Chelan Valley Hope participates in national homeless count

CHELAN – For the fourth consecutive year Chelan Valley Hope participated in the annual Point-In-Time Count of Homelessness for the northern parts of Chelan and Douglas counties.

The day serves as a way to get demographics of homeless individuals in the area.

“We want to know their family size and about how long they have struggled with homelessness,” said CVH Executive Director Sharon Lukacs. Such people are not asked to identify themselves, instead they just get asked for a birthdate or birth year, that way they are not “counting them here, there and elsewhere.” In order to have accurate numbers, the count gets done simultaneously nationwide.

Last Thursday, January 24, the non-profit had a successful count day. The success was due to the early promotion on radio, posters throughout town and from word-of-mouth. “In order to draw people in we offer soup and sandwiches. They have a hot meal here, we give out coats and gloves,” said Lukacs.

Lake Chelan United Methodist Church was in charge of preparing the hot meals provided that day. Blankets, socks, hand warmers, a kit of high energy non-perishable foods plus a hygiene pack were also handed out. Four volunteers and two staff members were onsite, including a bilingual person.

For the first time, volunteers had the chance to do some outreach outside of the CVH facility.
“We had a fellow show us some of the areas he knew,” said CVH Housing Case Manager Catharine Morehead. The assistance was from someone who had been helped by CVH in the past and is now stable. “He is turning around and giving back by helping us identify other people to approach,” she added. During the outreach, volunteers didn’t come across anybody.

Schools in the area also participate in the effort, they focus on students and their families who are homeless.

“In the report from last year Chelan and Douglas counties had the same percentage per capita of homelessness as King County, we are amongst the worst in the state here, per capita,” said Morehead.

After all final counts, from Jan. 24 in Chelan and Douglas counties, there were a total of 22 forms received from households.  Twelve of these have children under the age of 18.  The total individuals counted were 29 adults, 20 youth for a total of 49 individuals that are homeless or at serious risk of homelessness due to very unstable housing.   Three households are living in RV’s with utilities, eight households are sheltered in RV’s without utilities, six are sharing housing temporarily, two are living in their cars and the remaining three are sheltered in structures not meant for habitation.

The lack of affordable housing is leaving many people without a home.

“You have families who are stable for years and then they are told to leave because the home is being turned into a vacation rental,” explained Morehead. Without no other affordable place to go, some end up living in unfortunate conditions.

Shelter homeless numbers are increasing. A shelter homeless is a person who does not have a home of their own, but are doubled up with a family or friends and crashing on their couches.

As Morehead mentions keeping track of them gets a bit harder because, “a lot of people who are crashing on couches don’t want to come out.”

Those living in unhooked RV’s, trailers or garages that do not meet standards are also considered homeless. “It is important to count these individuals because we have resources to help alleviate some of this,” said Lukacs.

CVH has funds to provide emergency shelter, “sometimes when people can have a break of even a week in an emergency shelter we can counter talk what other options they have,” explained Lukacs.

The overall goal is to try to improve people’s situations not just counting people, but by working on solutions.  If  anyone knows of somebody who is struggling with housing or other unfortunate circumstances, Morehead suggests to refer them to Chelan Valley Hope. The community is also encouraged to donate and participate in their fundraisers, every year over $40,000 are spent in client services.

Chelan Valley Hope’s 10 year anniversary will be held on March 24. To learn more contact the CVH office 509-888-2114.

Coming up on August 17, is the annual Woodstock Concert this year will be the big 50 year celebration.
Chelan Valley Hope is open Monday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. They are  closed from noon to 1 p.m. for lunch.