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7 <br />B ackground <br /> <br />A s part of the Homeless Housing 5-Year planning process, the planning committee <br />c onducted a community survey that was filled out by anybody in the community. After r <br />eviewing the results of the survey, the committee wished to gather more qualitative <br />i nformation about homelessness in Kittitas County. As a result, the committee decided to h <br />ire an independent facilitator to run five focus groups to gather opinions, thoughts, and <br />i deas about homelessness in Kittitas County. The perspectives gained will help inform p <br />riorities for the 5-Year Plan. <br /> <br />M ethods <br />The five focus groups were held between November 5th and November 8th, 2024 in the H <br />opeSource training room and on the Central Washington University campus. <br />• People with Lived Experience with Homelessness: 5 participants <br />• Service Providers: 5 participants (Ellensburg Public Library, Kittitas County Public <br />H ealth Department, HopeSource, Kittitas County Recovery Community Organization, A POYO) <br />• Law Enforcement/Local Government: 4 participants (Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, <br />K ittitas Police Department, Ellensburg Police Department, City of Ellensburg) <br />• Community Members: 6 participants <br />• Central Washington University: 8 participants (students, faculty, and staff) <br />P articipants were given a list of the focus group questions as well as an information <br />s heet/consent form prior to the meetings. The first few minutes was spent doing brief i <br />ntroductions including an icebreaker question, going over the focus group format and <br />p articipation guidelines, and collecting consent forms (Appendix A). <br />T he questions and prompts that were asked of the focus groups were mostly in an open d <br />iscussion format or a round robin format. The facilitator frequently called upon <br />p articipants to ensure equitable participation. Some questions involved some individual b <br />rainstorming and then sharing top ideas with the group. <br />E ach focus group was recorded and the recordings sent to a transcriptionist for transcribing. T <br />he transcriptionist transcribes for content and meaning and leaves out language fillers and u <br />nrelated conversations. (Quotes provided may not be word for word.) <br />T he facilitator then reviewed the transcriptions, identified themes where appropriate, and u <br />sed them to provide the results in this report.