Low-barrier homeless shelter in Aberdeen fails — again — to gain county commission support

Grays Harbor County Commissioner Vickie Raines made another impassioned plea with her fellow commissioners to use existing grant funds to establish a low-barrier homeless shelter in Aberdeen.

“To do nothing is unacceptable, it really is unacceptable to me,” she said at a workshop on Oct. 26. “If we can do a shelter where we set the rules and the guidelines that are acceptable, why can’t we do that?”

Last year, with $1.1 million in funding available for such a shelter, the county requested proposals to operate such a shelter, and received one from Chaplains on the Harbor. When it came up for consideration, then newly-elected commissioners Kevin Pine and Jill Warne, opposing low-barrier shelters, refused to bring it up for a vote.

The Emergency Solutions Grant that would fund such a shelter, described by Raines as a “more robust homeless shelter,” specifies low-barrier to qualify for the funding. That means there can’t be requirements that those using it participate in any kind of program, whether it’s mental health or addiction or any other available, or that participants be sober. There can, however, be rules, said Raines.

Warne in particular, when speaking of the homeless, has said people need a “hand up, not a handout,” and wants shelters to be tied to programs to get people off the street, out of the cycle of homelessness.

“I’ve heard comments about trying to give a hand up versus a handout, but I still believe that there are individuals that are vulnerable that can’t survive without a handout,” said Raines. “There’s so many mentally ill, even if you look to help individuals find a job or to clean themselves up to be able to seek employment, there will be some that cannot hold a job.”

Guidelines for a shelter can include no using of drugs or alcohol in the shelter, and also rules set where people exhibiting violent behavior can be removed.

“But I really think when you say you have to be able to do this, you have to be willing to accept treatment, that we’re actually cutting our nose off to spite our face, because there are people out there who can’t do that,” said Raines.

“There is a most definite, vulnerable population in our community that cannot hold a job, that cannot care for themselves, that wander the streets and sleep in doorways.”

Pine brought up, for the mentally ill, there should be facilities for that particular issue. Raines said there is one in McCleary that is set up for involuntary holds, but in order to be placed one must have committed a crime and meet the conditions for an involuntary 72-hour hold.

“So it’s the extremely mentally ill that are incapable of ever holding a job you’re talking about,” Warne said to Raines.

As for a low-barrier shelter for such individuals, Warne said, “I just don’t see this as anything more than a holding for them, because they need a lot more than what we would be able to offer in an emergency shelter anyway.”

There was discussion about the youth shelter, a six-bed facility that opened last year, the potential to use some of the county’s homeless funding to expand those services. Warne again brought up her idea about hygiene stations, places where the homeless can clean up, which she said will boost self-esteem and help them reenter the workforce on their way to self-sustainability. Grays Harbor County Public Health is drafting requests for proposals for both of those ideas.

Raines once again asked for consideration of a low-barrier shelter. Pine said his discussions with other cities have shown that housing first models are not effective anywhere on the West Coast, and the treatment model is more effective, meaning a treatment program needs to be part of any shelter model he would support.

“We’re on the same page, we want to help people, but I think we want to go a different route,” said Pine. “I think if we create a low-barrier shelter here in our community, in the long run, businesses are not for it, and the community is not for it.”

Grays Harbor County Public Health Healthy Places Division Manager said that deadline for use of the Emergency Solutions Grant’s $1.1 million is June 2022. Without a plan to use the majority of it, Raines asked the other commissioners if it was there intention to return that money.

“There are plenty of other cities that are perfect examples of how the low-barrier shelter is not working,” said Warne. “So I’m still not in favor of that. We need to have a better model that’s actually going to help with the problem, not continue the problem.”

Raines again asked, should that money just be returned, “So is that your wish, do we need to return those dollars, is that your decision, because there is no way we can spend that much money on showers and restrooms in the next several months. I’m just trying to help staff get some direction, because I know Cassie (Lentz, who is the Healthy Places Business Manager) has come to us on multiple occasions and if I were her I’d want to pull my hair out because she’s getting a lot of indecisiveness.”

Neither commissioner Warne nor Pine would come right out and say they wanted the funds returned, rather they wanted to see better proposals.

Frustration in Aberdeen

The Aberdeen City Council has twice written commissioners asking a low-barrier shelter be placed in Aberdeen to take the pressure off the city in dealing with its homeless situation. Council member Tawni Andrews brought it up during a long discussion about the city’s attempt to amend its ordinance regarding homeless camping in downtown on Oct. 27.

“Nobody will hold the county responsible,” she said. “The city does not have a housing department. The city does not receive money for the homeless. It’s the county. People need to push back on the county. The city spends and spends and spends, and we pleaded with the county and we’ve gotten nowhere.”

It’s a countywide problem and requires county assistance, said Andrews.

“Everybody says it’s an Aberdeen problem, but it’s not,” she said. “There’s homeless in Hoquiam, even though they don’t like to talk about it. They’re all over the county, but everybody focuses on the ones that are here, because they’re the ones most people see. I guess that’s where my frustration lies.”

Mayor Pete Schave has said for some time he is not in favor of a low-barrier shelter in downtown Aberdeen. He has suggested a facility like the juvenile detention center in Junction City, which doesn’t get a great deal of use, as a good location for one, and that he is willing to work with transit to provide transportation to and from services for a facility that is not located downtown.

DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Some homeless encampments can be pretty elaborate, like this one under the north end of the Chehalis River Bridge in Aberdeen.

DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Without an available shelter and bound by ordinance, the City of Aberdeen has little it can do about people sleeping on downtown sidewalks.