Cheers: To declining homelessness. Clark County saw a slight reduction in unhoused people in 2023, according to the Council for the Homeless. The organization reported 8,752 homeless last year, compared with 9,032 in the previous year’s count. It marks the first decline since at least 2018, when the Council for the Homeless first released its own data and before the COVID-19 pandemic played havoc with the economy.
Clearly, homelessness remains a major issue in our community. A count of nearly 9,000 is far too many, and the decline from 2022 is almost negligible. But at least it is a move in the right direction, reflecting the vast government and private-sector efforts to build housing and provide outreach to unhoused people. And the fact that the number of homeless veterans decreased by 25 percent is worthy of cheers.
Jeers: To missing items. Separate reports by the state auditor’s office have identified minor problems in the Vancouver Police Department and the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office. In each case, audits found that the agencies have not effectively tracked small attractive assets, which can include firearms, tactical and safety equipment, cameras, cellphones, radios and body-worn cameras.
In the case of Vancouver, six firearms identified as missing have been located, and the department is implementing procedural changes. In Skamania, the report found that “the office experienced turnover in positions responsible for providing oversight and has not had sufficient training on internal controls for these areas.” The situation highlights the need for diligence by government agencies and the importance of independent oversight from the auditor’s office.
Cheers: To groundbreaking science. David Baker, a biochemistry professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has been honored with a Nobel Prize. Baker and two other scientists were acknowledged for their work on understanding proteins and creating new proteins.
“There’s just so many possibilities,” said Baker, a Seattle native. “It’s a whole new world.” Those possibilities include assisting with the treatment of diseases and with the breakdown of pollutants in the environment.
Jeers: To whooping cough. Washington is experiencing an outbreak of pertussis — commonly known as whooping cough — and Clark County has reported far more cases than any other county. Thus far this year, Clark County has seen 318 cases; King County is next with 117.
Children are most susceptible to pertussis, and 26 percent of the state’s reported cases have been in children ages 1-4. According to the state Department of Health, patients often have “spasms of severe coughing ending in a gasp, whoop, or vomiting.” A pertussis vaccine is included in the common tetanus vaccination. But with anti-vax sentiments continuing to fester, easily preventable diseases are likely to increase in prominence.
Cheers: To elections. Ballots for the Nov. 5 election have been mailed to voters throughout Clark County. Completed ballots must be postmarked or dropped in an official collection box by Election Day. Voters will be weighing in on everything from president of the United States to U.S. senator to Clark County councilor.
Cheers are warranted for election officials who provide ballots to more than 300,000 registered voters in the county, then process those ballots with diligence and transparency. Most important, cheers are warranted for everybody who exercises their right to vote. Americans must never take voting for granted, recognizing that it provides the foundation for our representative democracy.
