Cause of homelessness comes from many factors, speakers say

Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 5, 2026

PORT ANGELES — The issue of homelessness in Port Angeles has many factors, including lack of available housing, substance use disorder and mental health issues, the Port Angeles City Council was told.

In their quest to gather more information about homelessness and the organizations which work to mitigate it, the council heard presentations Tuesday night from the Clallam County Homelessness Task Force, Clallam County Harm Reduction and Peninsula Behavioral Health.

The council plans to have a workshop on homeless encampments and camping during its April 7 meeting.

Christine Dunn, the coordinator for the Clallam County Health & Human Services Behavioral Health & Homelessness program, a member of the Homelessness Task Force, kicked off the presentations.

The task force receives funding from several bills from the state Legislature, Dunn said. Those bills include Substitute House Bill 2060, which allowed for funds for the operating and maintenance of low-income housing projects and innovative housing demonstration projects in 2002, House Bill 2163, which allowed for funds for addressing local homelessness by providing housing, supportive services and homelessness prevention — and created the Homelessness Task Force in Clallam County — in 2005, and Substitute Senate Bill 5386, which was signed into law in May 2023 and updates the distribution of those previously approved funds.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a marked decrease in these funds,” Dunn said. “This decrease has prompted Washington Commerce to distribute a portion of these funds they collect back to the counties all across the state to offset these decreases.”

The task force is part of the process to distribute those funds. Agencies respond to a request for proposals, the task force reviews them and then distributes funds where they can.

“Each funding cycle, the homelessness task force sets funding priorities that are based on local need and the five-year plan,” Dunn said.

Those priorities for the 2025-27 funding cycle including shelter/housing, security mitigation and housing navigator/workforce development.

Dunn provided data regarding the number of people helped through funded projects. From last July 1 through Dec. 31, 1,279 individuals were served by programs. She noted that number could include duplicates since people receive services from multiple agencies.

Of those served, 422 were put into shelter for 0-30 days, 154 were sheltered for 31-90 days and 74 were placed in shelter for more than 90 days. Thirteen people were placed into transitional housing while four went into permanent housing. Services provided financial assistance for rental vouchers/payment to 36 people, utilities/bills to 21 people and transportation to 41 people. Referrals for substance use disorder were given to 103 people while referrals for behavioral health services went to 115 people.

Some emerging demographic patterns being seen from Serenity House are that 30 percent of the organization’s population is older than 55, approximately 10 percent of those older than 55 need some form of assisted living services, and there are currently 10-12 sheltered individuals employed and unable to secure housing.

Clallam County Harm Reduction Deputy Director Jenny Oppelt and Harm Reduction Program Coordinator Siri Forsman-Sims told the council about the county’s harm reduction program.

“Harm reduction is exactly what it sounds like: It’s reducing harm associated with using drugs through various interventions, but the concept relies on more than these tools and beginnings,” Oppelt said. “At the most fundamental level, all people in our community deserve safety and dignity. Harm reduction does not treat drugs and drug use as a moral failing.”

Oppelt pointed out that most people do some form of harm reduction throughout their lives, including using seat belts while driving or wearing sunscreen when outside.

“The two main goals of harm reduction are preventing and reducing overdose deaths and preventing and reducing bloodborne illness and communicable disease related to substance use,” Oppelt said.

Harm reduction began in Clallam County with the needle exchange program in 2000. Referrals to treatment and recovery services started in 2017, and the syringe services program was renamed Harm Reduction Health Center in 2022. The center is located at 325 1/2 W. Second St., Port Angeles.

The center provides sterile syringes and safer use supplies, but it also provides education, overdose prevention, substance test stripes, wound care, vaccination, sexual health education and supplies, connections to treatment and more to those who seek services.

In 2025, 4,909 packs of Naloxone were distributed during the center’s open hours while 3,883 packs were distributed via community boxes. The center saw 104 clients for wound care and handed out 5,028 wound care kits. Participants reported 252 overdose reversals using Naloxone.

In 2025, 70 percent of people who died from an overdose were housed while nearly 70 percent of overdose deaths were in people 50 or older. Clallam County has dropped from No. 4 in fatal overdoses in the state to No. 13, Oppelt said.

Providing safer supplies does not increase drug use, Oppelt said.

“Drug use would occur regardless of if a harm reduction health center or a harm reduction program existed in our community,” she said.

The last presentation came from Peninsula Behavioral Health CEO Wendy Sisk, who presented on what is driving homelessness in Clallam County.

The primary drivers are lack of affordable housing and lack of readiness for housing when units become available, Sisk said.

“If I’ve been living on the street for two years, three years, five years, 10 years, and all of a sudden you plunked me into an apartment, I don’t know what to do with myself,” she said. “I’ve spent my entire existence over the last many years just surviving.”

People who live on the streets often face untreated behavioral health conditions, substance use disorders, trauma history, legal issues, chronic medical concerns and a loss of daily structure and support systems, Sisk said. The challenge of living on the street is that it’s very destabilizing, and that makes it more difficult to get off the street.

“Leaving the culture of homelessness is hard,” Sisk said. “People have a sense of community there sometimes, and people also sometimes need to distance themselves from that culture because there are also some unhealthy things that people have experienced in those situations. Not everyone’s ready to separate from that family.”

Peninsula Behavioral Health works to meet people where they are and guide them to treatment, Sisk said. For those looking to transition from homelessness, PBH has five transitional supported housing houses in Port Angeles and one in Sequim. Residents are required to be clients engaged in support services.

PBH also has the 26-unit permanent supported housing complex called Dawn View Court, which started as a hotel and was transitioned into housing. The organization also is working on a 36-unit complex called North View.

“Housing alone isn’t the solution,” Sisk said. “You can’t just pick somebody up who’s been chronically unhoused and plunk them in an apartment or a hotel room and think everything’s gonna be just fine. Treatment alone is not the solution.”

Stability happens when housing, readiness and support work together, she said.

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.