Aberdeen City Administrator Ruth Clemens shared results last week from the city’s homelessness response survey to city council, staff and Aberdeen Mayor Pete Schave.

Clemens laid out the survey’s mission, its long-term goals, other facts of the survey and meetings about homelessness, the current state and what the city is doing to work on the city-wide issue.

There were 943 people who responded to the survey; 686 responded to the general public community survey and 257 responded from the business community survey. The surveys were each held for a little less than a month and at different times between Feb. 15 and April 14. The city held five sessions in order to hear direct comments from the public from March 23 through May 23.

Clemens knows the results are not at all the end of the road for the fight against the problems people reported in the survey.

“We know we have our work cut out for us,” Clemens said.

This is most illustrative when the question “Have you felt safe living in Aberdeen,” yielded 329 “No” answers, meaning nearly half of the 686 people who filled out the survey feel unsafe. In addition to the safe living question, there were 434 “No” answers of 686 responses — approximately 63% of people surveyed — to the question if people felt safe shopping or conducting business in downtown Aberdeen.

The current work includes talking with Kevin Pine, Grays Harbor County Commissioner District No. 2, to find a shelter location, according to the slideshow Clemens shared. Other elements of work to solve the city’s issues with homelessness are as follows:

Weekly clean-ups

Sanitation and health hazard clean-ups, including partnering with advocacy and social service groups, plus a memorandum of understanding with the Washington State Department of Transportation about conditions underneath the Chehalis River Bridge

Drug possession ordinance

Installed lighting in 50 downtown alleys

Downtown cameras

An additional downtown cleanup worker

Vacant building program — while the program hasn’t started the fees have already been approved. There is also flexibility to change those fees

Shopping cart ordinance — the city has already passed a shopping cart code and before that, it cleaned up the carts left in front of the Aberdeen Timberland Regional Library

One major conflict facing the city is with most of the businesses downtown, more than 40 of the business owners surveyed have “considered moving” from Aberdeen because of homelessness. While nearly 80 downtown business owners have not considered moving out of Aberdeen, according to the bar graph showing these statistics, it means if the numbers show the downtown business owners’ true feelings, then about one-third of downtown businesses would prefer to take up shop elsewhere.

The survey results show 65% of property owners have seen an increase in the number of homeless persons in or around their property in the last 12 months. 30% have seen no change, 3% have seen a decrease and 2% did not provide an answer.

According to the survey, 83% have seen an increase in the number of homeless people in or around where they shop or conduct business, 12% reported no change, 3% reported a decrease and 2% did not report.

Another troubling statistic is 132 businesses reported concerns with “trash,” 126 reported “needles or other hazardous waste,” 119 businesses reported dealing with “human waste at or near their businesses,” and 109 reported “destruction of property.” Other problems with what appear to be high numbers were 94 businesses who reported harassment toward them or staff, 80 who have experienced theft and 67 who reported problems with graffiti.

The heavily-detailed survey report was to help the city “understand the greatest concerns of the community,” according to Clemens.

“Aberdeen’s elected officials and city staff have heard the community in many platforms, but I don’t know if there has been an official tracking of concerns,” Clemens said. “By having something that is measurable and having all the information compiled, our goal is to have a road map, created by the community, of ways they think that homelessness can be managed. The city recognizes that it can not solve these issues alone and that it will take community partnerships and collaborations to manage it in a way we can agree upon.”

The responsibility goes beyond the city, according to the people who were surveyed; 531 of the 659 people —approximately 81% — who answered “which level of government should be addressing homelessness,” answered “all of the above,” meaning the city, county, state and federal. However, the question “how effective do you think the city of Aberdeen has been in addressing the challenges of homelessness,” netted negative results from the community; 385 out of 662 answers said the city was “very ineffective.” Another 135 claimed the city is “somewhat ineffective,” 100 answered “neither effective nor ineffective,” while 39 answered “somewhat effective,” and three answered “very effective.”

The city will conduct its next meeting on homelessness with the faith community on Tuesday, Aug. 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Aberdeen Log Pavilion. The meeting after that is with social services and is set for Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 5 to 7 p.m., at the Aberdeen Log Pavilion.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.