EVERETT

County officials cleared out an impromptu homeless encampment on the county campus July 5.
The order to vacate was posted July 1. A few dozen people began setting up tents in the campus plaza sometime last month.
A sign posted to vacate warned that anyone on the campus after the county's deadline could be arrested for criminal trespassing. It asks people to call the county's social worker team members for help.
The sheriff’s office was told by the county’s executive’s office to notify people to move, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Courtney O’Keefe said.
In another congregation zone under the Smith Avenue bridge, Everett Police have cleared encampments in past years. On a drive-by June 22, no tents were seen. A live-feed video observed July 1 showed the area similarly empty of tents.
County officials believe people migrated to the plaza after being pushed away from the space across the street outside the Carnegie Resource Center in late June.
"The lower level of the Carnegie’s building transitioned into an overnight shelter in an attempt to give more people somewhere to sleep out of the elements and give professionals an opportunity to offer services," Mary Jane Brell Vujovic, the director of Snohomish County's Department of Human Services, explained in a statement June 30 as a response to a series of reporter's questions to the county. "People began to gather around the Carnegie building as they waited to go inside every evening. At the same time, individuals who were not residing in the Carnegie shelter but had nowhere to go began camping on the County Campus."
The county was providing "portable toilets, trash cans, and sanitation stations to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases," Brell Vujovic said in the statement.
Within the camp, county and city police and social workers approached the people in the encampment to try to give help, Brell Vujovic said. "Other than placement on the countywide housing waiting list, those offers have not been widely accepted.”
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office’s homeless outreach unit, the Office of Neighborhoods, visited the camp often and met with “50 to 60 people there,” O’Keefe, with the sheriff’s office, said.
Successes mounted: On July 1, “the team had five people sign up for a follow-up meeting to arrange services,” O’Keefe said. One person got help with restoring his Veterans Administration benefits, and another got help setting up an appointment to renew a housing voucher.
"The demand for housing and services far outpaces available resources," Brell Vujovic said in the statement. "We will continue to work with our city and non-profit partners to provide for vulnerable County residents to the extent possible given the need and resources available.”
In April, the sheriff's office cleared out an encampment at Matthew Parsons Memorial Park at Rockefeller Avenue and Wall Street across the road from the County Campus.

Point-In-Time homeless count released
The county's latest 2020 Point-in-Time homelessness count results indicates some dynamics of homelessness in the county are changing.
Volunteers interviewed 1,132 homeless individuals on a single day in January, representing the tally county officials are working from. The count is an unscientific snapshot look into the county's homelessness picture.
There are approximately 3,200 people receiving housing services through the county-wide homelessness response system.
Of the 1,132 people, about half -- 583 interviewed -- are chronically homeless, meaning they've lived without shelter for three years or longer. This percentage grew among the people interviewed.
2019's count found 16 fewer people compared to 2020's count.
The county said one factor is that low-income housing, where the rent is under $800 a month, is being lost rapidly.
Comparatively, 165 new permanent housing beds for homeless individuals became available last year; one such site is the 65-unit building in midtown Everett named Clare's Place.