PORT ANGELES — The Salvation Army has closed its emergency overnight shelter at 206 Peabody St. while the organization works with city officials on permitting requirements.
Nathan West, city community and economic development director, said Tuesday that city officials Monday notified the Salvation Army that its shelter was illegal as an overnight facility because it lacks sprinklers, among other safety issues.
West said city officials learned of the shelter, which has operated since mid-February, on Monday.
Two dozen homeless men and women stayed at the nonprofit facility Monday, Salvation Army Major Scott Ramsey said Tuesday.
“I didn’t want to give them no notice,” said Ramsey, who manages the facility with his wife, Major Cherilee Ramsey.
The shelter now will be open daily from 9 p.m. to midnight, when sleeping bags will be given to people who need them, and will reopen from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., Scott Ramsey said.
The group was told to obtain a change-of-use building permit and address safety issues such as the present lack of a fire sprinkler system and ensuring there are adequate escape routes in the event of an emergency.
“There are a number of important life-safety issues that have to be addressed before people can be residing there and use it as a overnight shelter,” West said Tuesday.
“We will find a way to help the Salvation Army work through those issues quite rapidly.”
Ramsey said a sprinkler system would cost $250,000, an expense the organization cannot afford.
By Tuesday afternoon, West and Ramsey said they were attempting to find a way to meet the requirements of the building code to reopen the shelter.
But Ramsey said the shelter would at least be closed Tuesday night, if not upcoming nights as well.
“We just kind of pushed things over, and we did emergency housing,” Ramsey explained.
“We did not check with the requirements the city might have had for that.”
On Monday, a city official “asked what I was operating,” he recalled.
“They were unaware we were there.”
West said city officials learned Monday that the building was being used as a shelter.
“They were just operating under the radar,” he said.
“Typically, we’d expect someone to turn in an application for a new use of a building.”
The Salvation Army began providing overnight services to the homeless after Serenity House closed its 20-bed Street Outreach Shelter at 505 E. Second St. in mid-February due to budget deficits and a sewer line collapse, the Peninsula Daily News reported Feb. 18.
The overnight shelter has been mentioned in multiple news reports since.
“When Serenity House closed its doors, we kind of went up and running, and we kind of did it the best we knew how,” Ramsey said.
West said the city is upholding the International Building Code, which the state has adopted.
“The city is not demanding anything of the Salvation Army,” he said.
“Rather, this is a state code that we are entrusted to ensure is implemented to protect the life and safety of individuals that might be residing at this location.”
Serenity House operates the Single Adult Shelter at 2321 W. 18th St.
Kim Leach, Serenity House executive director, said Tuesday that the organization has enough extra cots and floor space to accommodate homeless people who were using the Salvation Army’s facility.
“We have plenty of room if people have sleeping bags,” she said.
Serenity House has separate dorms for men and women.
The Salvation Army’s new kitchen, dining room and pantry are set for a grand opening at 2 p.m. Friday at 123 S. Peabody St. in a former NAPA Auto Parts store.
The organization still hopes to convert the old dining room at 206 S. Peabody St. into a permanent overnight shelter with dedicated sleeping areas for men and women, Ramsey said.
The organization has applied for $40,000 from Clallam County for the conversion.
The Ramseys, who have managed Salvation Army holdings in Port Angeles since June 2013, are being transferred June 29 to the Bremerton Salvation Army.
The new leaders will be Majors John and Sabrina Tumey, who manage the Corps Community Center in Denver.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
