PORT ANGELES — Just in time for Christmas, Serenity House of Clallam County and its partners will open a 28-unit permanent housing complex for the chronically homeless in Port Angeles.
“It’s a good thing,” said Brad Collins, Serenity House capital projects director and a Port Angeles City Council member.
“They don’t have to spend Christmas under a bridge or under a street.”
A dedication ceremony for the nearly completed Maloney Heights studio apartment building at 2311 W. 18th St. is planned for Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 12:30 p.m.
It is part of a grant-funded $3.3 million project to get people off the streets and into their own home.
Maloney Heights is not a homeless shelter. It is “permanent supportive housing,” where a person can access mental health and substance abuse counseling with “a continuity of care,” Collins said.
“When they leave [a shelter], they are not there for a long enough time to have broken the cycle of homelessness,” Collins said.
“In most instances, they’re still in crisis. They leave, and they’re back on the streets.”
Permanent supportive housing is designed for people with drug and alcohol problems, mental health problems, criminal histories or any other roadblock to housing.
Case workers on site
Peninsula Community Mental Health will manage Maloney Heights and have case workers on-site to help tenants.
“So the idea is to take people who have these significant barriers to being housed and to get them into housing where they’re not screened out because they have antisocial behavior,” Collins said.
“There’s a greater chance they will be able to get treatment and at the very least prevent them from ending up in the [emergency room] or the county jail, where it’s very expensive.”
Reduce jail time, costs
Kathy Wahto, executive director of Serenity House of Clallam County, said Maloney Heights will reduce jail time and court costs.
“And actually, it’s a good, common sense approach to the problem,” Wahto said.
“It’s not just dollars and sense. . . . It’s about people.”
Serenity House opened a permanent supportive housing center at the Tempest Building, 535 E. First St., in 2008.
Collins said one tenant cried on the anniversary of her time there because she had never lived in one place for an entire year.
The benefits were reflected in an 85 percent reduction in jail time for Tempest residents, Collins said.
The Washington State Housing Trust Fund covered the $1.4 million construction costs of the 28-unit Maloney Heights complex. Corstone Contractors LLC of Snohomish was the primary contractor.
Community development block grants covered most of the rest — infrastructure for Maloney Heights and the site of a nearby Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County project.
Habitat project
Habitat plans to build 14 single-family homes for people now living in substandard housing on the same 4.3-acre site as Maloney Heights, which it owns, on the 2300 block of 16th Street.
Serenity House and the Housing Authority of the County of Clallam broke ground for the Maloney Heights project in April.
The structure has solar panels and was built to demanding environmental standards, Wahto said.
The studio apartments have an alcove and a complete kitchen.
“They’re not fancy, but they’re more than adequate,” Wahto said.
“We want the community to know this is a housing improvement for the community, even though a small number of people will live there.”
Maloney Heights was built for “long-term members of the community who have struggled with alcohol and substance abuse,” she said.
“They’ve never had a real place of their own,” Wahto said.
“They don’t have a place to live that is safe and secure that they can afford.”
Tenants will pay 30 percent of their income, whether it’s fixed or not, for rent. Eight units are reserved for military veterans.
Partners in the project include the Serenity House of Clallam County, the Clallam County Housing Authority, Peninsula Community Mental Health Center, West End Outreach, the city of Port Angeles and Clallam County.
“It was a very intensive project,” Wahto said.
“It involved so many agencies and required constant negotiations of partners with different missions.
“We’ve had a huge amount of support on a local government level.”
Businesses and private donors provided furniture and much of the landscaping for Maloney Heights.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
