To: Wenatchee Valley Management

129 South Chelan

Wenatchee WA, 98801
From: Eric Arnold
Member of a consultant team
Grant Road
East Wenatchee WA, 98802
Re: Homelessness in the Wenatchee Valley
Date: May 29, 2018

Introduction
My goal for this report is to identify issues and convey facts about the homelessness problem in
the wenatchee valley. I aim to address the core issue surrounding the homeless in the valley and
also present information comparing the valley to previous dates in order to show how it has
changed. This report will include background information on the issue, information on the
Steering committee and the homeless task force, and statistics surrounding the issue.

Background
Funding
The funding for the homeless programs in the Wenatchee Valley are given to the City of
Wenatchee. This is because of an agreement between Chelan and Douglas counties that they
have. This agreement makes it so all funds regarding homelessness programs will be given to the
City of Wenatchee, so that they can distribute funds as necessary for both cities.

Representation
Even though the City of Wenatchee receives all of the funding for homelessness programs in the
Wenatchee area, they still have representative from the City of East Wenatchee that sit on the
Steering Committee. This makes it so the City of East Wenatchee has a say in where their funds
go. The Steering Committee is a joint committee between Wenatchee and East Wenatchee and
they make recommendations on where the funds for the homelessness programs go.

Local Help
The Steering Committee is not the only group committed to helping the homeless in the
Wenatchee area. The homeless task force is a wonderful group of everyday people who
volunteer their own time to help the homeless. This community group usually works in
coordination with the Steering Committee, along with food banks and emergency housing
shelters. This local band of volunteers are just private citizens interested in helping the homeless.

The Stats:
 Sheltered

Year HH HH w/ HH TOTAL
w/out minors w/only Sheltered
minors minors

2006 126 203 NR 329

2007 105 303 NR 408

2008 114 253 NR 367

2009 129 315 NR 444

2010 149 325 1 475

2011 99 59 0 158

2012 64 93 1 158

2013 123 114 2 239

2014 139 143 0 282

2015 140 50 2 192

2016 138 43 0 181

2017 163 171 0 334

What this chart shows is the number of sheltered homeless people in the Wenatchee area.
There are 334 total sheltered homeless people in the Wenatchee area, compared to 329 from
2006. (HH stands for housing) While this is overall a good thing, this also may be the beginning
of a chronic homelessness problem, where people are taking advantage of this crutch and might
not be looking to move on

Unsheltered

Year HH HH w/ HH TOTAL
w/out minors w/only Unsheltered
minors minors

2006 83 75 NR 158

2007 60 35 NR 95

2008 30 12 NR 42

2009 28 3 NR 31

2010 59 4 4 67

2011 55 1 0 56

2012 25 12 3 40

2013 62 4 0 66

2014 46 5 0 51

2015 60 13 1 74

2016 60 6 0 66

2017 18 18 0 36
 What this table shows is that the number of total unsheltered has gone down
exponentially since 2006, but has stayed stagnant since 2008.(HH stands for housing). This is
quite a good sign considering that the the overall population in the Wenatchee Valley is growing.

This is a graph that shows the total number of homeless people in the Wenatchee Valley.
It shows that in 2007 that there was a large number of chronically homeless individuals, and this
means that these individuals are with some form of disability who has been homeless for more
than a year.
In 2010 we see a large population of homeless in the Wenatchee Valley, but we see that a
majority of them are sheltered. Then we see a large decline in 2012 of both sheltered and
homeless in general. This is right after the first City of Wenatchee’s plans to cut homelessness in
half by 2020.
Since 2012, we have seen a steady increase in both sheltered and unsheltered homeless
individuals. This can be attributed to both a rising population and the lack of affordable housing
in the Wenatchee area. Another trend we see from this graph is that the unsheltered homeless
population is stagnant and this means that if these individuals do not receive help, then they are
less likely to get out of their tough situation.

Conclusion
There is a growing homeless problem in the Wenatchee area, but it is not as bad as it was in
2010. Even if the homelessness problem gets as bad, we know that it can be fixed in a relatively
short amount of time, like 2010-2012. While the community groups do work tremendously hard
in order to help the homeless get out of their bad situations, they are always looking for more
volunteers. Affordable housing is also another root cause of the homelessness issue. These are
just a couple of things that can help get our homeless community back on their feet.

References
2015 Homeless Action Plan_Final. (2015, November 1). Retrieved May 4, 2018, from
file:///D:/Downloads/2015 Homeless Action Plan_Final.pdf
Plan to End Homeless in Chelan Douglas Counties. (2011, November 1). Retrieved May 4,
2018, from http://www.wenatcheewa.gov/home/showdocument?id=5100
PIT Count Summary 2006-2017. (2017, November 1). Retrieved May 4, 2018, from
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o9oazvsd6onmtg/PIT Count Summary 2006 -
2017.xlsx?dl=0