permit people to use illegal drugs in their facilities, b ut does not typically strongly enforce those rules if they do not conside r residents to be causing problems. ● OlyCAP emergency housing includes: 13 ○ 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. 14 ○ 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 Study1: “[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 1 The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative Toward a New Understanding June 2023. https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness. The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH), is the largest representative study of homelessness since the mid-1990s and the first largescale representative study to use mixed methods (surveys and in-depth interviews). 15 (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. o 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. o Recovery cafe spends $1,000 a month on laundry voucher. o Showering facilities are also needed, whether mobile or permanent. There are significant costs on body wipes and 1st aid kits. o Need to identify costs of providing essential basic services to unsheltered. o Propane heaters are expensive to fill. One tank/person/tent is needed. Privately funded Help Now Fund can help with propane costs. o 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. o 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. o Include the REAL Team, St. Vincents, Free Store, Dove House Closet. Hadlock Methodist. We could get laundry numbers quickly. Housing for Those Experiencing SUD 16 • Barrier: Tension between housing availability (and cost to house) for those with SUD in current system and housing needs of people experiencing SUD. o 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: o We don’t have “recovery housing”, ie Substance Use Disorder housing. o 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. o 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. o There is a frustration from tenants who want clean and sober housing. • Need for no-barrier housing: o 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. o 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. o 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. o Public Health display of photos of people who were unhoused. 17 o 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. o Trauma and healing are scary. Need people in housing services to understand to begin with. o Our individual healing is helpful. Stigma is part of trauma and healing. We come from our own trauma. o Storytelling and leading by example counter stigma. o Need for continuing conversation. o 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. o 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.” 18 RENTERS AND UNDERHOUSED NEEDS ASSESSMENT MARCH 14, 2025 Summary Takeaways • The dire lack of affordable rentals drives homelessness, economic insecurity, and vulnerability to landlord exploitation. • Services and protections for underhoused renters are difficult to access. o Reporting landlords can potentially result in loss of housing. o There is a high administrative cost to accessing services in terms of time and effort. o The demand for vouchers is much greater than the supply. • Small landlords struggle to manage properties profitably. • Need to build service capacity at a time when funds are being cut. Existing Conditions Data • Housing Solutions Network (HSN) Survey Data showed: o Half of respondents are cost-burdened (more than what ACS data shows). o Half of renters do not feel housing secure. o Renters can afford less than homeowners towards housing. o A lot of renters are looking to purchase homes but don’t have the financial means. o More renters than homeowners are looking to move away. • We have lost a substantial amount of rental units. • Over half of subsidized rentals will have their tax credits expire in the next 20 years. Lived Experience • A lot of housing is made possible through personal connections. o Grew up here, so locally connected. o Has worked on housing issues. o As a younger person, lived in community housing. o With partner, bought a piece of land with owner financing: ▪ Previous owner chose not to make profit. ▪ Lived in a trailer, unpermitted. Had outdoor toilet. 19 o Both partner and they have a Jefferson County lifestyle; they contribute to community, doing a lot of volunteer work, not holding regular jobs, doing part time work. o As parents with two children (2 ½ year old and baby), they needed to get out of trailer, shed life style. Rented a place for a year in PT. ▪ Landlord require a full year’s rent up front. ▪ With 2 little children, they had to give away their dogs. o Husband gifted some land through inheritance. Got a loan from a friend to buy a manufactured home. ▪ Are in the process of putting a manufactured home on property. o It's a story of luck, personal connections and privilege. ▪ They would love to be able to afford to live in Port Townsend for community and services. • Moved to PT 2017 from Orcas Island for job in recreational industry. o [It feels] pretty vulnerable to share story. o Originally moved into an off-grid cabin with work mates and dog. It was a work-trade, rent-free arrangement. ▪ Shed girl, pretty much lived outdoors. ▪ No electricity, running water, indoor toilet o Next was a rental for 4 years, not a secure situation, very tenuous relationship based, no lease. ▪ We started out with an agreement but the landlord promises were not fulfilled, while increasing work contribution was expected. ▪ Never knowing where the emotional swings of the landlord would land. ▪ Rain water only, composting toilet, a step up from previous shed. ▪ Cabin was on a trailer, there was an extension cord. ▪ Eventually the owner sold the cabin for $100,000. o Moved to a [third] shed. ▪ Woodstove, bed, out house, shared kitchen. ▪ Self employed. Needed storage o Moved in with boyfriend in CA house ended up being an Air BNB. o Room for $1200 in house in Hadlock for eight months ▪ 30 days to find something. Ended up with 10 different options. Everything on the market was for $1000 or more. 20 ▪ Became income burdened. At $1200/mo rent would need to earn $4000 a month as self-employed worker. ▪ After 6 months, rent went up at the beginning of winter. o Now creatively housed. Moved back to off grid shed. Then did house sitting, and next a farm sitting stint. And has been building a tiny house in a bus that will be her next home. Underhoused Services • REPAH does emergency repairs for low-income home owners. The money comes from a donation from Real Estate Agents income from sales. o Partner with Habitat for Humanity. o Received grant from Dept. of Commerce for $300,000. o This program has guidelines and approved contractors. o They raised private loans for capital because the grant is a reimbursement. o They hired someone to manage the grant which ends in June. o The REPAH people are volunteers. o Focus on improvements; replace water heaters, septics, roof replacements/repairs; also work with Blue Bills to do ramps and grab bars. o There have been a few repairs on rental properties that are also owner occupied; need to be creative with rental properties. Transitional Housing Services • Dove House offers 6 units of transitional housing designated for domestic violence survivors at 30% of renters’ income. o Works with Peninsula Housing Authority [to place clients]. o Two units are funded by donations. They also have four units for DV survivors upstairs of their main office and 4 units at Bayside Towers. o [State-funded] transitional housing tenants have to earn 30% of AMI or less. o Transitional Housing is for 2 years. o Work closely with Habitat. 7 or 8 families have moved from transitional housing to Habitat Houses. • Owl 360 has two-year transitional housing units housing 19 young people, 17 - 25 years old. 21 o They use global leases: OWL 360 rents a large house and subleases to the youth tenants. o For 2 days they had 0 on waiting list, now have 7. o Because of their age, many are not so resilient. Their population doesn’t have knowledge and skills and [typically] earn $20/hour. o After OWL 360 they [are likely to] have less nice housing. o Services offered include education, mental health, and workforce development. o They will not put clients back on the street. Rental Assistance Services • OlyCAP provides rent assistance through various grants. o This biennium they received $200,000 of which they now have $40,000 left. o The biggest grant is for eviction prevention - keeping people off the streets. o Spending is $30k/month and just spent $8,000 on one household for eviction prevention. o Can cover moving costs. o Consolidated Homeless Grant is an rapid rehousing (RRH) program. It is almost spent out [though] it’s hard to spend as there are so few rentals. o Supportive services program for youth age 12 to 24 and RRH program for youth 18-24. The RRH program provides cash payments with 3 day turnaround. o HARPS (Housing and Recovery through Peer Services) is a program for those with behavioral and substance use disorders. This grant provides short-term rental assistance. ▪ Other providers can use this money. o Housing First Project keeps people in their homes whether owned or rented. It helps with children’s needs and life essentials. Worry that the Feds will end this program. • OlyCAP now has designated prevention specialist/land lord liaison. o Once a landlord and a tenant agrees to services then a voucher is created, making it easier for landlords to get paid. ▪ Kicking out payments in 2 weeks rather than 30 - 60 days. ▪ Working on being able to come up with money right away. 22 ▪ If landlords agree to payment, there is an online payment system. o OlyCAP has moved its billing system online. • Peninsula Housing Authority provides 900 Section 8 vouchers for Clallam and Jefferson Counties. [About 1/5th of the vouchers are used in Jefferson County.] o Because of a budget authority cap, only around 814 are being used. o 65 people for Jefferson and Clallam are on waiting list. 30 will be offered vouchers. We are hoping they can lease in place. o 105 households living in Port Townsend or Jefferson County. There are challenges with not a lot of rentals being here. ▪ Tenants should not pay more than 30% of their adjusted income. o The future [of Section 8] is uncertain. • PHA’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) funding of around $300k, 52% of which is granted in Jefferson, is frozen. • PHA staff will be in Jefferson County 2 days a month at OlyCAP’s office. • [The Family Unification Program (FUP) is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative that provides Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) to help families at risk of separation due to homelessness maintain stable housing and prevent out-of-home placement of children.] o Vouchers are also available to youth who have aged out of foster care (at any time in their life). o Of 51 vouchers only 26 are in use due to lack of housing. o Funding has been cut by Trump administration. • Owl 360’s global leasing model: landlords know non-profit will deal with damage etc. Rental Development • PHA housing development activities include: o Preserving 20 units of affordable housing in Forks. o In very preliminary discussions with Olycap for a large housing development in Hadlock. Below 50% AMI. 75% at 30% AMI. in reality 90% of people are below 30% AMI. • City of PT is focused on affordable housing and allowing shelters in various zones. o Asking for input on what they can/should build where. o Council wants to put more money into affordable housing. 23 • Olympic Housing Trust (OHT) is looking to make regulations easier for land trusts. o For the last 20 years no apartments being built [exception of 7th Haven]. • Need for legitimate housing with actual amenities (to replace shed rentals) • Need spaces for RV parking with hookups. RV parks raised rents a lot because they are afraid of rental caps. • Need for micro-units Gaps and Barriers Funding and Capacity Challenges • Try to keep people in their house but funding is in jeopardy. o Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) rental assistance is frozen. TBRA is federal $ passed through Commerce. • Trying to build housing off site without government funding. o Non-profits do not have to pay the real estate taxes, so they can rent cheaper. • OlyCAP Staff is down staff but they are not hiring. o Impacts access, hours they are open. Caseloads are full. One case manager with 200 people on her caseload. Lack of Protections for Renters • Renters face retaliation from landlords for seeking improvements and have little to no leverage in preventing excessive rent increases which puts them at risk for economic eviction. o When a subsidy is late, can result in eviction notice which goes on rental history. • Proactively, OlyCAP is reaching out to landlords and cultivating relationships. o Can work with landlords through incentives and education. [Also, depending on situation, such as when] the landlord has to fix the rental for someone to get in there. ▪ Clallam has adopted ordinance to help landlords with repairs o Some subsidies require an eviction notice. If its Commerce, its easier to work, if HUD very stringent. • City’s role thru Code Compliance Coordinator: o Can enforce local rental ordinance. 24 o Last week they had a client whose rent was being raised beyond what PT allows, and they shut that down. o Would love a list of rental properties. • Folks within 30 to 50% AMI are living in substandard housing. There is no tenants unit. No protections [from landlord reprisals] for tenants asking for help with unsafe conditions. • In co-living arrangements, landlords are asking 3 times amount of rent, [pricing out families]. Challenges Facing Small Landlords • Realtor working to build housing, build rentals, always concerned about losing rental properties: the puzzle always comes back to math. • We are heavily reliant on subsidized housing just as we are losing rentals. o Rentals [for small landlords] are expensive and time intensive. o The few apartment buildings owned by mom and pops (who are aging) are being sold to fund their owners’ survival. Can no longer maintain as rentals. • Today what it takes to buy these units does not pencil out. Need to have at least 2 units. o Built a duplex in 2020, then took a loss on it because interest rates rose. o Tried to do Section 8. Could not get the information to run the math. There is a need for info to be able to develop properties . • Small landlord with 8 rentals, did not raise rents, and now the city has ordinance that keeps her from raising rent. [City’s ordinance does not prevent rent increases. Instead, it increased the notice period for rental increases.] Challenges Placing People Currently Unhoused or Underhoused • What do we need to do to address barriers to moving people out of homelessness? For example, we have no way of identifying what rentals are coming up. Or, DV survivors not having the records that they need [to secure a rental]. o The hardest to work with are the management companies because they have no wiggle room. Mom and pops are easier to deal with. o Habitat decided against rentals at Mason Street because they don’t have the capacity to manage them. 25 o Is there space for a nonprofit to step in as a property manager that would help older folks and new landlords [as well as renters]? Maybe this could be done with Olympic Housing Trust and HSN. • In addition to challenge of living in substandard housing, there is a huge administrative burden [for clients] to approaching housing services, involving time, energy and emotional burden. o Dove House will write a check the day the lease is signed. o Application fees – OlyCAP can pay instantly. Offer $50 for a credit report. • [Suggestion of] a model lease available by download that followed all the rules and was legally vetted. The lease could be trusted and would help both renters and landlords. LOW -INCOME WORKFORCE NEEDS ASSESSMENT JUNE 14, 2024 Summary Take-Aways • Addressing the low-income affordable housing shortage is critical to eliminating homelessness. An increasing number of households are at risk of being displaced, while there is nowhere to move to out of homelessness regardless of how prepared people are. • Eligibility limits present a significant barrier to accessing services households need to stabilize their housing, especially for over households over 30% AMI. • Additional operational funding is needed. Agencies reported critical sources of funding for existing programs are out of funds or frozen. • The time it takes to permit innovative solutions dilutes organizational capacity and increases development costs. • High mortgage rates are impacting Habitat’s model. USDA is out of mortgage lending money. • The absence of a low-income rental management option worsens the loss of affordable rental housing (19% drop in the last ten years). • Solutions need to be developed within the context of organizational capabilities. Round - Existing Conditions • Data Analysis: Higher-income households outcompete lower-income households for the same housing inventory, which excludes those with the 26 fewest resources from the housing market. (See attached data analysis powerpoint presentation.) o Rental households with below 50% AMI are at greatest risk for displacement from the housing shortage. o An estimated 1900 to 2200 housing units are needed to meet current low income household needs (< 80% AMI). • Dove House: Client households often do not qualify for subsidized housing given the 30% AMI limit. The most significant access gap is in the 30 to 50% AMI range. o From data analysis: Over 90% of households in 30 to 50% AMI range in Port Townsend are housing cost burdened. o The gap exasperates trauma [of being homeless]. • Olympic Housing Trust: There is a lack of access across spectrum. There are no options for 30-50% AMI. o OHT is building 5 units in the fall on Hastings. How households qualify is continuing challenge. o Chimacum Commons. In collaboration w/Jefferson Land Trust OHT is building farm worker housing starting next year featuring a central unit with satellite bedrooms, houses, and a working farm surrounding it. In range of 10 to 15 dwellings, some rentals, some for sale. o Organizational capacity building takes time. • Community Build: Implementing THOW model for very low income households for purchase or rental. Community relationships are critical resource in keeping costs down. o Building 192 sf (plus sleeping loft) Tiny Homes on Wheels (THOWs) for below 50% AMI households, selling at material cost of $35k. Purchasers must keep THOWS low income for 8 years. Rentals at ⅓ of 50% AMI, would equate to around $1071/mo including utilities. o First two THOWs bought with assistance of loans from LION. o Relationship with a certified builder kept development costs low. Normally costs $15k to certify new model not counting organizational certification. o 6 people on their wait list, 3 of whom want to buy for rental purposes. o Working with OCEAN and Chimacum School engaging kids with builds. o Still looking for place to build. Fairground barn rental not assured under city zoning rules. • Habitat: Working to build at higher volume and increased scale. Last Fall EJC Habitat celebrated 25 years. 27 o Buyers getting mortgages is an increasing challenge because of interest rates. Habitat’s model is dependent on people getting mortgages. ▪ USDA, their main mortgage lender is out of money in their direct loan program and will be out for 6 months to 3 years. Of the last 10 mortgages only 2 were USDA. ▪ Mortgages are now coming through WA State Finance Commission at eligibility limit of 65% AMI and under. ▪ Moving forward, people will have to have pre-approval before we accept them. They have pre-qualified people who are more at 80% AMI unable to obtain mortgages. o Habitat has been waiting for months for Feds to approve their land trust (permanently-affordable) model. o Habitat is also focusing on increasing density but is being slowed down by permitting. ▪ Timelines for permitting and planning are very long because code changes take forever. Many projects still allow for the public to request hearings. o All homes in Mason Street development in Port Hadlock are attached which will require code changes so they don’t have to be condos. It will be a Zero lot line development. o Mason St. might include a 25 unit apartment building - looking for partners to operate it. Affordable up to 150% AMI. ● Peninsula Housing Authority: PHA provides rental subsidies, the majority for households under 50% AMI. ○ Alternative Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) eligibility limit is 80% AMI. 65% of households receiving TBRA assistance are elderly and/or disabled. Eligible households are referred to TBRA through local Coordinated Entry Systems. TBRA is generally a 24 month transitional program. Currently there is a freeze on taking referrals. ○ Landlords cannot deny a voucher but need to be inspected. Landlord gets paid directly by PHA. Landlord can tell PHA they are willing and go through a pre-inspection of the unit. ○ Can use Section 8 vouchers for home ownership. There are about 40 home owners. ○ PHA does not do room rentals. ○ Vouchers are allotted through a lottery. The list opens every 12 to 18 months. Sign-up for lottery moving to on-line only through web site 28 “Rent Cafe” and then people will get notified when lottery opens. Dove House, Olycap, Bayside help people apply. ● Housing Solutions Network: o HSN launched community/employer workforce housing survey. So far have received 600 responses, not including Mill, large employers and other entities. 24 employers will have their own surveys representing 569 full time employees, 194 part time and contract employees. Have consultants to help interpret data. Plan is to present data with personalized stories. o HSN is taking over the old Jefferson Community Foundation and offering space to Olympic Housing Trust and Community Build, and a conference room for housing meetings. o Between 80 to 120% AMI, there is a need to find opportunities for upward mobility. o Methow Housing Trust are implementing a Housing Conservation or deed restriction program to retain worker housing. HSN is keeping in close touch. The program is first in state. Its aim is conservation of affordability. ● Bayside: Focused on transitional housing and supportive housing for under 50% AMI. ○ Attended Urban Growth Area 3 day design charrette for Hadlock Urban Growth Area, managed by Brent Butler. ○ Senior looking at renting her home but would lose her low income senior real estate discount, so can’t. ○ Starrett House - Bayside purchased with bank loan with intention of doing low income workforce housing using a boarding house model. ■ Bayside partners with a for-profit to run as a B&B which helps with funding for shelter and transitional supportive programs. ■ Zoning is the primary barrier to use as boarding house. Bayside could house 4 people under current zoning. If privately owned, could have up to 10 roommates. Two 2 bedroom apartments may be rented. ■ The city is saying to for a boarding house, Bayside would need to bring the house up to multi-family housing standards. The cost to do that is prohibitive. Barriers and Gaps and Actions to Address Barriers and Gaps 29 Discussion points are cross-referenced to recommended actions from the December 2023 Ruckleshaus’ report Pathways to Housing Security, (https://ruckelshauscenter.wsu.edu/projects/current-projects/pathways-to- housing-security/). The report is the outcome of a series of facilitated discussions in 2023 with housing stakeholders statewide intended to inform desired principles, options, and recommendations for a state strategy towards housing security. Eligibility Limits Dove House is trying to up the eligibility limit from 30% to 40% or 50% by advocating with Commerce. Aligns with Ruckleshaus Report Recommendation 10, Holistic Eligibility: Reconfigure eligibility criteria using a cross-sector, multifactorial, periodic assessment designed to help people access the supports they need over time to synergistically stabilize their housing, health, behavioral health, and socioeconomic circumstances. Key actions include: Income Eligibility Gap: Supplement housing assistance eligibility beyond federal income limits to compensate for the locally disproportionate mismatch between household income and housing costs. Income Eligibility Cliff: Extend housing assistance eligibility to replace binary thresholds with a sliding scale to help people gradually transition to housing stability as their socioeconomic stability also gradually improves. Code and Comp Plan Changes Significant barrier remains with the time it takes to change and implement changes in Comp Plan and codes. While the agencies are trying to think outside the box, the county and the city are not keeping up with zoning changes. Barrier is having to adhere to older codes that take forever to change. o The time it takes to permit innovative solutions affects organizational capacity, determining what housing can be built, using what land, and in what quantity. Action: Support efforts to streamline what is currently in Comp Plan. There is a recognition that much of what is in Comp Plan could be placed in code where it takes less time to change. 30 o Planning effort to remove barriers of density and use restrictions from Comp Plan. o Example of allowing boarding houses of up to 10 or more in R II, which currently allows only 4, allowing for conversion of some of these large houses to cooperative housing in the future. Action: Take all the projects that we all have in the permitting process and see what is holding up the permits. We know what pieces of information they are asking of us. Lets see this all in one place and have the conversation with all the agencies and the city and county. That is what the County Commissioners and City Council needs to see. Operating Funds Aligns with Ruckleshaus Report Recommendation 5, Supply of Affordable Housing: Adopt strategies that align homelessness services and housing assistance with increasing the supply of affordable housing for rental and ownership. Allocate more funds to be used for operations and maintenance to preserve the current stock of subsidized and affordable housing. Rental Management Gap Habitat is in conversation with employers to create a rental management coalition. Employers would hold the lease. [Effort discontinued.] Housing Stability Support Aligns with Ruckleshaus Report Recommendation 12, Circumstances of Precarious Housing: Expand investments that stabilize individuals and households with circumstances of precarious housing. Key actions include: Bridging Support: Provide bridging grants or loans for unanticipated expenses that may supersede making rent or mortgage payments on time. MOBILE HOME PARKS NEEDS ASSESSMENT MAY 2, 2025 To be added later. 31 SENIORS AND YOUTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT APRIL 12, 2024 Summary Take-Aways • Youth HDPF (emergency one-time funds) program provides 18-25 yr olds with one-time sum for (housing loss) prevention or relocation. Its flexibility (responsiveness to needs) is effective but funding is in jeopardy. Current funding ends in 2025. • Jefferson County has highest share of population age 65 and older of any county in the state while the percentage of cost burdened senior households is increasing (both renter and owner hhs). % of seniors in population is second highest predictor of homelessness in Washington counties. Since there are no places to downsize, there is a shortage of family-size homes coming on market which in turn impacts REET funding. There are no senior housing service programs. Existing Conditions Quantitative Data Following data points taken from slide show presentation (see attached). • Percentage of the population 65 and over is second largest predictor of homelessness (median rent of one-bedroom apartments is first) in all Washington counties. • Jefferson County has the highest share of the population age 65 and older in Washington state with 26.3% in 2010 and 41.6% in 2022 (increase of 58%). • Although youth are smaller share of population, a greater percentage of youth households are renters. • There was over a 19% drop in households who rent in Jefferson County in the past 10 years (from over a quarter to less than 20%). We appear to be losing rental stock. • The share of senior cost-burdened rental households has increased to 51.4%. • The share of senior owner households has also increased. 32 Qualitative Data - Lived Experience, Observed Dynamics, and Existing Housing Service Landscape Olycap Youth Services • Average of 17 people case load at a time. Receive 5 plus requests/month. 5 youth in category 1 (couch surfing). o Case work is key to success. Goal is to meet with them once per week. o Hired 3 young people with lived experience. o Need more case workers, especially with training. • HPDF - Homeless Prevention Diversion Program provides 12-24 yr olds with one-time sum for (housing loss) prevention or relocation. (Qualification dependent on housing circumstances and household income). If request can directly lead to keeping or finding permanent housing within 30 days, it is eligible. Examples of eligible requests are security deposits, even home and auto repairs (for prevention), or rehousing. o Payment is very quick, within 3 days. o HPDF funding ends June 2025. • Rapid Rehousing - engagement could last up to 2 ½ years. o Provides for 4 to 6 months of follow-up. • Housing Assistance - Provides funding for 2 years maximum. Currently, there are11 people, 95% of whom are at OWL 360 property. o Need more landlords who will rent to young people. o Barrier: Income limits. Hit 50% AMI, responsible for part of rent. 80% is cutoff. OWL 360 (youth housing) • Percentage of disconnected youth in Jefferson County (the second highest in state) is more than twice the state average – 25% vs 12 %. [Disconnected youth are defined as young people ages 14-24 who are homeless, in foster care, involved in the justice system, or are neither employed nor enrolled in an educational institution.] • Residents have the option of being part of this program for up 2 years with supportive subsidized and longer if housing is not available. 33 • Always full. Can house up to 22 young people through double bunking them but this does not provide best outcomes. • Housing 13 people right now with 12 on waiting list. • Master Leasing - global leasing - OWL 360 rents house and fills it with young people. More money is needed. • Pfeiffer House is a 6 plex (6 one bedroom fully equipped apartments. • Parliament House is a split level home. This has shared commons areas with individual rooms for residents. • Need is for continued funding to support emerging youth and young adults as well as staff to offer wraparound services. Seniors • Barriers are $, need more units of housing. Range is from 1-4 years on wait list [for subsidized affordable housing]. • Number of senior HHs is greater than the number of studio and 1 bedroom units. • There are not enough buildable land developers and contractors locally and hard to attract developers from out of town. • Supportive housing services for seniors do not exist, either mortgage or rental assistance. o Hamilton Heights HOA - 80% are elderly, many living alone - and they are stuck - nowhere to go. o There is no mortgage assistance. There is no rental assistance for seniors to stay in place. o Dove House is seeing a high population of unhoused senior woman. o Of 5371 households, 2862 are non family households (ie single persons). 1530 woman living alone with medium income is $25,930 versus 1107 senior men with median income of $37520. • 7th Haven does not have enough case workers to serve all with permanent supportive housing services. 30 of the 42 units need services although only 10 were slated as PSH. Not enough people for quality and consistent case management. Discussion - Barriers and Gaps and Actions to Address Barriers and Gaps 34 • Action: Need data for each demographic (i.e. teens, seniors) – number of, as % of population, % receiving services, % needing services. • Barrier, Action: PIT Count is super undercounted - not a single youth is counted. Jeopardizes funding for youth programs which use PIT counts for allocating funding. How to work together to improve counts? Supplement January count with summer count? • Action: Master (Global) leases are a good tool for increasing affordable housing supply. No permitting is required but need more funding support. [A master lease is a type of lease that gives the lessee the right to control and sublease the property during the lease, while the owner retains the legal title.] Need master lease program and/or toolkit. • Gap: Permanent Supportive Housing needed for youth. • Gap: More case workers and continued sustainable funding for case services, including training such as trauma-informed and serving disadvantaged populations. • Gap: Lack of senior supportive housing services • Action: Program that addresses sustainable housing for aging in place that incentivizes senior owner households that are stuck in too large homes for their needs to sell while providing them affordable community- supported places to downsize to. • Action: Legalize co-living in all residential zones. [Co-living homes are a low-cost, multifamily housing option in which each resident has a small, private living and sleeping room and shares with other building residents a common kitchen and other spaces. The housing type is also known as single-room occupancy (SRO), congregate housing, rooming houses, micro-housing, or residential suites.)] DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, TRAFFICING VICTIMS/SURVIVORS AND SEX WORKERS NEEDS ASSESSMENT AUGUST 9, 2024 Summary Take-Aways • A major cause of homelessness is the experience of repeated trauma – discrimination and exposure to violence. Once homeless, there is an increase in trauma exposure. o In CA study, ¾ of homeless population experienced physical assault and a quarter experienced sexual assault. Sexual violence was more common among ciswomen (43%) and transgender or nonbinary individuals (74%). (See attached data summary from study.) 35 • While the lack of affordable housing is the primary structural barrier, survivors’ lack of resources – references, financial history, and savings to pay upfront costs of new housing – present formidable additional barriers to securing housing in private market, while the eligibility requirements for low income subsidized housing (less than $18-19/hour) is a barrier. • From a system’s view, Domestic Violence (DV) survivors are hardest to get fully served and moved into permanent housing. There is no separate family shelter/transitional housing in Jefferson County. Existing Conditions Dove House Experience • The biggest struggle is not enough housing compounded by lack of references and financial history (e.g. credit record) to apply for housing [on private market], no control of finances, and/or no resources to cover move- in costs. • Assault and DV survivors have different socioeconomics. DV survivors may have more resources but the size of housing is for smaller families or elderly population. • Number of children is a big barrier to providing services. Rules for housing services, eg. children of different sexes need to be in different bedrooms, limit providers’ ability to house. • There is no separate family shelter. Bayside and Dove House are housing adults with children but have limited resources to house all those who need care. “We end up shuffling instead of building.” Dove House is a 90 day shelter and extensions are provided based on individual need and availability. It is not [their] intention to ever exit anyone to homelessness. • [Transitional housing] Haines St. cottages are 2 bedroom. However, cottages are not an option anymore because they are just for therapeutic court. If you are in therapeutic courts, it may be easier to get shelter/housing. • There used to be more rentals and they were less expensive. When our housing authority was local it was more successful and accessible. Housing authority keeps local list of rentals. • Unique challenges for survivors - safety, and the right of the victim to stay when the abuser is removed. We need landlord education. 36 • If you make $18/hr, you make too much for our subsidized apartments. Also, the gap between fair market rents vs reality of market rents [is substantial]. REAL Team Experience • Focus on keeping people safe and helping them to escape harmful situations. • Because of stigmatization of victims, people are not speaking up or seeking services. Isolation is further barrier [to housing stability] as people need community. Child-friendly transportation is needed. • Stigmatization leads to substance abuse behaviors. You get high because you don’t want to talk about it - feel it. [Research shows that cumulative trauma exposure is linked to poor self-rated mental health as well as substance use disorders.] • Ensuring safety at hotels is a problem. • Landlords not supportive: it's not safe to keep her here. • Of the homeless women REAL team deals with, guess that 90% are DV survivors at the least. [American Law: 90% of women on the street are from Domestic Violence. 38% of DV end up homeless.] • It is easier to fly under the radar in bigger places. In Jeffco people don’t speak up because of the stigmatism. In CA you often see DV leading to prostitution. Here it's invisible. Bayside Experience • DV is the hardest to get fully served and moved into permanent housing. High percentage of success through the courts (mostly males, all singles), next highest is veterans, and no category. • Why is Bayside having the hardest time placing people who are experiencing DV in permanent housing? There is no active support for after they left Bayside. Barriers and Gaps and Actions to Address Barriers and Gaps • There is a need to educate landlords [on economic and legal protections for DV and SA survivors]. • Funding for [homelessness] prevention is needed and access to information and resources, like rental assistance, before you end up in homelessness. 37 You aren’t entered into the HMIS coordinated entry system until you are homeless and case management must be in place. Eviction Prevention dollars (through OlyCAP) can cover 3 months of back rent. Before accessing, you need to have a pay or vacate notice and it takes many months for the landlord to get the money. • Basic life services for women with children are lacking. o Busses have a limit on stuff you can take on - like a toddler, stroller - and maybe a bag of laundry. Needed an interaction with the transit about the limit on bags. o Childcare is desperately needed. YMCA opens at 8:30 am which is too late. o Few subsidized rental houses have laundry. Very expensive to do in coin operated laundries. Need information on who is accepting laundry vouchers. Also, what do you do with the kids while you are doing laundry? • Resourcing the staff who are serving DV, SA and trafficking is so important. • If you are not involved with drug abuse or mental health, the resources are less. There is a big gap in housing for women with children. o SUD, DBH, are required for the Haines Street Cabins. (DBH and Believe in Recovery has cabins.) Mental health issues - someone receives two services from DBH. Woman’s cabin not full. Thomas Street (NW Passage) apts. Some are subsidized thru Olycap, and the rest are mental health $. Drug court has a lot of resources. Apartments and housing are funded with the opiate funds coming through the drug court. Most of the people in drug court are single. Big gap is sober housing. • Community is a critical resource. We need spaces that are low barrier and support being able to be transparent and open up. Recovery Café is fully booked. o Faith groups and churches, tenant/guest self-organizing important pathways to community o Need to find ways to better measure impacts of community at system level. 38 FAMILIES AND WOMEN NEEDS ASSESSMENT OCTOBER 11, 2024 Summary Take-aways ● Current emphasis on planning for Emergency (EH) and Affordable Housing (AH) small units (studios and one-bedrooms) indicates a continuing shortage of family-sized units. At the same time, there has been a marked increase in families experiencing homelessness. ● Meeting families’ intersecting needs requires depth of resources and coordinated service provision across different service delivery systems. The YMCA’s Family and Youth’s Resource Navigator Program has provided essential service in this capacity. Existing Conditions Observed Dynamics • Families are going into homelessness at an increasing rate. o Families with children under 18 represent 14% of JC population but 24% of rental households and 26% of people served in coordinated entry EH. (See Data at bottom). o Bayside keeps track of their wait list. Over the last 1 ½ years, groups of 3 or more have gone from 10% of their wait list (130 people) to up over 25% of their wait list. (HMIS entry is for head of families which may representative up to 7 people.) o JC Public Health and Bayside are seeing a lot of pregnant people who are in transition and need housing. 4 babies were born in Bayside Tower in the last year. ▪ Jefferson HC has seen influx of pregnant people living in cars. o Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) reports that 2.8% identified [of PT school children] as homeless per McKinney Vento definition. 3% = 30 kids. o A greater percentage of families with at least one child under 18 with working-age heads of households are cost-burdened than households with no kids and households headed by individuals over 60 years old. (See attached survey data from Housing Solutions Network.) 39 • Families are a decreasing share of population, making serving their needs an increasing challenge. o 8% of people who live in Chimacum school district are school age (was 16% in 2000). 11% of Jefferson County is under 18. By comparison, 18% of people in the district are veterans. o Chimacum has shrinking enrollment. Birth rate is going down. Demographics are unlikely to change. o Smaller populations skew Bell curves. 17% of the Chimacum district are children with disabilities - physical, behavioral, academic. (These are not 504 plan students, i.e. students with school plan addressing disability needs.) • Housing emergencies for families are characterized by intersecting needs: o There is a lack of 3 + bedroom housing for families with 3 or 4 children. ▪ Garden Court and NorWest have 2 units of 3 bedrooms. ▪ 3 Bedroom houses are at $3,000/month rent, w/o utilities. ▪ Haines St. Cottages have lead paint. o There are people in Brinnon and Quilcene getting WIC, but can’t get to a store to use vouchers. ▪ 200 families this past summer identified as food insecure thru YMCA’s Food Pop Ups in East Jefferson County. o People won’t move without their pets. o People are doubling up in trailers and there is overcrowding. o People living in cars in other counties (4 to 5 counties) are working here. There is underrepresentation of these families who work here but live in poverty elsewhere. • Impacts of economic precarity: o Youth disengagement rate in the county is 16% (youth 16 to 25 not in school or employed), twice the state average. o Attendance issues, chronic illness, food insecurity are concurrent for children who are unsheltered. o Chimacum and the other southern/western districts qualify for Community Eligibility for free breakfast and lunch, (schools offer free meals to all students). • Shrinking student population creates massive instability. o The smaller a district, the less the funding. 100 students provides for 1/10th of a nurse. All the school districts struggle but it gets harder the farther south you go. Queets ClearWater has 107 students. 40 o Staff also impacted by housing shortage. School staff commutes from 4 counties. Personal experience of it taking a year and a half to find a house. • Increasing access to services requires confidentiality and destigmatization. o Housing Questionnaire at beginning of school year: Are you renting or homeless? Not sure how many people respond accurately. o Parents are hesitant to fill out free and reduced lunch forms which are very important information for district funding. o Schools need to be receptive [to needs]. Confidentiality is crucial. Families will not be judged or in trouble for disclosing homelessness. Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) prioritizes keeping families together: “Poverty is not neglect.” o Other staff do not know what the counselors know; info is not shared. o Finding ways to provide resources in ways that do not single out recipients is key. ▪ Using pin numbers to pay for lunch is a big improvement. Existing Housing and Support Services ● Housing Provision: o Peninsula Housing Authority (PHA) provides vouchers to subsidize housing costs. PHA is planning to increase presence in Jefferson County. They own Garden Courts and the property next door. o Seventh Haven has 43 units, half of which are set aside for low-income families with children. Eligible families cannot be homeless on entry or in HMIS. There is no system for referrals. (Subsequent to meeting two families were placed on waiting list through connections made at meeting.) ▪ 7th Haven’s central location makes a difference in ability to meet needs. o Of Bayside’s properties, families are only served at Bayside Tower but the spaces are small. The number housed there is 8 or 9 families at a time. o Vince’s Village (PSH and AH) will break ground in 2026. Bayside also now owns property adjacent to it. With additional property, Vince's Village will have 42 units. Planning focus was on 1 bedroom units and they are now adding 2 bedroom units back in. 41 o Bayside also owns property on San Juan and Discovery that has the taco truck on it. They are looking at making this be family housing with a day care on site. Also working with Habitat on the Mason Street Project. • Support Services: o Jefferson Health Care is working on the Community Health Improvement Plan. Housing is the greatest need. o Schools can provide some material resources as well as counselling and advocacy: ▪ Food gift cards. ▪ ASB Card and other fees are paid for by free and reduced lunch programs. o YMCA’s Youth & Family Resource Service Navigator Program, which connects community members to needed resources and each other, started during Covid pandemic and their current focus is on Focus on Asset Limited Income Restrained Employed (ALICE) families. ▪ During Covid, 130 families received home food deliveries. ▪ They receive a stream of referrals from other sectors. ▪ Food pop-ups held in 4 place in East Jefferson are de signed to be joyous events. Community Partners are showing up at these events with crafts, clothing swaps, etc. Fun helps to destigmatize receiving services. • 200 families have visited pop-ups. • Families might not qualify for SNAP benefits. ▪ Some resources: gas and food gift cards, diaper bank (35 families per month). For longer school breaks, they will supply a week supply of food for families. o Foster Care, Kinship Care which includes grandparents - not many places to turn to for help. Olympic Angels. o Immigrants served by JCIRA (Immigrants is preferred to undocumented) Barriers, Gaps and Moving Forward Steps • DSHS Stakeholder Group for the State Legislature looking at connections between health and housing. No definition of supportive services for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). 42 • Within emergency and PSH housing, there are lots of one bedroom units with no family units. o Seeing doubling up of families in trailers and overcrowding. • It is challenging to identify change in circumstances. As prevention is more successful, need to improve. • How do we coordinate better with other service providers [in different systems]? Access needs to go both ways. o Need to encourage housing service providers to encourage households with children to talk to school counselors [to mitigate impacts of housing loss]. o Phone call to OlyCAP doesn’t work. ▪ OlyCAP is understaffed at present. There are 4 staff members in the housing division, down from 10! • To confront peer stigmatization in schools, we need to destigmatize homelessness in general. • Need backpack program in PT although they cannot be kept confidential. • Any evidence that families being priced out of larger rental homes as landlords can get higher rents from multiple tenants? BIPOC/PGM AND IMMIGRANTS NEEDS ASSESSMENT FEBRUARY 14, 2025 Summary Take-Aways Summary Takeaways • PGM/BIPOC experiences of racism in housing are pronounced and prevalent. o Experiences are often ignored, dismissed and/or minimized by housing service providers. There is a substantial trade-off between getting help and the mental and emotional cost of this help. o Designing services for the majority’s needs alone can perpetuate current inequities and exclusion. • Specific attention must be given to grounding equity, transparency and accountability in the Homeless Response System in organizational practices. o Training and practice is necessary to informed service delivery. 43 • By and For advocacy is one of the most successful means of supporting PGM navigate the housing service systems. By and For advocates need to be adequately compensated. Existing Conditions Lived Experience ● As military family had multiple experiences of unsafe and inadequate housing. ○ Once bedding caught on fire because of faulty heater. ○ In PT, rented a double-wide that was moldy. Landlord kept coming in without notice and while they were out. ● Single PGM mom with 2 kids and a dog faces significant barriers finding housing. ○ Too much demand for too few units. ○ Moved into an off-grid yurt w/o running water, heat, no wood stove, no flushing toilet. ○ Auto-immune condition ○ Moved into car because no [need to meet] qualifications ■ Have been told that there are too many of you (3 people) ○ Moved to OlyCAP’s tiny houses (7x11 feet) near the mill (CB) ■ OlyCAP did not [impose conditions] but living situation was not dignified ■ Allowed her to get back on her feet, [for which she is] very appreciative ○ As BiPOC immigrant mother faces certain dynamics and challenges making it hard to access support [without mental and emotional burden] ■ Applications focus on income ■ No allowance for disadvantages for POC, including generational challenges ● Came to PT in 2017 from N Carolina ○ Came having a place to live with friend who was a new mom; lived there for 2 ½ years ○ Cost of housing is maybe 75% of their service sector income ○ Found studio above a garage, not legally zoned for housing. 44 ○ Barriers around [being a] disabled blind person ■ Walking up the stairs not ideal. ■ Don’t have a real kitchen while need to prepare healthy meals ■ Walking [in neighborhood ] does not feel safe from lack of safe pedestrian routes ○ Accessibility issues. Uses Dial a Ride. ○ As anti-racist activist, careful about not appearing hostile [since] people are fragile. ■ After 5 years is able to have honest conversations ○ Blessed by community and network here [that provides] resources ○ A lot of anxiety about housing: constant worry about rent being raised or that landlords will die and children will evict them. ○ Seeking for more secure housing, applied for Habitat twice. ■ Qualified if work 10 hours a week but employer wouldn’t guarantee ○ Owns business but [income] is not secure. Needs to keep balance with what is important. ■ Health insurance, Apple Health, is priority. Intentionally kept income low to qualify but then not enough income to qualify for Habitat house. ○ Habitat suggestions to apply for disability not welcome. No consideration of marginalization and legacy of trauma or the lack of access to resources ○ Told by social services that because they have masters degree, “You should be able to take care of yourself”. [Social service assessments contain] forms of micro aggression. ● Lived here since 2017. Been in military, white, single, good credit score. ○ When he moved here, he had 12 to 13 calls in 2 days from landlords through realtor. ○ Owners treat him well; no rent increases. ● Moved out here in 2009. ○ From military family and was in the military ○ Light skinned; has privilege; activist ○ Lives in a tiny house on his parents’ property ○ Brother more precarious situation [with] darker skin ● From S. Carolina, dark skinned. ○ Multiple experiences of being sanctioned in shelter system ○ No recourse for appealing for fair treatment 45 ○ No spaces for asking for justice Structural Conditions • The data for Jefferson County shows that there are still racial dynamics in housing inequality. o Households with BIPOC people are more cost burdened. o Homeownership rates are higher for White and Asian households. o Service data show that indigenous black and Hispanic people are disproportionately homeless. For Indigenous people the disproportionality is very large at three times as many homeless as is their percentage in the population. o PGM are also disproportionately renters. o Biggest story is that low income renters are the people who are being displaced. o Two tiered housing system is structurally racist. Homeownership support is 6 times greater than rental support nationally. While homeownership subsidies are considered “natural”, rental assistance is considered a hand out. • Affordable housing (AH) costs the same amount of money to build as market rate. Need to have fed and/or state subsidies to build. o AH is an industry, so end up paying more. • Rentals conversion to home ownership is [a major cause of lack of housing]. Hamilton House HOA in 2020 had 23 rentals, now have 13. (700 rentals have disappeared in the last 13 years.) Existing Housing Service Landscape • Dove House faces challenges in securing resources and government regulations that affect placing undocumented. • Training for informed service delivery o How different people’s experiences can affect outcomes o Understanding how everything interrelates and bring [this understanding] to table. o Responsibility of service providers to be transparent with our own issues. 46 • Sees the situation [for unhoused populations] getting worse. Bayside going through a lot of frustration. o Realizing the tiny homes are good but a lot of factors are not great. o Needs laws that keep rents from going up o Landlords’ response is “Because I can charge that.” o Need to help people in community understand challenges. ▪ People believe we have all this funding. • Housing vouchers require SS #. • Because of the funding for different properties, there are categories that clients have to fit in [to receive certain services]. • Coordinated Entry prioritizes the most vulnerable people. The question is how to reach out to get people on the list. o Vulnerability includes race, gender lgbtq+, etc. o Questions are intrusive. • The gatekeepers decide who gets access o Need Transparency ▪ Having BIPOC people in the room, on the boards. o Need follow through and accountability • Legal representation for vulnerable people needs to happen as an absolute must. o In rental units, clients will be evicted for harassment. Existing By and For Community Organizations • [By and For Organizations are operated by and for the communities they serve] • Experience in deciding how to donate to support housing with team of people o Surveyed landscape of existing housing providers, including meeting with different representatives o Data on who needed services to secure housing stability helped with decision • Immigrants are from everywhere and every race but Latin POC have a hard time melding into the community o PGM have a hard time finding resources 47 o Learned that organizational leaders, whether they care, [can create change] o WA laws are pro-immigrant providing protection for immigrants from housing discrimination but immigrants aren’t in a position to demand the laws are followed. ▪ Fight for rights [is not always possible. [Can feel] ashamed to be asked for documents o Experience in assisting single mom with 4 kids and a cat find housing ▪ Landlords won’t accept the cat which was very important to them ▪ JCIRA advocate started calling places, tried the new apartments near Goodwill. Client’s barriers included difficulty in talking to landlord, lack of paperwork. ▪ When she said the client did not have a SSI #. Landlord said it’s against the law to discriminate because of this ▪ Also client was unable to provide proof of income. The landlord was determined to make it work ▪ Paying $2000 rent, JCIRA helping with upfront costs. • People have the power to educate themselves, to break the barriers. • Organizations have money from gov. grants and donations that they can decide to use creatively to help people find housing o People are not begging for something they don’t deserve o People trust us: give us their keys as housekeepers, we take care of the elderly, we are part of the community • Get out of the box! Give immigrants the opportunity to make it here. Housing is a basic need and its one of the hardest to find. o Let’s check within our organizations what we are doing to help these people. • [In Jefferson County], there is reinforcement of the bubble. There is a superficial engagement in DEI but does not really affect the organizations practices. o Lived experience is talked about, but not acted on o BIPOC not reflected in decision making o [Experience of] “Can’t do anything about it”. o [As a result] BIPOC pushed out. 48 Gaps and Barriers ● Need for increased equity, transparency and accountability. ○ Need for POC gate keepers (gatekeepers decide who gets access) ○ Assessing risk and vulnerability can feel icky and intrusive. Can be really painful. ■ Can feel scrutinized and judged to have white women asking about quality of life ■ [Prefer to] fill out their own applications. ○ Historical trauma gets reactivated. ○ Need leadership to address accountability. ○ Follow through on complaints is needed. School district has a formal complaint process: there is an investigation, action, meeting, follow up. ■ Takes a lot of energy and tenacity. Parents don’t have the energy beyond dealing with their kids. ● Closing the Rehousing Gap: Currently, there is no service for identifying and matching AH properties and people except through individual case management networking. This includes community-based rentals. ○ PT feels safer than county ● Need for increased advocacy service. ○ JCIRA offers advocacy for people accessing services. ○ Since election, JCIRA has accompanied people to make reports on what happened [in experiences of discrimination] and provide legal representation, ensure right questions are being asked. ■ Whether [services providers] are asking questions regarding legal status. ■ If clients don’t speak English, there are even more barriers. People who speak English and can communicate have a very different experience than those who are not English as a First Language immigrants. ■ People fear repercussions. ■ Racism inside is showing because now it's okay. The racists are empowered. ■ People suddenly don't want to pay for work that has been done. Seen 2 clients with that story. ■ BIPOC, Immigrant advocate on call for these different interviews etc. Offered at the start of the problem. 49 ■ Did police report and got a restraining order with Dove House’s help. ○ Advocates need to receive adequate compensation. ● Challenge of dealing with racism in service population ○ How to make it less traumatic - gatekeepers of color - staff training ○ [Need to establish universal core competencies in culturally responsive, anti-racist, and trauma-informed practices for providers, administrators, and leaders across sectors, and regularly provide the training needed to put those competencies into practice.] Process Evaluation • The representation of service providers limited the shares from participants who have experienced housing insecurity. In essence, they took up more space than needed, preventing more shares from PGM participants. o In response, we have restructured our conversations to let people with lived experience speak first to allow them whatever time they wish to share their stories. o Secondly, in a post-meeting evaluation, we agreed that the invitation to share lived experience was misunderstood and that service providers, especially white service providers, need to focus on centering lived experience participants and listening. We will continue to assess our listening practices. • The Data and Needs Assessment Committee will continue to advocate for compensation for lived experience participation. ○ Engage JC compensates people with lived experience for attending Engage JC events and provided the compensation for this session. 50 List of Qualitative Needs Assessment Attendees Listening Session Attendees Lived Experts Listening Session: Approximately 30 lived experts South County Listening Session: 9 lived experts Needs Assessment Session Attendees Housing Service Providers: Bayside Housing; Dove House; OlyCAP; OWL 360; Peninsula Housing Authority; Habitat for Humanity East Jefferson County; Olympic Housing Trust Community Housing Organizations: Housing Solutions Network; Community Build; REPAH (Real Estate Professional for Affordable Housing) Homeless Service/Advocacy Organizations: Help Now Fund; Reach Out!; Whale Heart Productions; Winter Welcoming Center By and For Organizations: Engage JC; Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates (JCIRA); Native Action Connections Group Social Service Providers and Educational Organizations: Jefferson County Public Health Department; Recovery Café; Aging and Long-Term Support Administration, DSHS; OlyCAP Youth Services; REAL Team, Discovery Behavioral Health; Port Townsend High School; Chimacum High School; Youth & Family Resource Service Navigator Program, YMCA; USAWA Consulting Local Government Agencies and Boards: Board of County Commissioners; City of Port Townsend’s Equity, Access, and Rights Advisory Board; Department of Community Development, City of Port Townsend 51 Sessions Still to be Completed • LGBTQ+ Survey • Veterans • Foster Children • Caregivers for Individuals Experiencing Intellectual Development Disabilities • Physical Disabilities