||| FROM HILARY CANTY |||
The National Point in Time Count, a survey of people who were unhoused or living in substandard housing on Thursday Jan 25th is taking place this week. OICF is supporting the collection of surveys in front of the Food Bank today.
In 2023, 148 people countywide were identified as having no stable place to live, with 51 people living out of doors, in vehicles, in abandoned buildings, or in an RV or boat that lacked one of the following: drinking water, a restroom, heat, the ability to cook food, or the ability to bathe. The 2024 surveys will be collated by the County and will provide data to inform governmental support as well as the programs the many nonprofits provide locally.
This week brings more change to OICF as Jeff Piestch is stepping down from the OICF Investment Committee, where he has served since joining the OICF Board in 2017. Under his thoughtful leadership, Jeff has helped grow the funds under management, conducted Investment Reviews, and authored the quarterly Investment Notes. His service has been a gift to the community and we wish him well in the next chapter.
I am also delighted to announce that Marshall Sebring has joined both the Investment Committee and the OICF Board. Marshall has an extensive professional background as an investment manager and will bring great skill to his new volunteer positions. He rounds out the Investment Committee which include OICF Board members Paul Sheridan,Chair, Lisa Steckley, Stephanie DeVaan, and community members Carl deBoor, Georgette Wong and Jon Finney. We are grateful for this team which guides OICF’s investment managers, and stewards the funds we hold for so many local organizations and donors.
If you would like any additional information about OICF’s investment program, please contact me at 360-376-6423 or via email, hilary@oicf.us.
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“In 2023, 148 people countywide were identified as having no stable place to live, with 51 people living out of doors, in vehicles, in abandoned buildings, or in an RV or boat that lacked one of the following: drinking water, a restroom, heat, the ability to cook food, or the ability to bathe.”
And the county has never had more millionaires, more realtors, or more tourists. It’s almost like these things are connected…
If my math is correct–
The average in the U.S. in 2023 (pop. 331,900,000 / homeless 663,104) = 1 in every 508 people were homeless.
The average in Wa. St. in 2023 (7,812,880 pop. / 28,036 homeless) = 1 in every 279 people were homeless.
The average in Seattle in 2023 (3,519,000 / 14,149) = 1 in every 249 people were homeless.
The average in the San Juans in 2023 (18,000 pop. / 148 homeless) = 1 in every 122 people were homeless.
The average on Orcas in 2022 (5400 pop. / 66 homeless) = 1 in every 82 people were homeless
“148 people countywide were identified as having no stable place to live, with 51 people living out of doors, in vehicles, in abandoned buildings, or in an RV or boat that lacked one of the following: drinking water, a restroom, heat, the ability to cook food, or the ability to bathe.”
So, living on your boat that lacks an onboard shower constitutes “living out of doors” ? Living in a beautiful yurt with a composting outhouse is “living out of doors” ? Living the “Van Life” in your $100k custom Sprinter is “living out of doors” ? Let’s be serious; these are clearly CHOICES.
I have a lot of empathy for people that suffer from mental and/or physical challenges not of their own making and I strongly suspect that the few people in SJC that are chronically sleeping rough (as they say in Britain), are not receiving adequate healthcare or drug rehabilitation assistance. There are a lot of systems and programs in place to help people IF they are willing to accept assistance. But for a variety of reasons, many are not willing to accept assistance.
Chronic homelessness is a symptom of mental health/drug addiction problems and should be looked at as a failure of healthcare services. At one point in the 1950s, more than 500,000 Americans were confined to state psychiatric institutions, many of them for life. Today, with the US population three times greater, the total number of state psychiatric beds in the U.S. sits around 37,000, with most beds on short-term, acute inpatient units in general medical hospitals.
The widespread closure of public psychiatric hospitals and mental asylums beginning in the 1960’s essentially threw people onto the street that were incapable of caring for themselves and those institutions were essentially all gone by the 1990’s. Terrible things happened in some of those institutions and there were undoubtedly people institutionalized against their wishes, which is horrific. BUT tossing all those people onto the street to fend for themselves hasn’t turned out any better, has it? The industrial for-profit prison system makes massive profits locking people up and a significant proportion of those incarcerated are not career criminals but fell afoul of the law because of mental illness and/or drug addiction. So we have simply traded asylums for prisons and the street.
I say again, chronic homelessness is fundamentally a mental health and drug addiction problem and should be addressed from that angle.
Right, it has nothing to do with people (including families) that are struggling in a world of low wages and rising prices on everything from groceries to their electric bills, or those getting kicked out of their long-term rentals due to it being turned into a short-term vacation rental, and are left searching for housing in an unaffordable, or unavailable rental housing market.
It’s only that they’re either homeless by choice, or they’re mentally or physically challenged, or they’re drug addicts that are unwilling to accept assistance.
I think we get where you’re coming from.
Ken Wood- the survey is voluntary and the folks who fill it out self identify as living is a substandard home or without shelter. Hank and I lived for 10 years in a cabin without running water. While we may have technically qualified, we would have never self identified. Similarly, I am sure there are plenty of neighbors who choose to live on a boat, off the grid, or in unique domiciles. Unless they volunteer that they are in substandard shelters, they will not be counted. The numbers cited are people who are truly living in situations none of us would consider adequate.
I agree that the lack of a national plan to address mental health services is a crisis impacting us all. However, the housing crisis is bigger than mental health issues or addiction. I am grateful to OPAL for helping meet the need, but the need keeps growing faster than we can build.