I appreciate Philip S. Parker’s Sept. 22 letter, “Homeless issue will not vanish.” He is on task in suggesting homeless housing near Share offices on Andresen Road. The homeless are terribly underserved in all parts of Clark County.
The concentration of homeless is centered in front of Vancouver’s City Hall. Esther Short Park has been a prime gathering and sleeping place for more than 20 years. There’s a large homeless camp on the north side of Mill Plain Boulevard between Esther Street and Kauffman Avenue. The city condones this homeless camp by not cutting down the brush along Mill Plain. It’s a perfect hiding place, with no garbage pick up or lavatories.
The largest concentration of homeless services is within a three-block radius around 12th Street and Lincoln Avenue, less than a mile from city hall: Share’s men’s shelter; Share’s respite center for men recovering from hospital stays; Share’s soup kitchen; Open House Ministries for families; the proposed Lincoln Place, housing for homeless who are mentally ill, and concurrently addicted to drugs and alcohol; and transitional housing at Esther Short Commons and Pinewood Terrace.
Share asks its occupants to be drug- and alcohol-free. Lincoln Place will not require residents to be drug-and alcohol-free.
