The Ad-Hoc Committee on Homelessness and Hunger has established a set of seven recommendations that its chair, Doreen Cato, presented to the Ocean Shores City Council last week.
The committee, which was supported by the North Beach School District as well as the city, officially reached its sunset date of June 27. Before then, it was decided by the group to “morph into its own entity without the School District leading it,” said a report from Cato.
Members of the committee have included City Council members Lisa Griebel and Susan Conniry, as well as Phyllis Shaughnessey, Odis Warren, Jeff Moyer, Debra Hughes, Beth Peterson and Cassie Lentz.
The first recommendation is to continually update and distribute the North Beach Resource Guide, which contains available resources for food, shelter and medical care around the North beach.
On July 17, the School Board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation to print and reproduce the resource guide, said Cato, also the School Board chair. The guide also will be available on the school district website. “Its home will be with the school district,” Cato said. Data collection will continue so that information is kept update about the extent of homelessness and hunger in the area.
“We want to try to prevent homelessness if we can. That’s one of our goals,” Cato said.
Among the recommendations: “Urge North Beach community to develop an independent cooperative and coordinated council for homlessness, which would continue the Ad Hoc Committe’s work on data collection, community education, developing/maintaining/distributing a resource guide, and work on systems to prevent homelessness.”
Cato said she was proud of the committee’s progress: “We managed to do this in a year as promised.”
In all, there were seven recommendations.
• Support North Beach School District’s continued improvements, so students can leave North Beach schools carrer- and college-ready, able to obtain and sustain living wage professions.
• Increase community awareness of homelessness and hunger by having the School District report annually to Ocean Shores City Council the number of homeless students.
• Increase affordable housing in the North Beach area.
• Use current community organizations to prevent people experiencing homelessness from living in substandard living conditions and provide information about resources and alternatives.
• Urge local cities and counties to adopt policies and practices to examine the low-income threshold and how it relates to tax-relief to prevent people from losing their homes.
Cato said the committee has updated the website with the help of Pam Tuttle. The new independent committee, she added, will be made up of members from the community: “People who want to participate and help around the prevention of homelessness.”
One idea being suggested is developing the old Moclips school site for affordable housing and community services. “It’s something that is badly needed, especially in this area,” Cato said.
