Port Angeles – Serenity House of Clallam County is closing one of its several “Permanent Supportive Housing” facilities for good at the end of September because of ongoing problems with damage and illegal activity on the premises.
Tempest House is a 13-unit apartment building on First and Albert Streets in Port Angeles who’s residents struggle with chronic mental health issues. Executive Director Doc Robinson says Serenity House receives about $87,000 per year from HUD for the program, but it costs about twice that to operate.
“So you cannot have people for that little amount of money who need that much care and have 24/7 support. It doesn’t pan out and then you combine that with Washington laws that basically tie the police’s hands behind their back and it’s very difficult to make it work. Most programs of that size have more than twice that budget. So we subsidized it for years and we simply cannot afford to rob all of our other programs any further. The folks who are there, we are doing a HUD process now to get most of them other housing in buildings that we can manage and we have larger budgets for.”
The problems lately are listed on a message Robinson posted on the window of the building, notifying residents of the deadline to vacate. It reads in part:
“Criminal behaviors and damages continue to increase in severity and cost… We have spoken with you about it several times. The lack of tenant support in keeping the facility damage-and-crime-free has led to this action. In your next housing, remember this and be sure you are not inviting in guests who destroy, assault, sell drugs and more.”
In June, a 50-year-old resident was arrested for starting a fire in his Tempest House apartment. John Hahn had torn open the walls and broken a sewer pipe before reportedly dropping a firework into a can of linseed oil.
“We had one unit that we just rehabilitated a month ago. We rented it out and a month later I had to have it condemned by the city. We can’t repeatedly do this over and over and over again, and even if I had the 24/7 coverage, I can’t stop this.”
We asked Robinson if he had any plans for other uses of the property in the future.
“In the fullness of time, there are three projected uses for that space. One is to rehabilitate it. Minimum cost of that is $25,000, and we could easily see a lot more go in there to make it really usable. Second use is to work with some contractors and scrape it and build a new building in that slot. And the third is to sell it and use the proceeds to move to a different location.”
In the meantime, tenants are being asked to set up appointments with a housing case manager to get assistance in building a housing plan.
Serenity House photo.