The Aberdeen Homelessness Response Committee is working on a proposal to help curb the waste issue that food and clothing donations are creating near the homeless encampment underneath the north side of the Chehalis River Bridge.

While the issues span throughout downtown, beyond the encampment near River Street, the proposed ordinance is for the area near East State and River streets — the main encampment in town.

“Volunteers, city workers, etc., have been encountering large amounts of food and garbage waste where most of our unsheltered population is staying,” a city of Aberdeen request for council action states. “This is resulting in a lot of rotten food that is going to waste and is being thrown away by our city crews and our volunteers. More often staff is not only throwing out food, but large amounts of clothing as well. Couches, chairs, mattresses, etc., are being left down at the camps and causing some serious disposal issues.”

While some of the garbage — general trash to food — is from the homeless residents who live underneath the Chehalis River Bridge, some of it is not their fault.

Jill, a woman who resides on three lots underneath the bridge with her six-month-old bull mastiff puppy Scrawny Dew, said sometimes they get food donations. Once every couple weeks they’ll get bread in a grocery store box. And then occasionally they’ll receive donations from nearby churches. But a lot of what they receive, from other people, doesn’t help.

“They come through with garbage,” Jill said.

Jill pointed to a specific, recent occurrence when someone came with a vehicle full of donations from a deceased relative. The donations, Jill’s tone a sarcastic one toward that act, were a bunch of VHS tapes.

“None of us needed it,” Jill said. “It’s all garbage. Does it look like we have a VHS player?”

Another donation, Jill said with a pointed tone, was “expired chicken wings.” And worse, one person drove by and dropped off a bull mastiff puppy and three brothers in the litter. Jill said the person paid her $20 to take the dogs. That said, she loves Scrawny Dew, one of the dogs who was dropped off as part of that litter.

While Jill was clearly frustrated and irritated by what she calls “dumping,” she was cordial and just wanted her story told. One of the highlights to her story since she’s been at the camp was she and her “old man,” who she’s been with for seven years, will prepare food for her neighbors at the encampment.

While Jill did say city staff and volunteers come by and help clean up the area, she wants them to realize people live in the tents — even the tents that end up blocking the streets that are on the edge of the encampment.

According to the council request, city staff and the Homelessness Response Committee (HRC) “feels” putting restrictions on the days, times and locations for charitable donations that the proposed ordinance will help with the “general cleanliness” in the area. The ordinance recommendation states such an ordinance would create new charitable donation requirements.

According to Lisa Scott, Aberdeen’s community development director, the city is “still in discussion” regarding the ordinance. Scott said the next HRC meeting is July 11, at 5 p.m., on the third floor of city hall. And even if HRC pushes the ordinance forward, it would still need to be discussed in Aberdeen City Council.

The ordinance, if it becomes one, would require a permit for non-governmental help there.

The person(s) would need to obtain a group feeding permit issued by the director of community development, the draft ordinance states. The director would issue a group feeding permit based upon the following:

The application must be submitted at least two business days prior to the planned group feeding event

The application must contain the following information — the name of the individual(s) or organizations serving or distributing food; date(s) when food is “anticipated” to be served or distributed; times of day when food service and distribution is anticipated to be served or distributed on each date listed in the notice; identification of the location of where the food will be distributed, and approximate or expected number of food preparers and servers on the site where the food would be served or distributed and the approximate or expected number of individuals who would be served

The permit holder would need to remove, or cause the removal of all trash or debris they generated.

The city would also designate the area where the group feedings will be permitted.

Violations of the permit criteria would result in a civil code enforcement fine of $250 for a first occurrence and a fine of $500 for each subsequent occurrence. Repeat violations in a calendar year may also ban a group from receiving feeding permits for up to a year.

Community Development Code Enforcement staff would enforce the ordinance, according to Aberdeen City Councilor Liz Ellis, who is an HRC member.

Ruth Clemens, Aberdeen’s city administrator, said trash was the top concern brought up in the 800 responses HRC received in its homelessness survey.

“And so this is our way of trying to find ways to show the community that we are listening to them, that they didn’t take the survey in vain especially even as they attended all the meetings that we hosted,” Clemens said, adding there will be other meetings that will include social services and other organizations.

Ellis offered her personal opinion on the matter.

“The amount of garbage, especially downtown was a frequently expressed concern in the responses to a survey on homelessness recently conducted by city staff,” Ellis said.

Ellis said how each month city staff spends “significant time” picking up and disposing of trash.

“Council has been getting monthly updates on the overall costs incurred that are associated with homelessness,” Ellis said. “The costs are being absorbed by departments and represents expenditures and resources that could otherwise be redirected to improving other services. For example, the first quarter of this year, $63,166 was spent on homelessness response, including $4,929 spent on disposal fees.”

Rick Sangder, Aberdeen’s director of public works, described some of the work his department has had to do in order to keep areas around the various homeless encampments clear. It’s an ongoing problem.

“It started at the camp in the city hall parking lot and has followed the campers wherever they have congregated in bigger groups,” Sangder said.

Sangder explained the role public works’ staff plays in cleaning up the various encampments.

“We typically do a cleanup a couple times a week and a large portion of the garbage that is picked up is items and food that have been dropped off,” Sangder said. “Unfortunately, the dropped off items that they don’t want end up on the ground or thrown under the railroad tracks and not in the dumpster that we have provided.”

When the people down there see the items as garbage — such as a broken TV stand that Jill showed — is it really helping? She said the people who leave their donations often use the provided dumpster, which isn’t far from Jill’s home.

Sangder said he thinks this issue is “a lot of the items are not wanted by the homeless population” and so those items end up as garbage. Sangder explained the bigger issues outside of public works staff picking up the rotting garbage.

“Our biggest issues tend to be the effort to keep the tents, structures and possessions out of the street and behind the barriers,” Sangder said. “For the most part, the public works staff interact with the homeless population without conflict, but there have been multiple instances where they have been threatened.”

To help combat the problems at the encampments, the Aberdeen City Council approved the hiring of a full-time employee who is dedicated to the downtown cleanup and, according to Sangder, “this has helped immensely.”

Sangder said public works staffers have “answered the call each and every time, even though these duties are outside their normal job descriptions. … The effort is led by the Sewer Department supervisor, Bryon Montoure, who has done an exceptional job in a very difficult situation.”

Sangder said he doesn’t believe the intent of the proposed ordinance is to restrict people’s ability to donate, but “rather create a process that actually creates criteria that will put those donated items in front of people that will utilize them.”

As for the specific encampment near River Street, Ellis said “individuals” use the area as an “illegal dump site.”

“And even well intentioned individuals are dropping off raw food, which often goes to waste,” Ellis said. “In addition, service and faith organizations visit homeless sites to distribute food and goods that are often thrown out. Although many of the organized groups take responsibility for picking up garbage associated with feeding groups of people, others do not.”

Ellis said she thinks the intent of the proposed ordinance is to “encourage” donations to go through an existing organization that has a better understanding of needs.

“With the proposed ordinance, they would get a no-fee permit from the city before holding an event on city property or in the public right-of-way,” Ellis said.

Ellis said the proposed ordinance came about with consultation with the city’s HRC, as well as research of other existing ordinances throughout the country. Ellis said HRC is still considering the ordinance. She also said staff is asking for “additional tools to be able to reduce the amount of garbage.”

Ellis said it’s “too soon to speculate” whether the proposed ordinance will pass or not.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.