‘We’re going in the right direction’: Vancouver officials hear report on addressing homelessness in year since emergency declared

In the year since Vancouver declared homelessness a civil emergency, the city has closed areas to camping and opened new shelters, but many people remain on the streets.

“It’s not exactly where we want to be, but we’re going in the right direction,” Jamie Spinelli, Vancouver’s homeless response manager, told the city council Monday night.

City officials declared the emergency on Nov. 10, 2023, in response not only to the growing number of homeless people but the number of deaths among them. The declaration allows the city to access emergency reserve funds, forgo some processes for accessing resources, and designate up to 48 acres of public property and rights of way closed to camping.

What’s been done

Over the past year, the city expanded its Homeless Assistance and Resources Team, cleaned up about 40 more tons of trash from camps than last year and worked with organizations to provide culturally tailored outreach (especially to the Chuukese community).

The city closed several areas to camping, including behind Vancouver City Hall, near Motel 6 on Northeast Chkalov Drive, a hill leading up to the bridge on West 16th Street west of Lincoln Avenue, a field south of Vancouver Community Library and property near Northeast 112th Avenue south of Northeast Burton Road.

The city also ramped up its use of citations to bring people into Community Court, where people can clear homelessness-related tickets from their records by engaging with services.

Two additional Safe Stay homeless shelters opened. The city now offers four such shelters, each comprising 20 huts surrounded by a fence. Out of 430 people who have lived in the city’s Safe Stay shelters, 125 people have since received housing, Spinelli said. Ten people who lived in the Safe Stays are now employees at the shelters.

Councilor Ty Stober questioned why more than two-thirds of people aren’t moving into housing. Spinelli said there often is no affordable or supportive housing to which they can move. It’s especially difficult to find suitable housing for the growing number of homeless older adults who need help with daily activities of living, Spinelli said.

Safe Stay shelters don’t impose a limit on how long residents can live there, but they must be working toward a goal, such as obtaining an ID or achieving sobriety, Spinelli said.

Slowing the numbers

The number of people homeless in Clark County has slowed, or even dipped, according to some reports.

The 2023 Point-in-Time Count, which tallies the number of people homeless on a single day, found a 5 percent increase compared with the previous year, a 6 percent reduction in chronic homelessness and a 36 percent decrease in chronic unsheltered homelessness (people living outside or in vehicles for long periods of time).

These numbers suggest the city’s efforts are working, Spinelli said.

“We just need more of it,” she said.

One of the defining reasons for declaring the emergency was the startling number of people who died while homeless in 2023 — 45 people. So far this year, 54 people experiencing homelessness have died. Half of those deaths, like last year, were from overdoses.

None of the four deaths that occurred at homeless shelters was due to overdose, Spinelli said.

Future goals

Next steps to address the emergency include opening some city buildings for warming shelters starting Saturday, closing the homeless camp along the West Mill Plain Boulevard sound wall and opening a 150-bed homeless shelter (which officials refer to as a bridge shelter) in the Van Mall neighborhood.

City staff are working with the Vancouver Housing Authority, which operates affordable apartments, to find open units for people ready to move from Safe Stay shelters. Then, as spots open in the Safe Stays, the city hopes to move people from the Mill Plain camp into them.

Neighbors of the camp, which has about 75 tents, have been complaining to the Vancouver City Council for months about distressing behavior there, including drug use.

Spinelli said the city hopes to close the Mill Plain sound wall to camping by February but has no set date for a closure.

City officials had hoped to open the 150-bed bridge shelter this month, but it won’t be ready until spring. So the city plans to open temporary overnight warming shelters in city buildings until March. Overnight shelters will open Saturday in two city-owned properties, 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd. and 521 S.E. Chkalov Drive.

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