County braces for surge of homeless families this winter

Homeless numbers rose even before temperatures dropped

By Marcy Stamper
    Winter is always the hardest time of year for homeless people, but this year, agencies that help people without stable housing started to see a huge increase in applications during the summer.
    “We have 110 new families on a waiting list since June,” said Claudia Clausnitzer, executive director of the Housing Authority of Okanogan County. “We are seeing a big increase, particularly in the central part of the county,” she said.
    At the beginning of the summer, the Housing Authority had 10 to 12 families on the waiting list for rental assistance, which is typical. That list has recently grown by almost one family a day, with 12 added in the last two     weeks of October alone, said Clausnitzer.
    Fifty-nine of the 110 families are in a motel or camping, while the rest are doubled up with family or friends, some “couch-surfing” until they have to move on.
    “We have a lot of disabled people sleeping in cars and tents,” said Clausnitzer. “The numbers just escalated this summer,” she said. “I’m scared for winter.”
    While there has been a lot of recent news about people losing their homes to foreclosures, very few of these people are in that situation, said Clausnitzer. “I really think it has to do with the increase in rents here,” along with requirements for first and last month’s rent and a security deposit, she said. “It’d cost you $2,300 to open the front door.”
    Currently the Housing Authority list includes only two or three people from the Methow, fewer than in the past, said Clausnitzer. She said some Methow residents had received vouchers and have been placed in housing and some are probably living with friends.
    “Homelessness is a big issue here, and people don’t necessarily see it,” said Angie Dahlstrom, community outreach coordinator at Room One in Twisp. “A lot of homeless folks don’t want to say it – they’re sleeping on a friend’s couch, living out of vehicles. There are even more critical situations, related to domestic violence, when people are suddenly homeless because they’re fleeing an unsafe situation,” she added.
    Many of the county’s homeless are employed but working at seasonal or minimum-wage jobs, said Lael Duncan, executive director of Okanogan County Community Action Council, which helps people primarily with transitional housing. Others have lost an income because of the death of a spouse or a divorce.
    Housing assistance in the county is provided in several different ways. The Housing Authority has $250,000 a year for tenant-based rental assistance, supported by a grant from the state, which allows them to help 46 families each month, said Clausnitzer.
    They also have funds for 240 housing vouchers through the federal Section 8 program, but there are now 511 people on that waiting list (including the 110 recent applicants), said Clausnitzer.
    Community Action also helps people with short-term emergency housing in area motels and, in the winter months, there is shelter using migrant workers’ housing in Oroville.
    Other assistance, provided through the federal U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development and Assistance program, is connected to housing units rather than people, said Clausnitzer. That program supports subsidized apartments in four apartment complexes in Twisp and Winthrop.
    The Housing Authority had been working on plans to build affordable housing in Twisp, but the deal fell through in August because they were unable to get the funding assurance required by the seller. They are now applying for a state grant to build 16 to 18 units to house families with children in Omak, where the need is greatest, said Clausnitzer. Seventy-five percent of the 110 people on their waiting list are in the Omak/Okanogan area, she said.
    That project would also provide support services to residents to help them with financial management and job-hunting, she said – “something to get them on their feet.” While that number of apartments will not fill the need, over the past year financing has not been available for anything larger, said Clausnitzer. Placements would be based on need and would be first-come, first-served, she said.
    Okanogan Behavioral Health Care has applied for a grant to build supported housing for their clients adjacent to its Okanogan headquarters, which was picked as the top project to receive a grant from the state’s Housing Trust Fund, administered by Community, Trade and Economic Development. The facility would provide eight apartments for permanent housing and 16 emergency beds, and would be linked to services for single people with mental illness or a history of drug or alcohol abuse, according to Clausnitzer.
    Finding housing for homeless people in the Methow Valley is particularly challenging, because the Department of Housing and Urban Development sets limits on rents in the voucher program, said Clausnitzer. For example, the maximum rent on a one-bedroom unit, including utilities, is $577 and, for two bedrooms, $679.
Only people who meet the HUD guidelines are eligible for the housing assistance. This year those guidelines, based on 50 percent of the Okanogan County median income, ranged from $18,400 for one person through $26,300 for a family of four, according to Clausnitzer.