When it freezes, Everett shelters will open for the homeless

Published 10:54 pm Tuesday, November 27, 2007

An Everett church is joining two nonprofit groups for the first time to open three emergency severe-weather shelters, a place the homeless can go to spread a blanket for a night to stay out of the cold.

The temporary shelters, all in Everett, will open only on nights when temperatures drop below freezing. With forecasts calling for lows below 32 degrees in the next several days, the plan could kick off as early as this weekend.

“The goal is simple: nobody dies from weather exposure,” said Dana Libby, who with his wife leads the Snohomish County chapter of the Salvation Army.

The emergency shelters are aimed at filling the gap when the county’s existing shelters are full and when sleeping outdoors or in cars could be life threatening.

Snohomish County averages 29 nights each year when temperatures drop below freezing, Libby said.

The homeless can find out if the shelters are open by calling 211, the county’s social service hotline.

Information on the nights the emergency shelters will be open will also be spread at the evening feeding programs for those in need run by area churches, Libby said.

Everett’s Trinity Episcopal Church worked with the Salvation Army and the Everett Gospel Mission in the effort to establish the emergency weather shelter program in the county.

It is the first time the three groups have joined to provide emergency shelter during the winter.

The Everett Gospel Mission currently runs two homeless shelters. One, for men, is at 3711 Smith Ave. Another for women and children is at 5112 S. Second Ave.

Even though the two shelters are often full, extra space will be temporarily opened up to homeless men, women, and children when temperatures drop below freezing, said Sylvia Anderson, chief executive.

When a cold snap hits “we take in anyone and give them a blanket and make sure they’re fed,” she said.

Although a backup system to provide shelter for the homeless during winter weather has been talked about for some time, no plan for where to establish the temporary shelters could be agreed upon.

“We decided to use the resources we have to meet the need,” Anderson said.

The Salvation Army, which provides meals and housing vouchers to the needy in downtown Everett, will open up space to assist no more than 20 homeless people, Libby said. Men can sleep in the organization’s community room and men or women with children can sleep in two of its classrooms, he said.

“Our role will be to take folks who have largely been sleeping outside or people that have just unexpectedly found themselves on the street and provide them a place to keep them alive during the night,” Libby said.

“It’s not an ideal shelter,” he said. And although it “doesn’t come close to meeting the need,” it will fill a little of the gap, he said.

Some of the volunteers staffing the Salvation Army shelter will be men who have recently experienced homelessness themselves — nine men now in recovery, working and living at the Everett Gospel Mission’s men’s shelter.

“They said, ‘Who better than us?’ I said you’re exactly right,” Anderson said.

Libby said the volunteers will be welcome. It’s tough to ask people who work to stay up all night and then go to jobs the next day, he said.

Libby acknowledged that some neighbors may not like the idea of the Salvation Army’s building, located at 2525 Rucker Ave., being used as emergency shelter.

“If you’re that upset about that fact, I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not willing to let people die.”

Trinity Episcopal Church, at 2301 Hoyt Ave., will provide emergency winter shelter from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. to a small number of families with children in its basement.

“This is an emergency, severe-weather shelter; not one that’s open every night,” said Brian Wright, a church member.

The church will put out a sign to announce the nights that the shelter is open, he said.

Volunteers from Everett’s First Presbyterian Church will help staff the shelter, he said.

Herald reporter Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.

Emergency winter shelter

To volunteer at an emergency winter shelter or to find out if the shelters are open, call 211, Snohomish County’s social service hotline. Local churches that provide meal programs also will announce the nights the emergency shelters are open.