Homelessness in downtown

Are the men and women living on the streets of downtown Shelton natives of Mason County or transients bused in from Thurston County to take advantage of homeless services? And do those services "enable" homeless people, or help them move on to more stable lives and housing?

Downtown business owners, service providers and others shared their thoughts during the public comment period Aug. 16 at the Shelton City Council meeting. The comments came two weeks after the council voted 6-1 to approve code amendment changes that allow community organizations to host temporary homeless encampments of up to 30 people, with a long list of rules and requirements.

Nine people stepped up to the microphone, or spoke remotely, at the meeting. All of them focused on homelessness in downtown Shelton.

Shelton resident Tommy Stearns implied council members somehow received money for their vote.

"My problem with you, besides Jim Boad, man of the people, are one, two, three, four, five, six of you cowards voted for the homeless encampments in this city," he said. "In what form? Compassion? Is that what it was? Was it a kickback to the city? Who knows? We'll dig, we'll find out.

"But compassion? Wrong. It's enabling, and enabling is not helping these people. We do not have a homeless problem in Mason County, we have a transient problem, and the more you vote these pathetic, enabling actions, the more we're going to get transients into this community, the more it's going to affect our children, our businesses, our way of life. We're a small community, we are tightknit, and we refuse to accept your cowardly garbage. We're going to primary every single one of you when you're up for election. Be ready. We're coming for you."

Tyler "Mad Dog" Elliott, the owner of Railroad Community Vintage & Thrift on West Railroad Avenue, said "there are a lot of people here that are in serious need of help and it's our duty to help them."

Nevertheless, "I have a business a block and a half from Community Lifeline," he said. "And it is hell to pay dealing with the overflow that comes from that place directly into my door every single day. And council doesn't have to deal with it. That's fine. You get to deal with it from afar. But I'm boots on the ground every single day. I can't count how many times I've dealt with picking up meth pipes and the needles up and down the front and back side of Railroad Avenue. It's just beyond."

Elliott suggested services for the homeless be reduced, and said he believes most of the people on the street are from outside Mason County.

"Some people are bothering everybody, myself particularly," he said. "And I've had it up to well over my hat. And I'd like something to be done. I would like the number of beds at Community Lifeline cut in half."

Colleen Carmichael is the executive director of Quixote Communities. The nonprofit is creating a village of tiny houses for homeless veterans near Olympic College Shelton, and has similar facilities in Olympia and Orting.

The number of homeless people downtown is "directly tied to the lack of housing, low-income wages and poverty and those of us who are providing services in Shelton do know that if you provide services, it actually reduces the number of homeless people that you have," she told the council. "People don't like to hear that."

Carmichael also disputed the claim that the homeless on the street are not locals.

"Other cities do not ship and bus people to other towns," she said. "I know people like to think that that's the case, but everybody is struggling with this issue. It's not just us. So, it wouldn't make any sense to say that our city has better services than another. We're all lacking the funding and the staffing, but as Athena (Ayres) said, we are trying our best to make sure we can do what we can to get people off the streets."

Community partners are working together to help homeless people get transitional and permanent housing and health services, Carmichael said.

"We're happy to talk to you about what we're doing and how you can help support us," she said.

Ayres is the executive director of the Community Lifeline shelter. She pointed out the shelter has provided about 1,200 meals to the community in the previous two weeks.

"I can tell you that in just two weeks, we've been able to get three people into treatment and two people into alternate housing," she said. "I know those numbers aren't astronomical, but in a two-week period of time and with limited resources, they do matter and certainly for the people that we're helping, it certainly matters."

Ayres said her nonprofit has a "wonderful" relationship with the Shelton Police Department, the Mason County Sheriff's Office, Mason County Public Health, Mason General and Northwest Resources.

"I just want to recognize that it is a complicated issue and it's easy for people to believe that things aren't happening as quickly as they need to, but when a situation has so many different components to it, and so many legal constraints to what we can and cannot do, we really have to walk a fine line of what moves we're allowed to make, and what we have to really be careful about," Ayres said.

Shelton resident Curtis Fosdick had a question for the council members and City Manager Jeff Niten.

"Which one of you is willing to give up your private property and allow encampments on your private property?" he asked. "Any one of you going to do that, please make that known because if you're allowing to, or if you're able to push this into our community, you should be willing to put it on your property as well."

Rebecca Bechtolt, a lifelong Mason County resident, said she sees a big increase in the number of homeless on Shelton streets.

"We all see it," she said. "We can try to look the other way, but it's there. It's happening every day. Crazy things in our parks. We can't take our kids to the park really very often because there's wild things happening there that we don't want kids to see."

Bechtolt said she understands that the council's "hands are tied" on some matters dealing with homelessness.

"But why are we voting for more services in these camps which are things that attract these people from out of town and when our hands are tied and we already can't stop what's happening currently?" she asked. "Why do we want to bring more? Because these are the things that are attracting the people to come here from Olympia because we already have better services."

Dean and Jackie Jewett own Radio Fryer in downtown Shelton. At the Aug. 16 meeting, they both spoke about the challenges some homeless people give their business.

Dean is a member of a new city task force on homelessness. At the most recent meeting, it was mentioned the city is considering hiring a homeless outreach person.

Dean said he wants to ensure the person in that position serves the entire community, "not just a small portion of the homeless or street people. They also have to serve your constituents and the businesspeople."

Dean added, "It seems to me that you know we do a lot of talking and I understand it takes a while to get things happening. But if we would have been having these conversations three years ago, we would not be where we are right now."

Jackie encouraged the city to get the word out about a community forum planned for October. More people would get involved if they know how, she said.

"What can we do as community members to make this better so we can all work together?" she asked.

Jamie Ellertson with Mason County Public Health was the final speaker.

"Prior to getting this job, I definitely would have had the same outlook as everybody who is talking," she said. "I understand some of the homeless population, less than five individuals, are troublesome ... I challenge you guys to come with me for a couple of hours. And the reason why I say that is because a lot of these people that I'm working with, they're not just homeless. They're people that have been fleeing from sexual assault. They're fleeing from a lot of different things. And a lot of these people are Mason County residents. And I always say, would you guys, if there was a child standing in front of you right now, saying that they were sexually assaulted, that they were abused, they were starved, they ate out of a market tent, they did all those things, if one of my children was standing up there saying that right now, would there be the same outlook? Probably not. But a lot of these children grow up into adults that have the same behaviors.

"And I'm not justifying it. Believe me, if I am the first, if I see somebody out there using drugs, I'm like, 'What are you doing? Get it together.' I'm the one that's out there with a garbage bag telling these people, 'Clean it up. They're making us look bad.' "

Ellertson added, "Sometimes just walking up to somebody and saying, 'Hey, you look really terrible. You want to go somewhere? Do you want to go to treatment?' Most of them say yes ... Also, step out and get to know the people. Otherwise, you're judging with a blind eye."