PORT ANGELES — Serenity House has trimmed hours at its main Housing Resource Center while it tries to fill a $400,000 hole in its finances.
It also plans to close its Hygiene Center.
In about two weeks, it will move its offices into what now is its Thrift Store furniture warehouse, 502 E. First St.
The resource center, 535 E. First St., is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from noon to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays. New hours began Wednesday.
The measure will save about $20,000 a month, said Kim Leach, Serenity House’s executive director.
Hygiene Center closing
The agency’s Hygiene Center, 516 E. First St. — which offers showers and laundry facilities to the homeless — will close after Friday, saving another $1,700 monthly.
Serenity House also reduced 21 workers’ hours by 300 hours a month besides the 56 hours it cut several weeks ago.
The reductions will affect its Tempest housing program, Family Services, Single Adult Services and the Port Angeles thrift store.
Besides the Housing Resource Center, Serenity House’s Dream Center for teenagers and its job-readiness program known as the HUB will move into the warehouse on a “very optimistic” target date of April 13, Leach said.
Salvation Army helps
The agency closed its overnight Street Outreach Shelter on Feb. 17 for lack of $40,000 to replace its failed sewer pipe.
The overnight center’s mission was adopted — at least for another two months — by the Salvation Army in its headquarters at 206 S. Peabody St., where it has showers for men and women.
Major Scott Ramsey said the Salvation Army was considering adding laundry facilities there.
He hopes it can offer washers and dryers in addition to overnight beds when it opens its new facilities in mid-June in a renovated building across the street at 123 S. Peabody St.
As for other Serenity House offices, the West End Housing Resource Center, 287 Founders Way in Forks, will be open 20 hours a week.
Leach said clients should call 360-203-7107 for details.
Hours at the Sequim resource center, 583 W. Washington St. — which are from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays — will not change.
The housing resource centers provide intake, assessment and placement to match low-income clients to available housing services and provide a free listing service for landlords with affordable rental homes.
Meanwhile, Serenity House will reintegrate its Hill House for women into the Single Adult Shelter on West 18th Street. A date for the move has not been determined, Leach said.
Growing demand
Although it has met its 2006 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness and been lauded as a state and national model, Serenity House also encountered a nexus of growing demands while state and federal grants dried up.
The agency also lost income from its thrift stores in Port Angeles and Sequim that once provided $300,000 in annual revenue.
It has about $400,000 in bills that are overdue by at least 31 days, and some of its private housing providers are turning tenants back onto the street because Serenity House hasn’t paid their rent.
The thrift store problems have been solved by new management in Port Angeles and new retail quarters in Sequim, Leach said, but grants that once totaled $345 million vanished during the recession as federal lawmakers and state legislators changed their spending priorities.
“We are trying to secure a loan and are looking into selling property,” Leach told the Peninsula Daily News, “but these options are proving to be a lengthy and arduous process.”
Leach also sought help last week from Clallam County commissioners, whom she called “very supportive,” and from 24th District state Sen. Jim Hargrove, but has received no commitments.
“We’re feverishly writing small grants that might be awarded within a two- to four-month time frame. We continue to make changes in our utility costs and phone systems,” Leach said.
Such “small potatoes” savings, as she called them, left staff cuts as “the largest leverage we have right now to cut operating costs.
“The layoff is temporary, but we don’t have a return date and won’t until we have some resolution on the debt and ongoing operating costs.”
Publicity about Serenity House’s financial plight didn’t open a spigot of private donations, Leach said, and a Zumbathon fundraiser is planned but not scheduled.
“We could really use a volunteer to help coordinate a fundraiser or two,” Leach said, adding that her reduced staff has little time to plan an event.
Serenity House is a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) agency to which tax-deductible donations can be mailed at P.O. Box 4047, Port Angeles, WA 98363; made via Paypal at www.serenityhouseclallam.org; or dropped off at any agency office or thrift store.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
