PORT ANGELES — The Salvation Army has stepped up to help after learning Tuesday that the city’s only overnight homeless shelter had been closed.
“We’re opening an emergency shelter for 30 days,” said Major Scott Ramsey, co-director of the Port Angeles office.
Serenity House closed its 20-bed Street Outreach Shelter at 508 E. Second St. on Tuesday morning.
Several people showed up at the Salvation Army’s doors at about 8 p.m. Tuesday asking for help with shelter for the night, Ramsey said.
“We got blindsided by it,” he said.
The Salvation Army has no dedicated emergency shelter, so Ramsey bought some camping mats and opened the Salvation Army dining room at 206 S. Peabody St.
“It was a cold night. I couldn’t let them down. These are the people we feed every day,” Ramsey said.
Seven men and three women stayed at the dining room Tuesday night and had access to showers, he said.
The temporary emergency shelter will open at 10 p.m. each night, he said, and those who stay are welcome to have breakfast in the morning.
Ramsey said he didn’t yet know how much it would cost and is seeking donations to cover the cost of paying overnight staff and for cots or small mattresses and sheets.
The Street Outreach Shelter opened each night to homeless people ages 18 and older as a warm, safe, quiet place to sleep.
It generally housed 14 to 18 occupants each night.
Sewer line collapse
The shelter was going to close at some time in the next few weeks due to budget deficits, but a sewer line collapse forced the shelter’s immediate closure, said Kim Leach, executive director of Serenity House of Clallam County, a 501(c)(3) private nonprofit agency founded in 1982.
The organization provides short-term and transitional housing, child care, individualized case management, goal planning, resource referral and weekly life skills classes.
Serenity House is $270,000 short of its $2.7 million annual budget, Leach said.
More than $40,000 would be needed to keep the Street Outreach Shelter open, she said.
Dedicated funding that kept it open was canceled in 2014, she added.
Leach said repairs to the sewer line would have cost several thousand dollars.
“It was Serenity House’s decision to close the shelter,” she said.
The decision was made Monday night, and people who stayed at the shelter were informed of the closure Tuesday morning, she said.
Leach said there is space being made in other Serenity House programs for those who had been staying at the shelter.
Serenity House also operates the Single Adult Shelter for men at 2321 W. 18th St. and the Hill House for women at 1006 W. 11th St.
Those seeking a place to stay overnight can show up at those shelters without preregistering, Leach said.
Hygiene facilities remain open at the Housing Resource Center, 535 E. First St. in Port Angeles.
The closure wasn’t a surprise to some of those who stayed at the shelter.
No water
“I figured it was coming when the water wasn’t running and the toilet wasn’t working,” said Joseph Kenney, 35, who said he was at the shelter Monday night and found himself at the Salvation Army’s doors Tuesday.
There was no discussion of a possible closure before Tuesday or even rumors, he said.
For more housing information, contact Serenity House’s Housing Resource Centers in Port Angeles, 360-565-5041; in Sequim at 583 W. Washington St., 360-477-4918; or in Forks at 287 Founders Way, 360-203-7107.
People also can email info@serenityhouseclallam.org in Port Angeles and Sequim, and westendvista@yahoo.com in Forks.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
