The Department of Health and Human Services has launched an investigation into the October discovery of prescription bottles originating from the Kmart at 1414 72nd Street East in Midland.

Community activist Stacy Emerson, who discovered the bottles near a homeless camp behind the store, forwarded The News Tribune an e-mail from an equal-opportunity specialist with the Office for Civil Rights, which oversees the medical-privacy law known as HIPPA. The department reviewed and approved the investigation, the e-mail states.

No timeline for completion was provided, but the specialist did say the department is investigating a large number of other complaints.

Emerson estimates there were about 50 bottles. The labels on about 25 of them contained identifiers like names, addresses, phone numbers and birthdates.

A agency spokeswoman earlier had told The News Tribune the department couldn't comment on an investigation before it is completed.

I talked earlier with Stacy Emerson, the community activist whose video about homeless camps near East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue in Midland drew much attention.

You'll likely be hearing more from her. She and her son have purchased higher-quality cameras so they can produce multi-angle videos. She registered a Web site to post the videos herself. And she hopes to release another video by the end of the month.

"We live in a society these days where you can’t believe it until you see it – whatever it may be," she said. "It sure does help to have digital technology to allow us to see it on our computer screens."

The number of homeless is rising across Pierce County, but the City of Tacoma’s housing program seems to be a success. Still, several residents at a joint session of city and county public safety and human services committee weren’t happy with the overall situation.

Richard Anderson-Connolly, a professor at the University of Puget Sound, provided to the councils what he called a “progress report” based on polling of those who entered the city’s program to move homeless persons off the streets and into houses.

He provided statistics which show that, so far, the program is a success. Visits to the emergency room are down, and visits to other healthcare facilities are up. Those moved into housing self-report less victimization. Surveys showed that, on average, those involved report they feel safer, happier, more hopeful, less depressed, less lonely, less angry and less tired.

“Every change, you could say, moves in a beneficial direction," Anderson-Connolly said.

The county, which pledged last year to cut homelessness in half over the next decade, reported a 14 percent increase in its 2006 count, though it hopes the count will be down in this year’s count. The biggest challenge it faces, a county representative said, is recruiting agencies to help. He said the county has the capacity for two or three more agencies.

Pierce County also reported that 65 percent of those placed in housing programs are leaving before one year.

“Often we don’t know where they’ve gone,” he said. “Are they homeless again? We can’t tell.”

Anderson-Connolly likened the homeless balance between the city and the unincorporated parts of the county to a balloon – squeeze it, and the volume doesn’t change; it just moves. He said that can actually be problematic because a lower density of the homeless and can make it more difficult to help.

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Apparently the problem of the homeless camps at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue hasn’t completely gone away. A church had cleaned up part of the camps, but community activist Stacy Emerson said they still appear active.

I’ve got an e-mail into the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department for reaction.

Part of the letter from Emerson is after the jump:

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The Portland and 72nd story will run Monday. For those checking the blog out for the first time that morning, here's the video again:

I just talked to Carl Halsan, a project manager with Halsan Fry who is developing a piece of the property at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue (as part of a separate entity, 2010 Investments LLC).

They're building a mini-storage site accessible by Portland Avenue. He said he was unaware of any homeless encampments on the property.

“It was my impression they were on the other properties,” he said. “I was just out there a few days ago with a surveying crew and we didn’t see anyone.”

Among the litter at the homeless encampment at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue were dozens of prescription-medicine bottles from the Kmart pharmacy. I just talked to Dennis Stewart, the general manager of the store.

"Quite frankly, we take all our precautions seriously and according to the law," he said. "We’re aware of what happened, and there is an investigation into it."

He said he can't disclose the scope of the investigation or a timeframe of its completion. He did say the store has been in contact with the police, but he didn't have much else to say.

I just got off the phone with Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. He said the department is aware of the problem and plans are already in motion to clean up the homeless encampment at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue.

He said a team involving representatives of the sheriff's department, the county executive, the health department and the public works department are planning to clean it up:

“We’re in the process of putting a multi-agency team together to get that taken care of. We’re already in the process of cleaning it up. ... The ball’s already rolling on it. And obviously, the sooner we can get started, the better.”

He says Tacoma's tough anti-panhandling laws and other anti-crime legislation has pushed a lot of crime out into the unincorporated portions of Pierce County:

“It’s a problem we deal with all the time in the county. We’re developing the same tools as the city to deal with it. We don’t want (the city) dumping their problems in the county.”

Clarence O’Neill, owns property behind Kmart and East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue. He doesn't want the homeless encampment there and is looking to sell the property.

He and a sheriff's deputy went on the property several months ago, he says:

A Pierce County Sheriff’s deputy came out with me and looked over that property and the property adjacent to it. I didn’t hear back from them, but I assume they were going back that night with a police dog to chase them out, but I don’t know what the result of that was.

He's worried about illegal activity:

I’m afraid they’ll set up a methamphetamine lab or something and it’ll cost me a fortune to clean it up.

He tries to keep them out but is often unsuccessful:

I had some signs on the fence – private property, no trespassing – but I don’t know if they’re still there. I haven’t been there for a few weeks.

I talked to a few business owners at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue about homelessness. Here's what they had to say:

Joe Blevins, a manager at Big Lots, said the problem isn't out of control.

The only real problem is panhandling. Sometimes they’ll go through the garbage, but it’s mostly panhandling.

And Debbie Hinson, co-owner of Baskin Robbins, said other crimes are bigger problems.

We’ve had more crime problems than anything else, and problems with response time. We’ve had a homeless guy sleeping behind the store. But overall, there are more problems in this area than prostitutes and drug dealers than homelessness.

Another parcel of land behind Kmart at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue is owned by a Gig Harbor company called 2010 Investors LLC, according to county assessor's Web site.

When reached by phone Thursday, a representative from the company says he doesn't know anything about the land. A public notice sign, though, says the company wishes to build a dry-storage facility on the site.

"It's news to me," he said.

UPDATE: Apparently it helps if the assessor's office gives you the right number. They made a mistake, sending the fine folks at Marine Floats Corp. to head down to Midland to check out a piece of property that they apparently don't own. D'oh!

Gary Thompson, who owns part of the property that has become a homeless encampment behind the Kmart at East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue, voiced his opinions about the situation. He's not happy.

He wants to sell the property:

It’s listed right now. I’m expecting a phone call today and either bulldoze the whole thing and clean up all 2½ acres are cut a couple of large swatches through it.

The land was an investment, but he says a new designation quickly derailed things.

My dad purchased this piece of property around 1988 for an investment purpose for the family. Then they come in and deem part of this thing wetlands. You can’t touch it. We tell them that we have to touch it to clear the people out of there. Either they’re gonna be there or they have to clear the wetlands.

He says it's tough to sell because of parts of his property is designated as wetlands. He says that never stopped development in the past.

What was west of Kmart was a lake. You could go fishing in it. Well, they sure paved over that. Look at all the zero-lot line stuff they’re doing down 72nd. Everybody can do something but us. It’s crazy.