PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County Housing Fund Board voted to give Olympic Community Action Programs an additional $40,000 to continue operating the homeless shelter in Port Townsend through the summer.
The $40,000 allocation proposal must go before the Board of County Commissioners for final approval.
The shelter is housed at the American Legion Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26 building at 209 Monroe St. in Port Townsend. It is administered by Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP), which is committing an additional $20,000 toward operations.
At a special meeting Wednesday, board members voted unanimously to allocate an additional $40,000 from Jefferson County’s Affordable Housing and Homeless Housing Assistance Fund to keep the shelter open through July and August.
According to board member Aislin Palmer, who is also a member of the Port Townsend City Council, it costs roughly $30,000 a month to operate the shelter, mostly in staffing costs. Palmer said OlyCAP was in the process of restructuring its shelter model and that an emergency need for funding should not occur in the near future.
One board member, Port Townsend Deputy Mayor Amy Howard, said she voted for the allocation but called it a dangerous precedent and said a process needs to be established for emergency funding.
“Either we are setting ourselves up where we are able to respond to emergency requests, and that’s a format and a process, and we’ve set aside a reserve to do it,” Howard said. “But right now we are in an area where we don’t have any formal policies around that.”
In past years, the shelter had closed during those months due to less demand, according to OlyCAP Executive Director Cherish Cronmiller, but since 2018, the shelter has operated year-round. The shelter began as an emergency winter-time facility but has increased its hours as demand has grown.
The shelter is typically open from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., but Cronmiller said it will remain open during the day when people need shelter from hot weather or from wildfire smoke.
Cronmiller said OlyCAP the typically asks the county for $180,000 annually to run the shelter but this year received only $140,000 and that other COVID relief funds being used to support the facility had run out.
Cronmiller estimated the shelter costs roughly $240,000 a year to operate.
The shelter also is supported by the Community Outreach Association Shelter Team, which Cronmiller said has lost membership and is unable to contribute as much to the shelter as in past years.
Additionally, Cronmiller said the American Legion has increased the rent charged for the shelter from $1,000 a month to $1,750 a month starting in July.
Cronmiller said OlyCAP currently has funding to run the shelter through December and recently signed a new lease with the Legion which ends in June 2024.
When the shelter first opened as an emergency facility, the American Legion charged OlyCAP as little as $5 a month for rent, but as the operation has grown into a full-time operation, the post’s management voted to increase rent, according to Bob Saring, club manager and member of the executive board.
A new shelter is under construction at the Caswell-Brown Village on Mill Road, but that facility is not scheduled to open until September 2024.
The shelter has 28 beds and two sick beds and, in winter months, can reach capacity, Cronmiller said. Currently, there are about 14-18 residents, she said.
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Reporter Peter Segall can be reached at peter.segall@peninsuladailynews.com.
