Vulnerable Groups
Most people in Okanogan County drive for most or all of their daily travel needs. But not everyone can drive or can afford to drive. A small number of population characteristics are common indicators of increased risk of transportation insecurity. That is, people with one or more of these characteristics may need some kind of assistance to get where they need to be because they don't drive. For HSTP purposes, three characteristics are associated with an increased inability to drive: advanced age, poverty, and disability.
While the HSTP is concerned with rural mobility in general, it is particularly focused on those who most need support with reliable transportation. This table provides a breakout of select population characteristics for the Okanogan County region and offers a sense of scale of the problem. Additional demographic information can be found on the Resources tab. Access to reliable transportation underpins the ability of people to maintain their independence and access the health and human services they need to ensure their well-being and that of their families and communities.
Older Adults
Age is a common indicator of a declining ability to drive. While many people continue to drive well into their later years, 65 is the average age at which reflexes start to slow, eyesight diminishes, and eventually, driving becomes more difficult or impossible. At the same time, people 65 and older tend to have more medical care needs and benefit from more human services than the public at large. Services like senior centers and senior lunch programs are available throughout the region, but people have to be able to get there and back. That's particularly challenging in a rural region where people often live far outside of town. Older adults face increased risk of social isolation when driving is no longer practical. Or they continue to drive long after it is safe to do so, creating a risk for themselves and others on the road.
People with Disabilities
People with one or more physical, sensory, cognitive, or developmental disabilities may be unable to drive and so are reliant on transportation services to meet some or all of their mobility needs. This may require wheelchair accessible vehicles for transport. Other disabilities may warrant consideration of behavioral factors to ensure safe transport for the passenger, others in the vehicle, and the driver. The ability of people with disabilities to access on-going care and services is critically important to managing their disabilities, engaging in every day activities, and living a fulfilling life. This applies to temporary disabilities, too, such as when a person breaks a leg or is confined to a mobility device for post-surgery recuperation. Even the most self-sufficient among us can be incapacitated by an accident or illness, requiring support to meet mobility needs.
Low-Income Households
The cost of owning and operating a personal vehicle is widely recognized to be the second highest household expense after housing. It includes the vehicle itself but also licensing, insurance, maintenance and repairs, and fuel. Soaring fuel costs upend tight household budgets, forcing choices between gas and other essential household needs like food, utilities, or medicine. These are difficult choices. Without a car it is hard to get to and from work and stay employed, jeopardizing housing security and household stability. Everything from going to work, routine child care and school drop-offs, to medical appointments, basic shopping and services, and recreation are much harder for low-income households. With financial assistance some can continue driving but for many low-income households, driving is not an option. They rely on transportation from friends and family as well as transit and community-based programs, or they fall between the cracks until situations spiral out of control.
Federal poverty levels are the standard metric for defining low income but it is widely understood to severely underestimate households that are unable to meet basic needs. ALICE - Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed - data paints a more nuanced picture of economic need. This national data product by the United Way offers a more complete understanding of household expenses and economic need. The number of households living in poverty has stayed fairly flat over the years while the number of households barely holding on - making too much to meet the federal poverty level but not enough to meet "survival budget" needs, continues to grow. Interested readers can find The State of ALICE in Washington report here and can access online data tools here.
Other Groups Facing Mobility Challenges
These three broad indicators - age 65+, poverty, and disability - account for most residents who are likely to need some support with reliable transportation to meet their day-to-day needs. But a few other groups have unique mobility needs that are worth highlighting in a plan such as this.
Veterans
There are about 3,040 veterans residing in Okanogan County. This is just over 9% of the population age 18 or older in the county. While the majority of vets are 65 or older, over 1/3 are between the age of 35-64. Vets account for 15% of the county population living with disabilities - 1/3 of all vets have one or more disabilities. Nearly 1 in 10 vets live in poverty and struggle to find affordable housing. Vets are entitled to specialty care and other VA services, but they must travel long distances to access programs at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. It is possible to arrange transportation through the VA's Veterans Transportation Service but reservations must be made several weeks in advance and are booked on a space-available basis.
Youth and Young Adults
Youth and young adults are called out here because of the pronounced impacts that poverty has on this age group. Poverty hits children and young adults especially hard in Okanogan County, where over 27% of the population under the age of 35 lives at or below the official federal poverty level. Many more are above the poverty level but are still very poor. For example, a single parent with two children under the age of 18 who grosses more than $25,300 a year, including all forms of income, is above the poverty level but still terribly strapped economically. The ALICE measures of financial hardship, based on a "survival household budget," offer a more realistic but sobering assessment of low income. ALICE data estimates that 67% of youth 25 and younger are living below this bare level of subsistence income, meaning 2 out of every 3 young people are living in households without adequate income to afford the basic necessities of life. Children and young adults scraping by with such low incomes face significant challenges in getting to school, jobs, life skills or job training, health services, affordable housing, and other basic necessities for establishing a stable and secure life for themselves.
Tribes
There are almost 9,300 members of the Confederated Colville Tribes, with almost 7,300 of them living on 1.4 million acres (2,100 square miles) of Reservation land in southeast Okanogan / southwest Ferry counties. The Tribes provide a full complement of health and human services, including an Area Agency on Aging, behavioral health services, social services, children and family services, veterans services, and more. The CCT DOT provides transportation and public access within the Reservation and also connects Reservation lands with local communities in both counties, supporting community and economic development and job access for tribal and non-tribal members alike. At the moment, transit services are limited but a transit study will get underway later in 2026 to determine the right mix of services to meet community needs on and off the Reservation. Data from the WA Department of Health's Environmental Disparities Map indicates that the Colville Tribes rank highly in environmental health disparities, much of which traces back to socio-economic factors like poverty, the cost of transportation, and low educational attainment, all of which contribute to poor health outcomes. Tribal Nations face significant health disparities with deep and systemic roots. For the Colville Tribes, this translates to higher rates of mortality from cardiovascular disease, lower life expectancy, and low birth weight in babies compared to the state average.
Hispanic Households and Limited English Proficiency
Over 9,100 residents identify as Hispanic, or about 21% of the population. This reflects the county's agricultural economy and the strong Hispanic communities that have grown up around it over the decades. Agricultural worker transportation is not addressed directly in this plan, though broader considerations of equitable access to health and human services is inclusive of needs of the Hispanic community. Spanish-speaking households are second only to English-speaking households, accounting for nearly 12% of all households. However, only 349 households or about 2% of total households do not speak English well and are considered to have Limited English Proficiency. Transportation service providers address this with bilingual materials and translators, as well as coordination through key groups.
Summary
These broad characteristics serve as useful indicators for thinking about the level of transportation support needed for people in Okanogan County who do not have the ability to own or operate a personal vehicle.
The Importance of Coordination
Coordination between individual human services transportation programs makes the most efficient use of limited resources and avoids duplication of services by overlapping programs. Coordination among providers takes some effort, especially getting started. The payoff is improved service for passengers - expanded hours or coverage, lower fares, easier access - and increased efficiency for providers. Greater efficiency helps providers to stretch their limited resources. This can enable our transportation partners to provide more and better services with the same resources and opens the door to new opportunities and innovations. That is why we emphasize the importance of coordination as an important strategy for improving mobility and use this HSTP update to support it among our various service providers.
A term commonly used by transportation planners to describe this kind of coordination is "Mobility Management." This infographic from the Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility clearly illustrates two different kinds of coordination that Mobility Management encompasses: coordinating client access to transportation services, and coordinating across sectors to develop and deliver transportation services that connect clients with the care they need.
Mobility Management Approaches
Source: Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility
What mobility management looks like in practice will vary by community and mobility needs. It includes information services that help providers and passengers coordinate and understand available transportation options, as well as short-range planning, management activities, or other activities that strengthen coordination among public transportation and other transportation service providers. It may involve supporting coordination or policy work addressing critical service gaps for people in rural areas and those with special needs. It includes things like travel training programs, developing and distributing information about transportation options, and developing and sustaining mobility coalitions. Key is that the activities directly respond to locally identified needs and improve access to services for those who need help with their transportation needs.
Mobility in a Highly Rural Region
People in the Okanogan region have the same needs for travel as people in less rural parts of the state: reliable access to work, housing, school, health care, social services, food and shopping, recreation and social activities, civic engagement. We just travel much further to reach our destinations. That is inherent in the truly rural lifestyle that so many us seek. And it is why personal vehicles offer the only convenient means of travel for most of us, most of the time. It takes extra time and a lot of coordination to meet mobility needs here for those who don't drive.
Destinations are concentrated in Omak and Okanogan, and to a lesser degree in the other cities and towns. Medical facilities, schools, government services, and social programs are centrally located. Once people get into town, they may be able to tend to several needs with a single trip. But they have to be able to get into town, and then get around. Most people live miles from the nearest city or town, usually distant from other residences, too. This is what makes coordinated human services transportation so important, and so challenging. It takes a network of providers to cover all the bases and help those of us with special needs to access the same destinations that so many of us drive to.
The challenge isn't just that most of us live outside of our cities and towns. Because this is a highly rural county, some our needs just can't be met here. We know that "locally available" services can mean Wenatchee, two hours away, or Spokane, three hours away. People have to travel to Wenatchee or Spokane to access more specialized medical procedures or services. Veterans need to get to Spokane for VA-provided care. For someone without a car, these can be complicated trips to arrange and make. Without support people may put off going to treatments or therapies. The transportation barriers confronting people who don't drive frequently lead to delaying care until health conditions spiral into costly and potentially dangerous health emergencies.
We also know that rural mobility needs in the Okanogan region include emergency evacuation. Too many Okanogan County residents know first hand why they need to plan for emergency evacuation in the event of wildland fires that threaten their homes. Evacuation strategies must account for a sparse road network, one that often fails, where there are few alternate routes when a highway or road is blocked. This is a serious consideration for all of us. But for those of us who don't drive, the challenges are more daunting.
Individuals have different needs and require different transportation services depending on those needs and their circumstances. What are the barriers that keep people from using the transportation resources that are available now? Where are the gaps in service? We tapped insights from community members and service providers to update our understanding of the barriers and gaps in service that make it harder, longer, or more difficult for people to get where they need to be when they need to be there.