With Everett’s serious commitment to helping homeless people — most notably the approval of Mayor Ray Stephanson’s $1 million in new funding for the “Safe Streets” project — the city can begin with a return to the area that spurred much of this initiative in the first place — the homeless “encampment,” for lack of a better word, near the Everett Gospel Mission.
Last March, the city installed chain-link fences on both sides of Smith Avenue where it runs under I-5, upgraded the lighting in the underpass to make it less attractive to transients, and cleared away the people living there. It was a coordinated effort, part of the earlier Community Streets Initiative that has become the Safe Streets project. The Everett Gospel Mission requested help, because the crowded area was without sanitation and replete with drug use.
Over several weeks of outreach, Herald writer Chris Winters reported, police officers and workers from the Gospel Mission, Catholic Community Services, Cocoon House, Evergreen Manor, Compass Mental Health, Volunteers of America, WorkSource Snohomish County and Pioneer Human Services of Skagit County approached people in the area to see if they could connect them with some kind of services.
The idea is to help people, direct them to specific services, rather than arresting people. Some people took up the offer for help, others simply left. The area was cleared out and the fence was put up. Owing to the hugely difficult and ingrained nature of homelessness, the area was soon repopulated again — the only difference being that the chain link fence pushes them closer to the sidewalk and street, making it very dangerous for everyone when vehicles drive under the overpass.
Now the area seems even worse than before the fence. For months, business owners and neighbors have repeatedly reported increases in crime in the area. Recently, a man was arrested for allegedly attacking two people from a church group as they were handing out food near the Gospel Mission, The Herald’s Diana Hefley reported. While the church groups are well intentioned, Everett police say the hand-outs add to the area’s problem with trash, and attracting more homeless people to the area. Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman encourages people who want to help the homeless to donate to local groups providing services to the homeless, such as Catholic Community Services and Volunteers of America.
“We’ve also learned from our conversations with those on the streets that these direct donations can decrease their motivation to seek services and treatment,” Templeman said.
It’s frustrating to have to start over again, but that’s part and parcel of solving difficult problems.
Outreach and social workers are figuring out what works, and what doesn’t, as far getting people off the streets and into some kind shelter. A small percentage of people will always refuse help, but the large number of people found on all the streets, indicates that more and more people become homeless every day, often due to compounding problems like drug addiction or mental illness.
The future will hold more options, as the Safe Streets project includes money to build 20 units of low-barrier supportive housing over the next two years for the chronically homeless. Everett’s outreach workers will have no problem identifying top candidates for such housing. The fence was not a solution, but the outreach was, and remains so. Clean it up and start again.
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