They are increasingly visible in Auburn’s downtown, at its parks, on its streets.

Opinions vary from the extremes that dismiss them as “druggies and criminals and perverts” to ringing denunciations against “the system that put them there,” with many shadings in between.

But this much is clear — as tempting as it may be to fall back on tidy explanations for homelessness and the homeless, the most cursory glance at what’s actually happening on the ground shows such shorthand thinking to be grossly simplistic.

Consider the following numbers and facts:

• Above 10 percent of families in Auburn fell below the federal poverty line in the 2010 U.S. Census.

• More than 41 percent of Auburn households pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.

• 4,495 families are registered with the Auburn Food Bank this year – some 118,000 people were served last year, up to 145 people a night at weekly community meals.

• 35-50 individuals per night have stayed at the cold weather shelter operated by the Auburn Food Bank.

Rental costs in South King County have increased 27 percent since 2010. A person earning minimum wage, or on welfare or receiving Social Security disability income cannot afford an average one-bedroom apartment in South King County.

In 2015, 871 Auburn families applied for public housing assistance – seeking to get on the King County Housing Authority Section 8 Voucher waiting list. Only 98 of those applicants were fortunate enough to get a slot on the waiting list – and they can expect to wait as long as five years for space in public housing to open up.

According to the most recent U.S. Census data, 17 percent of Auburn’s population lives below the poverty line, and according to the Auburn School District, slightly more than 50 percent of students enrolled in Auburn’s schools today qualify for free and reduced lunches.

There are no emergency shelter beds in Auburn outside of the ones set aside for nights when the mercury dips below 32 degrees.

And while King County’s January 2016 annual homeless count in Auburn appeared to show a decrease in the number of homeless people from 32 in 2015 to 10 in 2016, folks who did the counting say that’s probably because many homeless had abandoned their traditional camps along the Green River after recent flooding.

Given concerns about the growing homeless population in Auburn, Mayor Nancy Backus in November of 2015 created the Auburn Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force.

Composed of residents, businesses, service providers, churches and community stakeholders, the task force met with City and regional government representatives, regional homelessness response coalition staff and service providers who work in Auburn seven times between November 2015 and April 2016. They visited agencies in Auburn and within the South King County region that serve homeless people and recorded interviews with some of Auburn’s homeless population.

Co-chairs Denise Daniels and Carla Hopkins recently presented the task force’s findings to the Auburn City Council, ending with a summation of its 46 recommendations.

Three key components, Daniels said, underlie homelessness: the many people who have been unable to find affordable housing in the last six years, when rents have risen steadily but wages have not kept up; an increase in poverty; and a spike in mental illness.

“The situation demands immediate action and the engagement of all parts of our community,” Daniels said. “It is not simply a matter of asking the police or others at City Hall to do more. There are many things the community can do that will improve the situation, but they cannot be implemented overnight.

“The Task Force believes that responding to homelessness is a priority for ensuring the quality of life in our community – for residents, businesses, and visitors, and the individuals experiencing homelessness,” Daniels added. “We need to eliminate this idea of there being an ‘us’ and a ‘them.’ Many of the homeless in Auburn grew up in this city and went to school here. They are our friends and neighbors. … And we cannot arrest our way out of homelessness.”

Here is a handful of the recommendations.

To improve public safety and create a sense of well being, police should provide service and shelter referrals to give to the homeless, and the City should hire the homeless daily to clean the community.

Daniels said task force members were shocked to find the City had only one winter shelter, and their dismay led them to recommend expanding shelter services to kids under 18 years old and to increase the supply of low-barrier shelter beds in the City. That last point requires a bit of explanation: It means eliminating barriers that prevent people from accessing shelters or get them turned away. Among these are rules that split parents and children up for the night and demands that any individuals who wish to use a shelter prove they are clean and sober.

Center needed

The task force recommends Auburn create a hygiene center-day center with storage, showers, laundry and access to resources, possibly in an existing vacant building, and that it expand the programs, facilities and services available to address the behavioral and mental health issues that are a leading cause of homelessness.

“In some sense, many of the homeless are living with the results of the failures of larger systems. Washington State ranks 47 nationally in funding for mental health care,” Hopkins said, adding that substance abuse treatment services are not much better.

The report calls for expanding housing and related service capacity by providing subsidized housing for single adults without disabilities, children or veterans status.

It suggests providing landlord assistance for damages and rent guarantee support.

Other recommendations are as follows:

• Improve public understanding and the public’s capacity to help by setting up a program that educates residents about homelessness.

• Continue to expand the City’s involvement with the county, state and federal governments to better support funding for and awareness of homelessness in South King County.

• Better advocate for more state funding for all types of behavioral health services, such as mental health, substance abuse, and detox beds.

• Provide funding for people without state or disability insurance to access mental health and substance-abuse treatment.

• Mandate that utilities expand subsidies for low-income customers.

• And build better connections between social service agencies.

“A successful response to homelessness in Auburn will require compassion, informed action and a continued commitment to public safety,” Hopkins said. “The Task Force strongly encourages the City and the people within the community to consider all of its recommendations, and has asked to be reconvened in six months to review progress.”

Task Force members have offered to serve on an inter-agency implementation team, which they suggest the City create to lead the response to all of its recommendations.

Councilmember Claude DaCorsi, former director of capital construction for the King County Housing Authority, recalled his own 20 years working to provide public housing.

“Subsidized housing is dependent on government appropriations, and federal appropriations for public housing, both operations and capital funds, have declined every year since the year 2000. So, in the 16th year of decline, where the special operating subsidy is only funded at about 80 percent of 2012 levels, there is no catching up. There’s no appetite in Congress to do any more building of new public housing. It just doesn’t happen anymore. So, it could take the combined effort of all of us to pass that message along to our congressional delegation … the importance of this issue,” DaCorsi said.

Councilmember Rich Wagner liked what he was reading and hearing, but found the report lacking in at least one essential respect.

“I think you’ve got to get after the money aspect of it, which is going to come from the state and the feds, and somehow incorporate that into the report,” Wagner said.