Homelessness Crisis Deepens as the County Laundry Voucher Fund Dries Up
[caption id align="alignnone" width="777"]
Sign at Mom’s Laundromat. Photo by Angela Downs. [/caption]
News by Angela Downs
Homelessness has always been a difficult and expensive social issue to solve, and despite the biases, it is largely not caused by drugs and mental health problems. Most drug and mental health disorders appear as a result of experiencing homelessness. For most, chronic homelessness starts at age 14, and yet, older single women on Social Security are now the main demographic needing help nationwide.
Port Townsend is not only the oldest county in Washington but also the third oldest in the country, considering us a high-risk community. There has been an 18% yearly increase in homelessness, according to a recent federal report. Before 7th Haven was built on Castle Hill in 2023, there had been no public or social housing built in the previous 25 years, and there are currently no plans to build more Single Room Occupancy (SRO) apartments.
[caption id align="alignnone" width="1444"]
The current winter warming shelter. Photo by Angela Downs [/caption]
To add pressure, on June 30th, the American Legion Hall will no longer offer shelter to unhoused people. While there are still a lot of unknowns about a new shelter, Bayside Housing picked up the responsibility temporarily. Community Build will be working on emergency shelters on the upper campus at Caswell-Brown on Mill Road. They plan to build 15 wooden shelters at a cost of around $70k, plus a small kitchen and shower facility. But what is to be done between the build and the shelter closer, and for everyone but the lucky 15?
Julia Cochrane, who goes by julia, is the volunteer Executive Director and founder of the Winter Welcoming Center, a day drop-in center for the unsheltered, offering single-serve microwave food, hygiene supplies, first aid kits, feminine care, harm reduction supplies, clothing, and, until recently, laundry vouchers.
As part of their harm reduction budget, Jefferson County commissioners allocated $4,000 from the Jefferson Health Department for laundry vouchers, with no certainty more will be allocated later in the year. Each voucher is good for two loads of laundry, which costs an average of $10 per load at Mom’s Laundromat. By mid-January, there were no vouchers left.
While the budget running out of money for the voucher program is a deep concern, the pressure for unsheltered people to meet basic needs has increased with additional public services closing.
From the outlets on the side of the Cotton building being shut off to the closing of the showers at Fort Warden, the port, and the fairground, unhoused people have nowhere to easily charge devices or bathe. The welcoming center offers YMCA shower vouchers, but because of children present at the facilities, ID and background checks are required, which many unsheltered people do not have or feel comfortable undergoing.
As for laundry, Bayside Towers in Irondale and the American Legion shelter do not have facilities, and Dove House, a shelter for domestic violence, sexual assault, and crime victims, offers laundry to its clients only. Without laundromats, vouchers, or showers, clothing becomes disposable, and local encampments are littered with wet clothing.
julia started in advocacy as a child growing up in New York, putting a dollar in the pockets of the sleeping homeless, then one day, the pocket was of a man who had frozen to death the night before. With compassion for others' suffering and years of advocacy work, julia is a member of the Equity, Access, and Rights Advisory Board to City Council, Joint Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Housing Fund Board, and on the Olympic Community Action Programs Board, Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates Board and Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Board. “I got myself at the table to get things done,” julia said. And that is exactly what will be done, alongside the rest of the Winter Welcoming Center team, including Paul Heins and Manager Ben Casserd, now in their seventh season of service (roughly Nov. 15- April 15), currently located at the Pope Marine Building across from City Hall.
On July 1, the Winter Welcoming Center will become the “Welcoming Center” and be open year round 4 hours a day. But they are struggling to find a permanent home too, because they are zoned for residential and hotel, presenting a tricky neighbor situation. “It's a lack of intention on the part of the city planner,” julia said, “The homeless are not welcome anywhere.”
julia intends to speak to the Attorney General about these discriminatory practices, and encourages you, as a community member, to do the same.
The First Presbyterian Church is the Winter Welcoming Center’s fiscal sponsor, along with the Housing Fund Board, Coop Beans for Bags, Jefferson Gives, and First Federal.
Along with founding the Winter Welcoming Center, julia also manages the Help Now Fund, a zero-bar funding for medicine, car tags, hotel rooms, propane, and the many other needs humans have. There is a $300 limit for individuals and no proof-of-income requirements to apply.
“Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people and other supportive services afterward,” julia says, “We must ask our political leaders to be determined that a shelter continues to exist. That it is the political will of our city to support basic needs. That there should be no such thing as a non-supported shelter.”
Community resources beyond money are essential, and the Winter Welcoming Center is flying through clothing offers. Underwear is rare, as donations are gravely needed. “Everybody is asking for toothpaste,” julia said. Sleeping Bags, tents, hand warmers, and food are also needed. Beyond donations of money and physical items, time and effort volunteering or attending Shelter Coalition meetings at Recovery Cafe is a sincerely meaningful way to support the unhoused. The Welcoming Center is also looking for a team of 3-5 volunteers and one person to organize. There are currently plans to raise funds to pay the next Executive Director, as julia is 74 and ready to have different roles.
The Winter Welcoming Center Go Fund Me on Facebook: fpcpt.org/giving
If you’d like to learn more and connect with Julia Cochrane, email at, willowtree@olypen or visit https://www.jeffersoninterfaithaction.org/wwc
The next Shelter Coalition meeting is Tuesday Feb. 25 at 11:15, in person at the recovery Cafe and on Zoom.
To learn more about Community Build go to, https://www.community-build.org/
And, check out this documentary on the Housing First movement, https://www.communityfirstthemovie.com/
Correction: an earlier version of this article listed an incorrect price for the new shelters.
