Everett nonprofit distributes portable winter shelters to homeless

EVERETT — The Shelterbag is nothing much to look at. It’s just a thick bundle of gray nylon at first glance, maybe something you’d take on a camping trip.

But to Josian Rodriguez, the Shelterbag is the difference between safety and exposure. Some nights, it could be the difference between life and death.

On Wednesday, Everett-based nonprofit Angel Resource Connection distributed 160 Shelterbags to local unhoused people, along with other winter necessities like hats and gloves. The bags go above and beyond a regular sleeping bag: they’re a mattress, pillow, blanket, and waterproof shelter all in one portable package.

The bags were created by Dutch fashion designer Bas Timmer. His nonprofit, the Sheltersuit Foundation, distributes the bags and Sheltersuits, a winter jacket that doubles as a sleeping bag, at no cost to groups working directly with unsheltered folks.

Angel Resource Connection president Penelope Protheroe called out to Rodriguez as he passed by the Carnegie Resource Center, where the nonprofit had an assembly line of volunteers on the sidewalk handing gear out to anyone who came by.

“Do you need some help, sir?” Protheroe asked. “We have hats, gloves, sleeping bags, anything you need to stay warm.”

She rolled out a Shelterbag from its protective case. Protheroe showed Rodriguez its sturdy waterproof fabric, the built-in foam mattress, the pocket in the bottom to store valuables out of sight. The bag is warm on its own, but it can fit a standard sleeping bag inside for extra protection on the coldest nights, Protheroe said.

“This is a big deal because it would keep me dry,” Rodriguez, who often lives unsheltered, said. “If the shelter doesn’t have room or it isn’t open, you’re out in the cold and you just have to find any corner, hope you don’t get rained on.”

Keeping dry is a constant struggle for unsheltered people in the Pacific Northwest, Protheroe said. If your sleeping bag or clothes get soaked, it’s more than a minor inconvenience. It means you’re without a way to stay warm and stuck with the challenge of replacing your ruined gear.

Protheroe said her group is one of the only ones in Everett buying and distributing sleeping bags directly to the unhoused. This was the first time the products were available in the Pacific Northwest, she said. When Protheroe learned the Foundation had a barge loaded with bags set to arrive in Portland the very next week, she rented a U-Haul and met it at the dock. She brought back 700 bags to divide between her nonprofit and other outreach groups in the Seattle area.

Tony Docekal, a photographer for the Sheltersuit Foundation, said the idea for the product came when a friend’s father was forced to sleep on the streets for just a couple of nights. It was cold, she said, but not cold enough for the local warming shelter to open. The friend’s father died of hypothermia.

Timmer was inspired to use what he had around him to find a solution to what he saw as a very treatable problem, Docekal said. The first Sheltersuits and bags were stitched together from upcycled deadstock fabrics. Now, they’re sewn in Cape Town, South Africa, by formerly homeless women who can use the job as a step out of poverty, Docekal said.

Docekal came to the Everett distribution event from Paris, where she and Timmer have been working on a streetwear collaboration with French fashion house Chloé. The hope is that the fashion line will help to raise funds and attract interest to support expanded Sheltersuit production, Docekal said.

Angel Resource Connection board member Carie Claxton said she’s been volunteering with the group for years, helping Protheroe serve hundreds of meals to the unhoused each week and raising funds for clients’ pet care. She feels the group helps as many people as they can, but said they’re always running up against a lack of resources.

“You can buy sleeping bags for people all winter long, but if they get wet or get torn up when police raid a camp, they’re done,” Claxton said. “And then people will freeze to death on the streets. No one should die of exposure — it’s a human right to be warm.”

For Protheroe, keeping warm is a lifelong mission. It’s also deeply personal. Her sister, Kim, died of hypothermia while sleeping on the street after being forced out of her home by domestic violence.

Protheroe said she thinks often about how if Kim had just had something like a Shelterbag, she might still be alive today. If she had been able to connect with a group like Angel Resource Connection, she may have gotten help finding housing and support. She said she hopes to distribute more Shelterbags each winter going forward.

“I’m not saying a Shelterbag will be the magic pill that fixes everyone’s shelter problems forever,” Protheroe said. “But you just get what people need and they’ll be able to make it. Each and every time I look at each and every one of these people I see somebody’s brother or sister, son or daughter and it’s personal for me.”

Riley Haun: 425-339-3192; riley.haun@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @RHaunID.