PORT ANGELES — A conditional use permit for Serenity House of Clallam County to expand its 108-bed homeless shelter by up to 83 percent should be approved with conditions that include regular community meetings at the facility, city planners have recommended.
The 2,000-square-foot building would house another 40-80 beds at the nonprofit’s 2321 W. 18th St. property. It would be constructed under a permit discussed at a virtual Port Angeles hearing examiner meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Interior sleeping space would increase from 108 interior beds to up to 188 beds.
For occupancy for up to 30 days, five overnight vehicle campsite spaces would be in the parking lot and five single-person tent campsites on the property, boosting the site occupancy limit to 198 people.
“We’re pretty excited about being able to expand the shelter,” Sharon Maggard, Serenity House executive director, said last week.
“We’re pretty excited about it in terms of, I think it helps our community, and it is a joint project between the [county] health department and the city.”
She said a point-in-time census of homeless individuals showed 185 single adults were homeless, a number that, in the past few months, with the economic pressures created by the pandemic, may have grown to 250 people.
The $403,000 expansion project would be funded with federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money funneled through the state Department of Commerce and pledged by Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles, county and city officials said.
The county’s portion is $280,680 and the city’s is $122,214, Kevin LoPicollo, county interim Health and Human Services Director, and Allyson Brekke, city Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) director, said last week.
Maggard said Serenity House would add 40 beds if one floor is built and 80 if two floors are built, a decision expected to be made by mid-January, when a building design will be finalized and depending on the hearing examiner’s decision.
Maggard said the target date for “substantial completion” of the project is by April 30, a deadline set by the grants.
The rental contract expires May 31 between Health and Human Services and the Port of Port Angeles for a COVID-19 social distancing center. It’s located near Serenity House in the port’s 1010 building for those unable to stay at the shelter because of social distancing guidelines that prevent the spread of the virus.
Occupants of the social distancing center would move to the new Serenity House.
There were 53 living at the center Dec. 7, and those numbers have reached 67 occupants, LoPicollo said.
Space in the 1010 building includes quarantine and isolation areas for people exposed to or who have COVID-19 and do not need to be hospitalized.
A decision to extend the county’s $15,000 monthly rental contract with the port beyond May 31 would be made by county and port commissioners.
The hearing examiner must decide on the permit by Dec. 31 if the record is not kept open. It is appealable for 21 days afterward.
The maximum 80-person interior bed capacity is not based on minimum 6-foot social distancing guidelines that prompted Health and Human Services to coordinate the opening of the social distancing center and reduced the COVID-driven capacity of Serenity House to 72 clients.
If social distancing is still being recommended by the time the facility opens and only one floor is available, 20 people would be able to stay in the new building, Maggard said.
A conditional use permit to build Serenity House was approved in 2001 to allow it in the residential medium-density zone.
A homeless shelter is not a traditional residential use “due to the transitional short-term nature of the occupancy and unique characteristics of occupants,” city Community Development Manager Emma Bolin said in a project review document.
Conditions in the old permit would be replaced by those contained in the new permit.
New conditions would include quarterly “community engagement meetings.” City police and DCED officials would be invited.
The goal would be “to monitor and compensate for significant impacts,” Brekke said in the city’s Dec. 1 mitigated determination of nonsignificance, which determined the project would not have an adverse impact on the environment
Four of the 10 findings address overnight and tent camping.
“Limited camping provides support services to help people accomplish an indoor move,” Bolin said.
Overnight camping vehicles would have to fit into 9-foot-wide, 18-foot-long spaces.
“The proposed management of the site would ensure proper sanitation, solid waste disposal and security,” Brekke said in the determination.
The proposal serves the public interest by addressing the homeless-population goals of the city’s comprehensive plan, relocating social distancing center clients, increasing the capacity for dealing with the economic fallout from the pandemic, and increasing community engagement and monitoring, Bolin said.
Maggard does not foresee bathrooms being needed in the new building, but said Friday they could be added to the final design.
That decision will take into account the hearing examiner’s determination on how many beds can be added to the facility.
“The building I am supposed to be building is supposed to be sleeping space,” Maggard said.
The new structure would be next to the main building which has, for clients, a men’s room with three stalls, three urinals and three showers, a women’s room with six stalls and three showers, and a lobby bathroom.
There are two portable toilets and two handwashing stations on the outside property.
“If the head count we come up with indicates I need more bathrooms, we will supply more bathrooms,” Maggard said.
“A conditional use permit is very different than a building permit.
“The conditional use permit is telling us how many people will be allowed to occupy a space on that land and what we can use the land for.”
According to the DCED staff report, “building and fire permit reviews will require code analysis for [the Americans with Disabilities Act], plumbing fixtures, fire, life and safety, fire sprinkler system approval per code and application of all adopted codes.”
Maggard said Serenity House is at capacity nightly. Some have lived at the shelter on and off for more than 15 years.
“These are more or less our own people, and Serenity House is a solution to getting them off the street and getting them meals and clean clothes,” she said.
A “beat the streets” program helps residents get clean and sober, and referrals assist them with obtaining permanent housing and jobs, Maggard said.
The staff report and other DCED documents on the project are available under Hearing Examiner at “12/16/20” on the Meetings & Agendas page at www.cityofpa.us.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
