Survey shows Olympians are dissatisfied with response to homelessness

Data from a community survey shows Olympians think the city’s response to homelessness has been unsatisfactory, while residents are split on many other aspects of the city’s management.

To prepare the 2022 city budget, the Olympia City Council hired a polling company to gauge citizens’ opinions on living in Olympia. The survey asked about housing, downtown, the economy, homelessness, policing, public safety and more.

About half of respondents say the city is going in the right direction and the other half saying it’s heading in the wrong direction.

Respondents generally said Olympia is a good place to work, with pleasant neighborhoods that are good places to raise families. The results show citizens are satisfied with life in Olympia, except when it comes to issues around housing and homelessness.

The survey found 87% of respondents are dissatisfied with the city’s housing and homelessness services. Many residents want more reliable services for homeless people, such as mental health and treatment centers. Respondents also want the city to do a better job of managing homeless encampments and to prevent new encampments from popping up.

City Council members agreed there needs to be more work done to reduce the homeless population.

Mayor Cheryl Selby said at a June council meeting that “our community does not believe that we’re handling the homelessness crisis in a way that works for most people.” She suggested providing additional funding to the Regional Housing Council so the city could get more help addressing the issues.

Council members said poor communication and lack of public knowledge about what the city is doing to alleviate homelessness is the reason respondents were overwhelmingly dissatisfied by the city’s response to it.

Councilman Jim Cooper said the survey is aligned with the city’s one community plan, “so for me the need is to implement that in a more full [way] and communicate it in a bigger way so people know what we’re working on.”

Council member Yen Huynh agreed, saying, “Not to say there isn’t room to grow, but by and large a lot of folks I talk to, or things that I read, are just not sure what’s going on.”

The survey showed residents also would like the city to do more to communicate with them and bring them into the decision-making and planning process.

Council members and those surveyed are concerned with the affect homeless people have on downtown. The majority of the survey’s respondents said downtown is heading in the wrong direction. Respondents believe there are not enough city workers — from police, to crisis responders, to downtown ambassadors, to clean team staff — to make downtown a safe place.

Many respondents had positive views of the Olympia Police Department, despite the grievances with downtown safety, but still want their to be reforms around the department.

The survey found that attitudes about downtown are linked with people’s concern over the homeless population there. Respondents think the businesses downtown are going in the right direction along with downtown events and arts, but overwhelmingly believe safety and homelessness downtown are going in the wrong direction.

Mayor Selby agreed, saying unmanaged camping “is causing a problem, not just for the people who live downtown but for the people that try to run a business downtown.”

The majority of the survey’s respondents also believe Olympia does not have affordable housing options and that the downtown area does not have housing options for people at all income levels. Olympians are in support of the city building more supportive and affordable housing options, and building more densely, the survey data showed.

Council members expressed interest in mediating housing in Olympia with both renter and landlord protections. Council members said they also want to add more affordable housing to Olympia, they just need to figure out what that is.

“What is a living wage in our community? We need to be asking that question,” council member Lisa Parshley said.

Council member Clark Gilman added that many of the survey’s respondents said they did not consider themselves poor and had jobs, but still struggled to find housing in Olympia that wouldn’t be burdensome due to high rents.

Cooper believes issues around affordable housing and food insecurity are rooted in the same problem: wage and income.

“So what can the city of Olympia do to make sure people have enough wages in their pocket to buy food and shelter in the current markets?” he asked.

Those surveyed did express broad support for the majority of the city’s services. Respondents were happy with the city’s drinking water, access to nature, response to climate change, and more.

However, many of these services are not priorities for those surveyed.

This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.