With updates after press time
EVERETT — The city is purchasing 40 more Pallet shelter cabins to house homeless individuals, but hasn’t selected where they’ll be placed.
The purchase is to address increased chronic homelessness. The city says it’s seeing a 50% increase in homelessness since March 2020.
The city might opt to lease the shelters for organizations interested in setting up temporary housing, Everett’s Community Development Director Julie Willie said last week. One of these might be at a church that has expressed interest in a partnership, Willie said.
Any placement decision would be in collaboration with neighborhoods, Willie said, calling neighborhood buy-in “imperative.”
Meanwhile, people residing around 26th Street and Rockefeller Avenue, one block north of Everett Avenue, have begun complaining to City Council of a prominent encampment of homeless individuals that sprung up months ago.
Residents say they’ve seen open drug dealing, prostitution and public defecation from their front door. It doesn’t feel safe, said one neighbor, who said she doesn’t feel comfortable being in her yard.
A group of residents here have requested council implement a “no sit/no lie” ordinance for their block. The ordinance would zone out homeless individuals from sitting or lying down along the sidewalk.
The city is not pursuing it. "The City is not currently considering expanding the areas covered by the ordinance that prohibits certain conduct in designated right-of-way, also known as 'no-sit no-lie'," city spokeswoman Kimberley Cline said by email after press time.
Police officers might have previously cleared out homeless people here in August. Developer Joe Zlab thanked the city for doing so during the first week of August in an Aug. 11 letter.
City spokeswoman Kimberley Cline said by email after press time that "encampment clean ups are conducted by interdepartmental city teams that include our community outreach and enforcement team, as well as staff from our public works crew to remove debris and clean up sites. Yes, a cleanup was conducted in that area in early August. Additionally, on August 21, the City designated several areas as 'Emphasis areas.' Those locations include:
Emphasis areas are civil matters. Encampments in an “Emphasis Area” are subject to immediate removal. This enables City Public Works staff to address encampments, hazards and obstructions on city property immediately. "
A resident on the block wrote to council members that encampments have been erected and taken down often here.
Mayor Cassie Franklin acknowledges the increase.
“There are really noticeably more people living outside, unsheltered in our city right now than there were even two or three months ago,” Franklin said during the July 14 meeting. “Addressing homelessness continues to be a top priority and we are taking it very seriously. Our team at the city is working with partners — the county, our health care providers, our faith based organizations and nonprofits — on solutions.”
It will be months before the shelters are sited. Pallet, the shelter manufacturer coincidentally in Everett, has multiple clients.
Additionally, a land-use process is required for any installation, Willie said.
Previously, the city ordered 21 shelters for a pilot project to put 21 Pallet shelters behind the Everett Gospel Mission. People first became housed there this July.
There is additional capacity to place more shelters behind the Everett Gospel Mission.
Everett could place the shelters in other cities, a city memorandum says. These would use lease arrangements.
At the Everett Gospel Mission, which is a pilot program, the Police Department’s embedded social worker team (Community Outreach and Enforcement Team) helps select who to temporarily house in the shelters; there is emphasis to house chronically homeless individuals, which are people who have been on the streets for a year or more. Some chronically homeless individuals do not want to go into a shelter for various reasons, including
that they cannot bring their pet companion or that they cannot shelter together with their significant other as shelters are not co-ed. The Pallet shelters facilitate these living arrangements.
The purchase is for $477,000. The city will use federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to pay for it.
The council approved the purchase in a 6-0 vote last week.
