Shelter Across Okanogan County
As the days get shorter, the leaves start changing colors and the overnight temperatures drop, thoughts turn to our community members that are considered homeless. Did you know that Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) describes being homeless as a “an individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and an individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations…”.
During Okanogan County’s annual Point-In-Time Count (PIT) in January 2023, OCCAC staff, community partners and volunteers collected over 600 forms for people in our community that consider themselves homeless. Due to HUD’s broad categories of that definition, only 290 were accepted. What that means is that on January 26, 2023, almost 300 community members of Okanogan County slept in a place that is not meant for habitation (usually a car, abandoned building, or park bench) or were in an emergency shelter. Three hundred too many!
OCCAC currently utilizes local motels for shelter, but that isn’t stable. Housing stability is real issue in our very rural area that needs, at minimum, 2000 units of affordable housing. The annual PIT Count doesn’t take into consideration people who are couch-surfing, temporarily staying with friends and/or family, multi-generational families living in small 1–2-bedroom homes, or people living deep in the rural areas in encampments. Okanogan County is in a housing crisis, like every other county in the state, and OCCAC is doing what we can.
We utilize motel rooms when we can, but there aren’t enough. We utilize the emergency overnight shelter, but it isn’t big enough for everyone. We give out tents, sleeping bags, hygiene supplies, blankets, but who wants to sleep in a tent in freezing weather? What we need is affordable housing, living wage jobs and stability for homeless community members. Because that is what we are, a community. If you would like to help, please reach out to OCCAC and volunteer for the annual PIT in time count, donate to OCCAC, or better yet, talk to your neighbors, county, state officials and tell them we want affordable housing to be a priority in Okanogan County.
2 Comments
Tracie Murray · October 19, 2023 at 3:23 pm
It would be nice if property owners didn’t violate people’s rights by illegally removing them from the paid rental units and then claim trespassing charges against the tenants they’ve illegally evicted.. stop sending people to the building in Oroville, WA (known as the Alaska/Alaskan/Grant Thelin property).. he’s running an illegal resource scam and getting the government funding to treat the tenants as non human and consistently violating basic human rights, housing code violations, building code violations and so much more. I’ve contacted an attorney and am at risk of losing my housing voucher. I’m also considering taking my situation to the media.
Wayne · October 19, 2023 at 6:30 pm
I just sent the following message to Governor Inslee and included this webpage as a link.
Governor Inslee,
I see no evidence that you are doing anything to help lessen the terrible housing crisis in the State but are only making it worse! Some ways you and others also are making housing worse are the following:
* Increasing building costs as a result of environmental related regulations.
* Increasing very high fuel costs which drive up the cost of EVERYTHING!
* COVID-19 proclamations that caused landlords to sell rentals as a result the eviction moratorium which caused an undue hardship on landlords and being prohibited from assessing, or threatening to assess, late fees for the non-
payment or late payment of rent or other charges related to a dwelling where such non-payment or late payment occurred due to COVID-19 on or after February 29, 2020 through September 30, 2021. Also, there was the resulting legal system backup to help provide a way to legally evict tenants. Selling rentals lessening the number of rentals available. See a link titled, “Shelter Across Okanogan County” for proof of a housing crisis at: https://occac.com/shelter-across-okanogan-county/
* Welcoming many that come to the State illegally, providing housing and putting illegal immigrants on seemingly the same footing or importance as citizens or maybe more so.
I was homeless for over one year recently so I know what it is like thanks to the greatly underfunded low income legal system you provide your citizens.
Recently, the Washington State Department of Commerce awarded $15.4 million in grants to expand legal aid to low-income immigrants while your OWN disadvantaged and low income citizens lack help from the Northwest Justice Project because of a lack of funds. As a result, justice is denied to your own citizens while those that are immigrants are provided assistance.
I request that you stop ignoring the very important housing issues and instead of doing things that make it worse, make it better. I am greatly concerned about the lack of housing in Okanogan County and I wish you were too.
I request a response.
Sincerely,
Wayne Carpenter