A survey of people downtown conducted by the City of Olympia this past summer found that 15 percent were homeless and 44 percent, or 81, of those people weren’t using social services.
A four-person team canvassed downtown in July and August and interviewed 1,231 people. The goal: finding out who was coming downtown and why – what their ages are, whether they’re homeless and what social services they’re using. It’s part of a nine-month project to improve downtown.
“Why these 81 people are not accessing services and, arguably, using the downtown core as a de facto (drop-in center is a) key question,” the recently released preliminary report says.
It’s a question that isn’t fully answered. The report notes that 11 of those people are younger than 20, a difficult age to house because there are only 10 youth beds in the county. Youths aren’t admitted into adult shelters for safety reasons. The finding that 81 homeless people weren’t using services was “a very valuable part of this survey,” said Anna Schlecht, the city’s housing manager who oversaw the survey. She said the finding will be used to better target people in the county’s annual homelessness census, set for next month.
“We really need to know who they are, why they’re there and what they’re doing,” said Ruthie Snyder, the city’s downtown liaison who suggested the survey.
The city spent about $4,000 to do the survey and contracted with the state Department of Commerce to crunch the numbers. Schlecht said the analysis should cost no more than $2,000.
The survey found 177 people who are homeless or at immediate risk of being homeless. Sixty-one people were living on the streets of downtown. Thirty-nine camping, presumably in the woods, 37 were staying in a vehicle, 24 were staying with friends, 16 were spending the night in an emergency shelter, and seven were living in a hotel or motel.
Fifteen percent of those surveyed who had a home used social services. In contrast, 56 percent of homeless people reported using social services.
“This underscores a current service model of ‘Housing First’ which prioritizes getting people stabilized with ‘housing first’ and social services second,” the report states.
Most people who gave their age said they were 30 or younger – 655.
“While persons under 20 experienced homelessness at a similar rate to persons between 21 and 61, they were much more likely to indicate that they were currently living on the streets without shelter,” the report says. “Among … the 30 homeless or at risk youth surveyed, 19 (63 percent) lived on the streets, compared to only 41 of 152 (30 percent) people in other age ranges.
Overwhelmingly, interviewees said they were from the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater area. Sixty-two percent said they were from Olympia, 15 percent said they were from either Lacey or Tumwater.
The report isn’t finished, Schlecht said. The initial report did not include information about behaviors downtown, one of the goals of the full report.
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869
mbatcheldor@theolympian.com.
