PORT ANGELES — The Salvation Army’s new dining room and food pantry are nearly ready to open, and the organization is seeking funds to convert the old dining room into a permanent overnight shelter.
A grand opening will be held June 19 for the new kitchen, dining room and food pantry in a former auto parts store building at the corner of Second and Peabody streets.
Then the current dining room can be converted to a permanent overnight shelter with beds in the main room for men and a dedicated women’s room to provide privacy, said Major Scott Ramsey, co-director of the Salvation Army’s operations in Port Angeles.
The current dining room and food pantry can seat about 45, while the new dining room will seat 140 with a full commercial kitchen, offices, a hygiene center and a food pantry in a separate area of the building.
The emergency shelter opened in February after the closure of the Serenity House Street Outreach Center.
The shelter has been open each night to area homeless for 90 days, and donations will allow for another 90 days of operations, Ramsey said.
“We have raised $17,000,” he said.
The Salvation Army has applied for a grant from Clallam County to fund the conversion and ongoing operations but has not yet heard if its request will be granted.
“I need to find new dollars for this,” Ramsey said.
The cost of conversion has not yet been estimated, and raising $3,000 a month for continued operations is the primary goal at this time, he said.
To donate to the Salvation Army, phone 360-452-7679, drop off donations to the office at 206 S. Peabody St. or send checks to the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 2229, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
The shelter’s first 90 days includes some “real victories,” Ramsey said, including one homeless man who arrived at the shelter the first night it was open, Feb. 17, and has since earned his commercial driver’s license.
He begins his job as a truck driver next week.
Other shelter guests are spending their days volunteering with the Salvation Army, he said.
He said the conversion and continued operation of the shelter need both immediate and ongoing funding.
On Feb. 17, an overnight shelter owned by Serenity House, Street Outreach Shelter at 505 E. Second St. that housed 16 to 18 people, closed its doors with no notice.
Serenity officials said the closure was due to lack of funding and a sewer line failure.
That night, the Salvation Army opened its dining room to those displaced from the Street Outreach Center.
Two night supervisors were hired, and Ramsey said the program has been so successful, the Salvation Army has decided to make the emergency shelter a permanent fixture.
Once the food operation moves to its new location, temporary cots will be replaced with permanent beds, the soon-to-be former kitchen will be converted into a laundry facility and a backroom into a women’s room, Ramsey said.
Shower and restroom facilities are already available.
The future women’s room, which is currently a 12-foot-by-20-foot storage pantry, needs a large window or a door to provide an emergency exit in case of a fire or other emergency, he said.
Four sets of bunkbeds would be placed in the women’s room to house as many as eight per night.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
