POULSBO SEES RISE IN HOMELESS NUMBERS

POULSBO SEES RISE IN HOMELESS NUMBERS

by Tammy Adamson-McMullen

Media coverage last year about the death of Chris T. Christensen, a homeless man who lived in a tent near the 305 on-ramp onto Highway 3 South, surprised some Poulsbo residents who didn’t realize Little Norway even had a homeless population.

Although not always visible on the streets, Poulsbo’s homeless population is on the rise, say the agencies trying to help.

“Most of our homeless live in the woods,” said Bob Middlebrook, executive director of Poulsbo’s Sound Works Job Center. “We also have a class of homeless people who are called ‘couch surfers.’ They live with friends or relatives until they are kicked out.”

The newly unemployed are particularly vulnerable to homelessness. Middlebrook said he was approached just recently by two unemployed landscapers fearful that, unless they found jobs quickly, they would be living out of their cars.

“They had the skills,” Middlebrook said, “but I had no jobs to put them in.”

These cases aren’t unique. People come to Sound Works everyday with similar stories.

Middlebrook reported that there is a group of newly homeless, based out of Poulsbo, who already are living in their cars and park together at night in available lots.

As the weather turned bitterly cold last month, shelter became available at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. Organized by the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management and the Kitsap County Continuum of Care Coalition, the shelter is to remain open as long as the cold snap continues. The shelter offers food, hot coffee and a place to sleep.

Additionally, there has been talk of organizing a shelter in Poulsbo at the First Lutheran Church. Connie Lord, a church member, has been involved at the Fairgrounds shelter and is looking to open something similar, drawing on volunteer help. The church office confirmed that the shelter is still in the “talking” stages.

First Lutheran currently serves as a Red Cross emergency shelter.

Wherever it comes from, assistance is desperately needed, said Karen Timken, executive director of North Kitsap Fishline.

Timken reported that the food bank has seen an increase in newly homeless clients as the economy has worsened. By October of last year, the agency had spent roughly $57,250 on services for the homeless as well as to help clients with rent, utilities and medical co-pays.

“Client services expenses are up 626 percent over 2007,” Timken reported.

Lori Oberlander, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Kitsap County, said many of the applications the organization is receiving for housing requests are from people who have just recently lost their jobs or benefits.

“About 30 percent are recently laid off and trying to get services,” she said.

When there are more qualified applicants than available housing lots, Habitat scores the applicants according to their need, ability to pay and willingness to partner with Habitat in building the home. “Then, we simply take as many as we can, starting with the highest scores, and work our way down to the ones with the lowest scores,” she said.

Among those who have faced the very real possibility of not having a roof over their heads is Megan (last name withheld), a recently divorced mother with two boys, ages 5 and 10.

Megan graduated last year from Olympic College’s nursing program and was studying for her nursing board exams when her father fell ill with pancreatic cancer.

“I was being supported by my parents financially until I could get a nursing job, but with my dad’s illness, that changed,” she said.

Megan put her board exams on hold to help care for her father. She also took two jobs serving food at local restaurants to help pay the bills. But the pay wasn’t enough.

“The economy is so bad that people aren’t dining out anymore,” Megan said. As a result, “I couldn’t afford my rent, my car payment or food,” she said. “And my parents weren’t able to help in any way; they actually needed my help. Everything was spiraling downhill …”

Just as her situation was getting desperate, Megan ended up being accepted into Mutual Self-Help Program of the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority (KCCHA).

The program allows income-eligible applicants the opportunity to own their own homes by joining with other applicants to build each others’ homes with help and training from KCCHA. In exchange, the applicants receive reduced mortgage payments that are based on their income and not on current interest rates.

Megan also received assistance from Fishline, which helped pay the insurance on her new home and assisted with other expenses.

As a result of the help she received, Megan recently moved into her new home and has begun studying to take her board exams. She noted that the KCCHA program, with Fishline’s help, threw her a lifeline. Many of Megan’s friends also are in need of that lifeline, she added.

“I have a friend who's a painter who just got laid off, one who works for a newspaper who just got laid off and one who works for a restaurant who just got laid off,” she said. “All of these people are good, hard-working people … and they’re panicked.”

Meanwhile, Megan is thrilled that she and the boys have a roof over their heads that they can call their own.

“Getting a house is life-changing,” she said.

ASSISTANCE CONTACTS

For information about the KCCHA self-build program, visit http://www.kccha.org/selfhelp/selfhelp.htm. KCCHA’s self-build neighborhood in Poulsbo is located at the corner of Mesford and Noll roads.

To reach Habitat for Humanity of Kitsap County, visit kitsaphabitat.org.

For food and other assistance, visit North Kitsap Fishline at at 18916 Third Ave. NE in Poulsbo.

For help in finding employment, contact Sound Works Job Center at (360) 779-1160. Sound Works also maintains a database of contacts for health, food, clothing and medical services and other assistance through nonprofit agencies. Sound Works is located at 19131 Eighth Ave., next to the Poulsbo Library.