Homeless shelter enters winter hours

Planning begins for cold snaps and snow

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As the days get shorter and nights get windier, the homeless shelter in the basement of the American Legion Post 26 in Port Townsend plans to begin its winter schedule on Oct. 20.

The shelter will be open from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. seven days a week.

On Oct. 15, volunteers with Community Outreach Association Shelter Team (COAST), who come from churches across Port Townsend, planned to begin preparing nightly meals for residents of the shelter.

As they prepare for winter, Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) is also working to provide more services for the shelter residents to become self-sufficient.

According to Mike Johnson, OlyCAP’s shelter operator, they are enforcing the 90-day limit on staying in the shelter in order to push residents to find long-term housing solutions.

“A shelter is never meant to be permanent,” Johnson said.

The State Department of Commerce’s definition of a homeless shelter states that it is temporary housing for periods no longer than 90 days.

But the shelter at the American Legion, run in partnership between OlyCAP, COAST and the Legion, often had more long-term residents, Johnson said.

“Now, we’re reinstituting that limit,” he said. “This is a 90-day program. We want people to engage with us in seeking out housing. And we’re ending up with a lot better results than we did last year.”

For some residents, all it takes is reaching out to the shelter monitors for help to find housing, Johnson said. One woman, who had found herself without a home after her husband died, merely needed help connecting with her family in North Carolina.

But being able to reach out and ask for help takes trust and building relationships with shelter monitors and housing advocates.

“I’ve found that oftentimes people don’t want to go up to OlyCAP,” Johnson said. “They don’t want to be thought of as just a number in the system. They want to be people.”

Not only that, but lack of money or a car means transportation to the appropriate services is a challenge, especially for an older population or people with disabilities.

But connecting with housing advocates and resources at OlyCAP, Dove House, Discovery Behavioral Health, and Work Source is vital for the shelter residents. That’s why Johnson is working on building a private office within the shelter, so that residents can meet with advocates on-site. The office will be open and operating by the time the shelter switches over to winter hours, he said.

“The purpose of building a closed space for an office is to get different agencies to come down here and work with people, instead of the other way around,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the 90-day stay won’t be a hard and fast limit.

“If we see that a person is working towards getting housing, or working with our resources, we know that there’s an end in sight to their stay here, we can extend for another 30 days or so,” he said. “But if you’re not working on something, there’s someone else who is waiting for the bed you’re in.”

Johnson said the shelter ends up turning away about two to three people on an average night because there aren’t enough beds. He’s hoping that having resources available at the new office with a new emphasis on getting residents into better housing in 90 days will help the shelter to be able to help more people, quicker.

PREPARING FOR COLD

At the same time, Johnson and volunteers from COAST and the American Legion are preparing for winter’s worst weather.

Last winter, the shelter stayed open 24 hours a day during the two-week “Snowmaggedon” in February, when temperatures dropped and Port Townsend experienced a snowstorm. Staying open 24 hours a day for two weeks cost just more than $3,000, not including food, Johnson said.

Even though winter weather is unpredictable, Johnson said the shelter is prepared to stay open 24 hours a day if the temperature drops below 35 degrees.

“Last year, the response from the community was incredible,” Johnson said. “Everyone came together and made sure the shelter had what it needed for those days when we were open for 24 hours.”

This year the shelter has put together a plan to watch the weather and as soon as there is a streak of cold, the shelter will contact six organizations: COAST, the Legion, the Elks, Dove House, the city, and KPTZ, to organize a 24-hour winter shelter operation. This means gathering extra donations of food and blankets, preparing meals for shelter visitors and alerting the media that the shelter is open to everyone.

In cold weather, no one is turned away, Johnson said, even if they just want to come in for a cup of coffee and to warm up for a while.

“The idea is to keep people safe,” he said.

OlyCAP and the Port Townsend Police Department will also organize people to go out and walk through known homeless encampments to encourage those staying in tents to come to the shelter for food and warmth.

Last year, one woman who was living in a local tent encampment died from hypothermia.

“We can’t force anyone,” Johnson said. “But we do let them know that the 24-hour shelter is going on.”

For those who want to make donations, the shelter could always use more warm winter gear such as jackets, socks, hats, gloves and pants. According to Johnson, the shelter could also use tents and sleeping bags as well as other camping gear.

There are also a few more weeks available for people to help with cooking meals, Johnson said.

“Come take part in the activities and find out what the shelter is like,” he said.

To learn more about volunteering for meals, contact Johnson at 360-385-1403 or 360-385-2571 x6316.

The shelter always needs some items such as peanut butter, milk, blankets and pillows. Monetary donations are welcome also. Donations to COAST can be sent to:

Karen Riel, Treasurer

COAST

PO Box 194

Port Hadlock, WA

98339

WINTER WELCOMING CENTER

Meanwhile, volunteers with the Jefferson Interfaith Action Coalition are working to get their daytime warming center back up and running this year.

Last year, the center, which was located at 433 West Sims Way, operated for four hours a day. It offered coffee, snacks, books, information, a laptop and, most importantly, a warm place for people to hang out.

According to Paul Heins, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, the group hopes to reopen the center in the same location and operate from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. from December through March.

To get back on their feet, the coalition is seeking support from volunteers, both to join the team that oversees the center and volunteer monitors who come in to help operate the center and care for guests. They are also seeking staff monitors, which is a paid position. Other ways to help is with donations of packaged food, winter clothing and other supplies or by giving monetary donations at fpcpt.org/warming-center.