Homeless Influx Hitting Downtown

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Story Published: Jul 9, 2009 at 5:29 PM PST

By Sade Malloy

Yakima -- They're looking for a quick solution to what could be a big eye sore. Dozens more homeless people are showing up in Yakima and business owners are worried.

Keeping the homeless off the streets and out of downtown Yakima is getting harder. In the past week approximately 40 transients have moved into the area.

Part of the problem for the influx in Yakima is from a popular underpass where the homeless have been staying but is now being cleaned up.
The other reason is homeless from Wapato have started moving to Yakima after the closure of a day center. Yakima's Homeless Network is estimating the new count at nearly 450 people.

"If we have too big of an influx that happens too quickly and we're not giving them any solutions then we're forcing them to do what they have to do to be able to sustain," says Dave Hanson, Yakima's Homeless Network.

The fear is that this recent homeless boom here could give Yakima's newly rejuvenated downtown a bad image and push customers away or worse push the crime rate up.

"If I'm in my same circle my same town, my same place it's the same delinquency," says Timothy Ferrell, homeless.

Homeless advoctaes are trying to find a quick solution to the problem.
Right now, that could mean a 24/7 house or even a plot of land off in the distance designated specifically for the homeless.

"We can turn the other way and if we ignore the problem it'll get worse," says Hanson.

And after finally getting new businesses to move back into downtown
this is hardly the kind of foot traffic they were expecting.

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