PORT TOWNSEND — A temporary emergency shelter is keeping people warm and fed as they come in from the bitter cold until a seasonal cold weather shelter in the American Legion Hall opens Sunday.
The temporary shelter is at Mountain View Commons, in the former Mountain View School at 1925 Blaine St. It was opened Monday after temperatures dropped.
“It got cold really fast, so we didn’t have time to do any outreach,” said deForest Walker, Olympic Community Action Programs’ director of housing service development.
“So we are doing what we can to get the word out, going to the places where homeless people go and letting everyone know this is available.”
The front door of the school will remain open all night, and the shelter is down the hall and to the left.
After Saturday night, those in need of shelter should go to the American Legion Hall at 209 Monroe St.
The shelter is in the basement of the hall. It will be open every afternoon at 4 p.m. until sometime in March, providing meals and beds.
Walker said that last year, the shelter served 82 individuals, at an average of 16 or 17 per night.
She said there is a capacity, “but no one has ever been turned away.”
Open to anyone
Walker doesn’t like the “homeless” label, since the shelters are open to any single adult over 18 who needs shelter from the cold.
“If your pipes break and you need to get out of the cold, you can come in,” she said.
Walker had special praise for the city of Port Townsend, which she said scrambled to get the emergency shelter open quickly.
She said the operation of the shelter is a community effort supported by the city, Jefferson County, the Port Townsend Police, OlyCAP, the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Port Townsend Food Bank, local clergy, the American Legion and 450 volunteers.
“It’s important that we acknowledge everyone who helps because it gets other people in the community involved,” she said.
Volunteers have spent the night as monitors for the shelter both Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday night, five people came into the shelter. On Tuesday, only one person had come in by 6:30 p.m., but more were expected.
“Some of the people there on Monday were in pretty bad shape,” said American Legion Post Cmdr. Joe Carey, who stayed the night.
“If they hadn’t come in, I don’t think they would have made it.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Carey was shoveling the sidewalk outside of the Legion Hall when one of the shelter’s clients walked by.
Carey made it a point to inform the man, who lives in his car, about the temporary shelter.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
