Downtown owners frustrated

Some downtown Shelton business owners say street people are urinating and defecating outside their shops, leaving trash, stealing and sleeping in their doorways.

Businesses in a two-block radius of Post Office Park are seeing the most negative aspects. But most of the business owners say it's only a few individuals causing the trouble, with an average of three to five homeless people causing them problems during a month.

Those are some of the takeaways from a survey Mason County Public Health conducted of 15 downtown businesses in January and February, and then created a survey through surveymoney.com in March to increase the sample size to 19.

Haley Foelsch, a community health specialist with Mason Public Health, presented the survey findings May 17 at the Shelton City Council meeting.

Foelsch said the survey was prompted by a newspaper article that quoted Mayor Eric Onisko saying housing and homelessness is one of Mason County's biggest concerns. The survey also gave the county the opportunity to work with the Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Council of Mason County, she said.

"What this tells us is we're not having a negative experience with the whole homeless population, but there was that three to five (people) that services should be focused on," she said.

Of the respondents, 31% mentioned urination and defecation outside their businesses, the same number that has concerns about trash. Twenty-two percent said theft is an issue, and 22% say they find people sleeping in front of their businesses.

Asked to name their concerns with these experiences, 32% said safety, 22% said trash, 18% said urination and defecation in public, and 22% mentioned mental health and substance use disorders.

Suggestions by business owners to improve and help decrease homelessness in Mason County include the proper care for mental health and substance use disorders, permanent supportive housing, supportive services, participating in the cleanups, teaching life skills, more bathrooms, increased police presence, working for food and shelter, tiny homes, mindset changes in the community, long-term incarceration and a bigger jail, managed care, and "making it uncomfortable to be homeless."

Council member Kathy McDowell suggested establishing a resident and business advisory board "that can put a finger on some of these things" and come up with solutions.

After the survey presentation, four people stepped to the microphone during public comments. All four painted a bleak picture downtown.

Dean and Jackie Jewett own the Radio Fryer Foods food truck at the corner of West Railroad Avenue and Front Street, and both spoke.

"There has to be action that's taken," Dean Jewett said. "Business owners sitting in this room, along with my wife and myself, are getting fairly fed up with what is going on downtown."

Post Office Park is not a park at all, but owned by the post office, Dean Jewett said. Shelton Police need to have "positive and pro-active enforcement of those people" by removing them from trespassing, he said.

"There's a lot of people who think I have zero compassion, so that's not the case, I will help anybody up – I will never help out," he said. "I'm tired of enabling, but if you actually want some assistance and some help and some push in that right direction, I'll get behind you all day long ... I'm begging the people in front of me to make these hard decisions that need to be made. We're getting an influx of people we've never seen before."

Dean Jewett said he doesn't like to use the word "homeless."

"It's not the homeless that are causing these problems," he said. "The majority of the people that are causing the problems that we have are the drug addicts, thieves, the mentally impaired - how did they get there?"

Jackie Jewett said the city needs to do something with the data. She said she agrees with McDowell's proposal for a citizen and business advisory committee.

"Our cameras go off all night long," she said of the couple's business. "We look at the footage, there's people in our garbage, defecation, urination, all this stuff happens there. It's frustrating because we want our customers to be safe, and our kids growing up in Shelton to know they are safe, because that's what's best for kids."

As for drawing tourists to Shelton, "We get a lot of people coming to our truck from different cities," Jackie said. "They come through, but do they come back and stay? What do they see?"

Rebecca Bechtolt, a lifelong Shelton resident, said "There is a problem, and it's trickling out of the city." Some of the people causing problems might be from Kitsap and Thurston counties, and the city should help "move them along," Bechtolt said.

As a child, "I used to be able to run around downtown and feel safe and fine," she said. "You'd go to the movies at 12 years old, my mom would come pick me up. I would never let my kids do that, never, with the transit center next door."

Curtis Fosdick said some people on the street will not follow the city's guidelines and rules on camping on public or private property. He said he is tired of seeing discarded hypodermic needles, including in the company of his children.

"We are protecting and enabling people who are destroying our community, and it needs to stop," he said.