Volunteers searching for homeless this week

The team of three spied Jay Wells on Tuesday next to the Spokane Valley Wal-Mart, standing under a tree in an area littered with torn cardboard boxes and empty beer cans.

He told the social service workers that he’d escaped the bitter cold by staying at the House of Charity in downtown Spokane the night before but caught the bus to the Valley in the morning so he could “fly signs” asking for money or work near the highway on- and off-ramps.

“Nobody bugs you here,” Wells said, referring to authorities and business owners in Spokane Valley. “If you stand around downtown, you get a trespassing (citation).”

Wells is among the homeless Spokane County residents whom teams of volunteers will search for this week in order to estimate a total number for the county. Legislation passed in 2005 provides about $12 million statewide for homeless assistance programs but requires that counties conduct such counts. The money is raised through a surcharge on real estate transactions.

In 2006, Spokane County’s share of the money was $650,000. Last year, that climbed to $750,000. Among the programs the money has financed are a Goodwill Industries effort to help homeless people find jobs; longer hours at a women’s day center called Women’s Hearth, and year-round hours for the House of Charity, which usually closes for the summer in April, said Amy Jones, chairwoman of the One Day Count committee.

“It’s gone to some amazing programs that have done good work,” Jones said.

In 2006, the count recorded 1,592 people; last year the number was 1,187. Jones said the 2007 count likely was skewed by the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which occurred at roughly the same time and consumed a lot of publicity and volunteers.

The count needs those volunteers, as one team’s experience on Tuesday showed.

Though much of the count comes from visiting shelters, volunteers also spread out countywide, seeking people in hangouts or camps. With below-freezing temperatures creating additional concern this week, volunteers armed themselves with bags of socks and gloves. Still, several people contacted by the volunteers didn’t want to participate or rebuffed efforts to talk. Participation requires responding to basic questions including name, age and length of homelessness.

Jack Lilienthal of Goodwill Industries joined Carmen Jacoby and Ilze Zarins-Ilgen of Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) to canvass areas of Spokane Valley.

Tucked at the back of Wal-Mart’s parking lot on Broadway Avenue, they found a blue GMC Yukon with a towel crammed into a slightly open driver’s side window. The man inside confirmed he was homeless but said he just wanted to sleep.

A man holding up a sign on the eastbound off-ramp at Sullivan Road said he had a home, but was asking for money to supplement his disability check. The volunteers tromped out to a camp off the eastbound Sullivan on-ramp only to find it recently deserted. Under a tree, a crumpled green-and-pink-quilt was spread over two collapsed cardboard boxes. Sitting beside it were an old canteen, felt boot liners and assorted food containers.

“Their whole day is spent just surviving,” Jacoby said.

The final report on this year’s count will be submitted to the state in April, Jones said.