By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council has had several discussions lately about the idea of churches offering temporary housing to homeless people.
If the idea of that invokes images of tent cities popping up around churches all over town, we can tell you that no one is proposing that. But as City leaders and other organizations look for creative ways to tackle the issue homelessness, the founder of the non-profit 4PA, Pastor Joe DeScala, wanted to take a look at partnering with churches to help shelter homeless people on a very limited scale.
By limited, DeScala says he knows of only one church right now that is considering housing one person.
“Yeah, there would be a vetting process. I’ve got relationships with a few of the social service agencies in town that have clients that they have expressed to me would be perfect candidates. There’s one gentleman, for instance, who’s in his 70s, he’s suffering from a little bit of dementia, but he had an apartment for several years here in town and got priced out of it. And he’s currently living in a Honda here on the streets of Port Angeles. And so, it’s somebody like that that, you know, I would think would be an ideal candidate for a church.”
Under the current regulations, churches can exercise their religious freedom to house homeless, so this is not a new concept. But DeScala asked the Council and City staff to see if there was a way to streamline the process if and when the right candidate came along. He’s been told that an amendment to church’s already-existing conditional use permit, assuming they have one, would suffice, and a “Temporary Housing Permit” for religious organizations would be issued.
“They have somebody who has a an RV that they were going to donate, that would be parked under a carport, kind of on the backside of the church, that would be in a kind of a very non-visible location. And if that doesn’t happen to pass the temporary housing permit process, then they are open to more of a tiny house structure. We were talking about making some designated times throughout the day that the occupant could use the shower and the laundry, and things of that nature inside. So, there would be ample sanitation and safety requirements in place.”
DeScala says, by law, any church submitting this application would be required to contact neighbors by mail and hold a public hearing for comments and questions.
To learn more about 4PA visit their Facebook page.