PORT ANGELES — Serenity House has adjusted hours at its Overnight Emergency Shelter on West 18th Street to reduce the wait to enter the facility after bus service ends most nights, but clients still must walk there Sundays.
None of the four dozen people attending Wednesday’s meeting of the Clallam County Shelter Providers Network, a coalition of public and private agencies that combat homelessness, had a solution to the gap in transportation.
Formerly open from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. — with no emergency clients allowed to wait inside or remain outside those hours — the overnight shelter at 2321 W. 18th St. has opened at 8:15 p.m. for the past 10 days and turned out its clients at 6 a.m.
That’s when many of them awoke and left anyway, according to Kim Leach, Serenity House executive director.
Clallam Transit System’s No. 26 Westside bus makes its last run past the shelter near William R. Fairchild International Airport at around 7:15 p.m. It makes its first morning stop at the shelter at 7 a.m., and 8:05 a.m. Saturdays.
Without bus service, clients who tend to frequent downtown Port Angeles face a 4-mile walk to the Emergency Overnight Shelter.
Difficult in dark
“In the winter and the dark, it gets more and more difficult,” said Martha Ireland, shelter network coordinator.
“If there are resources out there where other agencies could partner, like a shuttle . . .,” she said.
Since it opened Oct. 1 in the Serenity House Single Adult Shelter, 2321 W. 18th St., the Overnight Emergency Shelter has served 21 men and 28 women, usually three to six people nightly, most of them for repeat stays, Leach said.
Its capacity currently is 14 beds in a dorm and a hallway with room for about a dozen more, according to Leach.
Serenity House reconfigured the Single Adult Shelter after the Salvation Army closed its makeshift shelter at 123 S. Peabody St. that it had operated since Feb. 17.
The Salvation Army had opened a shelter after Serenity House’s first overnight haven at 508 E. Second St. closed when its sewer system failed.
‘Antique buildings’
“Some facilities were developed in the past using antique buildings,” Ireland said.
“After it operates awhile, you start to see that the infrastructure is clearly not adequate for the use.”
The Salvation Army building had been recently remodeled to serve meals but not operate as a dormitory, she said.
“The city of Port Angeles is now saying very firmly you have got to have a sprinklered building and you have to have emergency exits,” Ireland said, even if the facility has a night staff.
Leach said she wanted the network to provide its expectations of what the new Overnight Emergency Shelter should be.
“I know we have to do it together,” she told the group that Wednesday.
They included representative of Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics (VIMO), Clallam County Health and Human Services, Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), United Way, the Salvation Army, St. Vincent de Paul, Church of God, Voices for Veterans, Red Cross, Project Homeless Connect, Ministries Assisting Neighbors in Need (MANNA) and the Lower Elwha Housing Authority.
Tent city
One participant asked if a tent city for homeless people was a possibility, but the idea met with little enthusiasm.
“I’m not aware of anybody in need saying we want a tent city in Clallam County,” Ireland said.
“The attitude of the Shelter Providers Network is that we want better than that.”
Jody Moss, retired executive director of Clallam County United Way, said tent cities had failed in other cities when they created “a much more adversarial relationship with the community.”
Ireland also rebutted the notions that most homeless people are mentally ill, addicted to drugs or criminals.
“[Clallam County Sheriff] Bill Benedict very clearly has said no, the people committing the crimes are not homeless,” Ireland said.
Likely crime victims
“The homeless are more likely to be the victims of crimes . . . unless we enact laws that outlaw homelessness,” she said.
She estimated that four out of five people without stable, safe housing have neither a drug addiction nor a brain disorder.
“That’s very unfair,” Ireland said, “and it’s just flat wrong.”
Four former Emergency Overnight Shelter clients have become long-term residents of the Single Adult Shelter. With a safe haven, they may find jobs and pay room and board at the shelter or find other stable housing, according to Leach.
“We don’t want to have people trapped in that revolving door of emergency after emergency,” Ireland said.
“We want to give people options and make sure that they learn of those options.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
