It was a typical Pacific Northwest winter morning in Vancouver — 39 degrees, rain and not a speck of blue in the sky.
There was a small cluster of people camping Thursday under the Esther Street train overpass: a man named Chris who’s newly homeless, a woman recovering from a cold, a homeless couple looking to get Social Security Income and other services, and a woman who didn’t want to come out of her tent because everything got wet and she was cold.
One man said he’s worried about the cops and wishes there was a different process for legal camping, maybe a permit system. His wife has been homeless off and on for 12 years. They have two dogs.
Homeless outreach workers Willie Hurst and Johnnie Shaver had scouted out the area earlier this week and knew people stayed under the overpass, which provides some shelter from the elements. It’s close to construction on the city’s $1.5 billion waterfront development.
They talked to homeless people Thursday for the annual Point in Time count, a single-day census of the homeless population mandated by the state of Washington and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Joe Liles can’t see well, so he had Shaver read the survey questions for him.
“Do you get food stamps at all?” Shaver asked, making notes on a clipboard. “Did you serve in the military?”
Liles, who’s 53, said he became homeless in 2010 after he lost his job with the railroad.
Volunteers and outreach workers went around Clark County on Thursday counting people and gathering details about them, such as their race, gender and age. People staying at shelters and those using soup kitchens were counted. The count does not include people who are couch surfing, doubled-up with family or friends or homeless but incarcerated. It can get complicated. While people using their own money to live out of a motel would not be considered, households getting financial assistance to stay in a motel would.
The count is one of many factors considered in allocating funding. Clark County will spend an estimated $5.3 million on homeless services this year.
The complete results from the Point in Time count won’t be available until spring.
In exchange for participating in the survey, people were given hygiene kits, as well as gift cards to Subway and Starbucks and information about Project Homeless Connect, a resource fair that was held Thursday at St. Joseph Catholic Church. More than 230 people attended.
According to the 2017 Point in Time count, homelessness in Clark County grew by more than 8 percent from 2016. A total of 749 people were counted last year, including 234 children. Among those surveyed, 251 were in emergency shelter, 229 were in transitional housing and 269 were unsheltered.
The nation’s homeless population increased last year due to a rising number of people living on the streets in West Coast cities. Seattle, for instance, is the 18th largest city in the country but had the third largest homeless population, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Though New York City had the largest homeless population — 76,501 people — the vast majority were sheltered. Los Angeles, on the other hand, had 55,188 — most of whom were not sheltered.
Homeless advocates generally consider the Point in Time an undercount; it’s a snapshot of the people volunteers and outreach workers could find in a single day. The Council for the Homeless, which oversees the Point in Time count, prefers using the number of people who tried to access shelter or housing assistance according to its Homeless Management Information System. Last year, there were 2,593 households, totaling 4,356 people, that asked for some kind of help.
Hurst has been a case manager for about eight years and helped with Clark County’s Point in Time count last year. He believes the numbers will be higher this year, particularly among people who are newly homeless.
“Tent city was definitely not this big,” Hurst said while driving on West 12th Street by Share House. Tents line the sidewalk around the property, which is a homeless shelter and hot-meals site.
As one of Share’s three outreach workers, Hurst spends a lot of time in downtown Vancouver, but his job takes him all over the county. People live outside in Hazel Dell, Orchards, Camas, Washougal and Ridgefield.
While passing the former Red Lion Inn at the Quay, Shaver said he envisions that building as a homeless shelter. In addition to working full time at Share, Shaver runs the Montavilla Emergency Warming Shelter at an Episcopal church in Portland. Homeless advocates have lamented the local lack of shelter space.
Hurst and Shaver drove to Marine Park and pulled up next to a white car with two people, two dogs and a lot of clothing piled inside.
“They think we’re about to give them a hard time,” Shaver said.
“And the clipboard is not going to help,” Hurst said.
But after explaining to the couple what they’re doing, they participated in the survey. A man slowly got out of the car. He said he’s getting back to work after having surgery on his leg. He loads semi trucks in Milwaukie, Ore. The couple asked about SafePark, a program that allows people to stay in their cars overnight in church parking lots. It’s a good program, Shaver said, but opening more large transitional housing facilities would make the largest dent in the homeless population. Once people are staying somewhere stable and safe, working with them becomes a lot easier, he said.
Thursday’s Point in Time count happened the day after the city of Vancouver closed on a deal to purchase the former state Fish and Wildlife building for use as a day center for the homeless. The extra space — and particularly the future showers — will be a boon for their clients, Hurst said.
“Any job is going to want you to come in clean,” he said.
Groups representing the Maplewood and Rose Village neighborhoods filed an appeal last week that alleges the city’s application was improperly filed and that the hearing examiner failed to consider arguments made by representatives during the public hearing process. A hearing on that appeal is tentatively planned for Feb. 26.
