Annual homeless count shows 39 percent jump

The Point in Time survey also counts people staying in emergency or transitional shelters, which is down this year from last year. People who are doubled-up with friends or family or living in motels or hotels are not counted, though school districts track those populations.

Overall, 795 people were counted on Jan. 25, a six percent increase from last year.

The Point in Time is generally considered an undercount of the actual number of homeless people given the difficulty of finding and counting everyone in a single day. But it creates a baseline and allows trends to be tracked over time.

Council for the Homeless’ Housing Solutions Center, which fields calls from people facing homelessness, hears stories of people falling behind on rent and wages not keeping up with rising costs despite holding multiple jobs. Those who have fallen into homelessness and live paycheck-to-paycheck can’t afford move-in costs.

Assistance programs

Budd believes investments in stabilizing homeless families through Vancouver Housing, school districts’ family community resource centers and Council for the Homeless’ Housing Relief Fund have paid off: Families did not see an increase in homelessness this year.

Last month, Council for the Homeless received a three-year grant of $679,615 from the Washington Youth and Family Fund, specifically aimed at helping families with at least one adult member identifying as either a person of color or as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. These populations are disproportionately affected by homelessness.

While local housing programs have an 86 percent success rate, 10 percent of those who tried to access a program last year actually got in. More solutions could be on the horizon.

Housing advocates considered this latest legislative session a “game changer” with $107 million invested in the Housing Trust Fund, which allocates money to affordable housing builders, and several bills adopted that could alleviate homelessness.

One major change is the increase in document recording fees, a major source of funds for homeless services. Starting July 1, HB 1570 tacks on an additional $22 to the fee, which should amount to about a 60 percent increase in what’s collected by the county. Budd said the proceeds should be allocated through contracts the following July.

HB 2578 prevents landlords from discriminating against tenants based on their source of income and increases document recording fees by another $3. Half goes to the county for homeless services and half goes to state to fund a landlord mitigation fund. Clark County spends about $5.3 million annually on homeless services. Of that, roughly $3 million comes from document recording fees, but it fluctuates depending on the number of people who purchase homes.

Council for the Homeless is in the midst of revising the county’s Homeless Action Plan that will steer future investments in the homeless crisis response system. As part of that process, they’ve been holding public forums to gather community input.

“Homelessness is a hot topic right now, which is great because people are interested and people are sharing ideas,” Budd said.