The city of Aberdeen invited members of the homeless community to city hall on April 27 for a discussion with city council members, social service providers and other residents about homelessness-related issues in the city.

The discussion continued a series of input-gathering sessions between the city’s homeless response committee and various demographic groups in Aberdeen.

Information gathered from the meetings — and surveys launched by the city — will ultimately lead to a new city strategy for addressing homelessness, according to City Administrator Ruth Clemens.

“The ultimate goal of the community discussions is to understand the impacts of homelessness in Aberdeen—what people are experiencing,” Clemens said in an email. “We want to hear their thoughts and ideas of how they believe homelessness can be successfully addressed.”

At the two-hour meeting last Thursday, Clemens presented results from an unhoused community survey, social service providers talked about challenges for unhoused people in Aberdeen and three people who identified themselves as unhoused addressed the committee.

Noel Bollhoefer, who lives across the street from the Aberdeen Police Station, said she attended the meeting because of outreach by representatives from social service organization Destination Hope and Recovery.

“I didn’t want to be the person that didn’t tell my story,” Bollhoefer said.

Since she returned to Grays Harbor from California about five months ago, Bollhoefer has been on a waitlist for housing through the Coastal Community Action Program and government-subsidized housing through the Grays Harbor Housing Authority; her income is only $200 dollars a month in welfare.

The other two unhoused attendees also said lack of affordable housing options in Grays Harbor County was a barrier for securing a long-term place to stay.

One woman identified herself as a single mother currently living in a shelter space, and said she wanted to see more options for single parents facing homelessness, adding that finding a lease is difficult for people without a credit score. Another man, who said his name was Josh, said he is currently living in a motel in Hoquiam after being evicted from an apartment and unable to find other suitable rentals.

“It’s hard to find a place,” he said. “There needs to be housing, there needs to be something. There’s nothing out there, nothing in our price range.”

Clemens said the city recently conferred with local housing agencies about taking an inventory of available units in the area.

“We’re not in the business of housing,” Clemens said. “But we brought all the housing folks to the table to engage in that conversation to talk about how we need to move forward.”

Clemens said providing social services to the homeless community “isn’t our forte,” and that addressing homelessness goes beyond what the city can do alone.

Part of the city’s current focus is on a “short term” strategy to address homelessness. Clemens and the city have worked closely with Laina Caldwell, a behavioral health navigator for all three central Harbor police departments and a member of the homeless response committee, to initiate that strategy.

Caldwell was part of the outreach effort to recruit the homeless community to city hall for the meeting, but said she hoped more unhoused people would’ve shown up to voice their opinions.

The city also had a low turnout on its survey developed for the unhoused population, which gathered only 10 responses. Surveys intended for the community at large have seen hundreds of responses, many of which have identified trash and messiness as a major issue related to homeless camps, especially for business owners.

That prompted Caldwell, along with Destination Hope and Recovery, to start the “good neighbor project” — encouraging unhoused people, through weekly cleanups, to take care of their own neighborhoods. Caldwell said she hopes to use grant funding to pay for cleaning supplies to be used at weekly sessions, and any citizens are welcome to attend as well.

“Using a garbage can is a very tiny way of showing ‘I care about my community,’” Caldwell said at the meeting.

Caldwell hopes the good neighbor project will improve relationships between businesses, as well as the broader public, and homeless camps.

It could also result in less cleanup expense for the city, Caldwell said.

Clemens said the city is currently spending $16,000 to $20,000 per month on homeless camp cleanups once per week. The city also cleans alleys once per week and is considering ramping up street cleaning efforts to control trash, Clemens said.

Clemens at the meeting also acknowledged the efforts of two council members — Kacey Morrison and Joshua Francey — to clean up trash around town. Morrison is also a member of the homeless response committee.

The committee engaged Wards 1 and 2 in another discussion Tuesday evening. The city has invited Wards 3 and 4 to another discussion on Tuesday, May 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Rotary Log Pavilion.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.