Rising homelessness across Clark County is driving a county organization to innovate its outreach to help affected residents.
With a new outreach request form, Council for the Homeless hopes the community will come together to identify unhoused people in need of aid.
According to its website, Council for the Homeless is a non-profit organization with a mission to offer “community leadership, compelling advocacy, and practical solutions to prevent and end” homelessness in Clark County.”
Though multiple homeless outreach organizations are available within Clark County, many homeless people go without help. Some are unaware of the available resources, and others are too afraid, exhausted or embarrassed to seek assistance, according to the organization’s Development and Communications Director Charlene Welch.
“Folks who are experiencing homelessness all the time feel like they are invisible, and they also feel completely on display. Their entire life is out in the public,” Welch said. “It’s very dehumanizing.”
The organization’s new community member outreach request form allows residents to connect service agents to the unhoused. People who see a person they know or believe to be unhoused can fill out the form, which asks for identifying information, including a description of the individual, their location and services they may need. After receiving the report, Council for the Homeless will send agents to visit the unhoused individual within 48 hours.
“We want the community to have our ear and help us get resources to people who need them,” Welch said.
The forum is already receiving at least three submissions a day, according to coordinated outreach supervisor Rori Dicker.
Council for the Homeless is the “air traffic controller” of agencies within Clark County, Dicker said. People contact the organization, and it collaborates with other agencies to provide targeted services depending on what the unhoused individual needs, whether it is transportation, medical services, emergency shelter or rehabilitation.
“We each bring our own individual expertise to the table to weave together a most comprehensive response for the unique needs of each individual,” Welch said. “It’s not uncommon for a person struggling with homelessness to need assistance from multiple agencies.”
Agencies partnered with Council for the Homeless include Life Line Homeless Outreach Stabilization and Transition (HOST), Columbia River Mental Health, Recovery Navigator Program, Sea Mar Community Services Northwest, Outsiders Inn, XChange Recovery, Share Vancouver and the Homeless Assistance and Resource Team (HART), Dicker said.
Each organization serves a specific purpose. Houseless residents struggling with substance use disorders can receive aid from XChange Recovery and Recovery Navigator Program. Life Line HOST specializes in connecting people to treatment programs for behavioral health problems. Columbia River Mental Health operates a mobile health team with nurses and counselors. Sea Mar Community Services Northwest provides mental health treatment and therapy. Outsiders Inn connects the unhoused with shelter. Share Vancouver provides meals and housing for the homeless. HART visits encampments, assesses hygiene issues and provides referrals to social services.
“Each of us has our own specialty,” Welch said. “We want to focus on not duplicating services.”
Council for the Homeless outreach workers are caring for caseloads of up to 25 people, Dicker said. This number will likely increase due to current economic challenges and the winter hospitality overflow shelter at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 3500 NW 129th St., closing for the season.
According to the Jan. 26., 2023, Point in Time Count for Clark County, 1,300 people were experiencing homelessness, a 9% increase from the year before.
Households without children make up the majority of the homeless population. Of those who received homelessness services last year, 54% were white and 46% identified as persons of color, according to council for the Homeless.
Welch said, Council for the Homeless hopes to continue its work as a vital part of supportive networks across Clark County that aid the unhoused and collect data to better tailor aid.
The 2024 Point in Time Count with the latest numbers on Clark County homelessness will be available this spring.
“Clark County is such a beautiful place, and not everybody in our community can currently access it and fully live,” Welch said. “We win as a community when everybody is safe and has a home.”
To learn more about Council for the Homeless, visit council forthehomeless.org, or call 360-699-5106. To view the Community Member Outreach Request form, go to councilforthehomeless.org/contact-outreach-staff.
