PORT ANGELES — The Salvation Army, with the aid of police, has cleared out a small camp of transients squatting in a parking lot south of the nonprofit organization’s church building at 206 S. Peabody St.
“It has been a real popular spot for the last six months to a year to camp out [especially] after we closed the shelter, and even while the shelter was closing,” Salvation Army Major John Tumey said Thursday evening.
The Salvation Army’s temporary homeless shelter at 123 S. Peabody St., was closed Oct. 1.
Tumey said that people began squatting in the 10-stall parking lot and in a recessed area to the southwest that is not visible from Peabody Street.
“They chose to sleep in our parking lot, which for a while was okay, but then it started getting worse and more people started coming,” Tumey said.
The transients were familiar with that location because the Salvation Army used to serve food out of the adjacent gymnasium, Tumey said.
The camp grew to about 15 to 20 people in late December and early January, Tumey said.
That is about the same number of homeless who had been staying in the shelter across the street before it closed.
The squatters were mostly living in vans in the parking lot, and tents in the recessed area, Tumey said.
“I think we had about five vehicles up here which had about three to four people in them each,” he said.
“And then there were three to four tents down on the southwest corner.”
The Salvation Army began looking into cleaning out the area after receiving complaints from area residents and business owners, Tumey said.
“After we came back from Christmas vacation, there was just too many complaints about stuff going on,” Tumey said.
“We had to close the parking lot down and say no more overnight camping or parking.”
Most concerning were reports the transients had begun arming themselves with weapons, Tumey said.
“Some of the young gentlemen were carrying baseball bats and steel pipes around because some other people in the community,” who were driving by, “were throwing eggs at them and harassing them,” he said.
Some of the homeless also were loitering inside the laundromat to the south of the parking lot at night to warm up, Tumey said.
Earlier this month, the Salvation Army posted signs at the parking lot prohibiting the use of the area as a campground, and began coordinating with police to patrol the area more frequently, Tumey said.
The goal was to “make it safe for the surrounding neighborhood and the businesses around here because we want to be good neighbors,” Tumey said.
And the efforts seem to be paying off, he said Thursday during a tour of the now empty lot.
The police department was “very helpful” during the process, Tumey said.
And, “they patrol the area now a little more,” he said.
Now that the parking lot is empty, Tumey said he hopes that will prevent others from gathering there.
“This is a way to deter people from coming here at night now that their friends aren’t here,” he said.
Serenity House of Clallam County, a private nonprofit agency founded in 1982, operates an emergency overnight shelter at 2321 W. 18th St., in Port Angeles.
The overnight shelter can accommodate 16 overnight guests, with overflow space for another six to eight beds each night beginning at 8:15 p.m. and closing at 7 a.m., according to Kim Leach, executive director.
“The overnight shelter is a sleeping shelter so people can go there to go to sleep and are expected to leave in the morning,” she said Friday.
The emergency shelter has been serving about a dozen people each night of late, she said.
There might also be openings in the long-term single adult shelter at the same location, although that is generally filled, she said.
At that shelter, “residents can stay there 24 hours a day and they get on-site case management” for up to 45 days, Leach said.
Clallam Transit System’s No. 26 Westside bus makes its last run past the shelter, located near William R. Fairchild International Airport, at about 7:15 p.m.
It makes its first morning stop at the shelter weekdays 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.
Serenity House is working on finding alternate transportation, Leach said.
“We had a van that was donated and we are trying to get the resources pulled together to get the repairs done on it,” she said.
After that is completed, shelter staff will drive downtown once or twice a night to pick up clients if they need to come to the overnight shelter, she said.
“We are trying to come up with solutions, but it costs money. We are moving in that direction.”
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
