By Anne Higuera
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

As warmer temperatures arrive, Westside Neighbors Shelter announced this week that they are changing what has been a cold-weather-only overnight shelter to one that is open year-round, at a lower capacity.

The shelter, in the American Legion Post 160 building (3618 SW Alaska), was already providing a daily “warm-up” service every morning, but has only consistently offered a place to sleep overnight from November to March.

Operator Keith Hughes told WSB that the ability to do this is a case of the “stars aligning … It’s been my goal since I opened the shelter. There just wasn’t enough staff to do it.” Now volunteer Tim James is stepping up to be the shelter’s operations manager 4 1/2 days a week, which will free up Hughes and make it possible, with the help of other volunteers, to provide dinner and cots for three dozen people who would otherwise be sleeping outside in spring and summer.

Hughes says this year there was more need for shelter over the winter than they could sustain, despite being able to physically fit everyone in the building. “We had 60 people or more for more than 6 weeks [over the winter]. We put people where we could put them.” But the impact of everyone seeking help spilled over into the neighborhood, causing a variety of complaints and accusations from neighbors about everything from garbage and drug use to too many people at nearby bus stops. “We didn’t have the staff to manage that many people,” Hughes acknowledged, adding that they are working to be sensitive to the neighborhood with the changes they are making.

One of the biggest changes is that, as of last Wednesday, the shelter has been limiting overnight beds to 36. They also have new protocols for checking people in and are continuing to adjust things as needed, while still focusing on providing a safe, dry, and warm place for unhoused people in the community. “Some of the things that were happening in January have been fixed: No garbage on the property, no one living on the front porch. We don’t have 60 people occupying the bus stops when we close at 11 am. We have a more stable group of people here now.”

With stability, there’s the opportunity to bring help directly to people who either stop in for the morning warm-up or who are there overnight. Hughes is in the process of talking with two other nonprofits that he says should be able help transition people from simply finding a place to stay overnight to getting off the streets permanently. “We should have services in house to move them into temporary housing, and then into permanent housing. We never had the ability to do that until now.” And some of that is already happening. Hughes says just last week one person was able to move out of the shelter into low-income housing, while two others are currently in rehab.

While the expansion in services at the shelter is happening at the same time the city has started making CARE Community Crisis Responders available in West Seattle, Hughes says that timing is entirely coincidental. He said they have only had a CARE team visit the shelter once, and it remains to be seen how frequently those services will be needed for people at the shelter, but potentially, “We will have a way to get more people more help.”

Hughes is still working out how to pay for the expansion. The vast majority of the shelter’s funding comes from individual donations from people in the community. Just the morning warm-up services cost $4,000/month, so additional fundraising will be needed with 8 new months of dinners and showers to support. With the full program in the winter, the shelter costs $12,000 a month to run. Hughes hopes more people see the value of what he and other volunteers are doing and pitch in. “Homeless people don’t evaporate. All they do is change places.” He says when shelters are only open part of the year, it’s difficult to provide meaningful support that will get them off the streets. “If you run them out of your park, they go to another park in another neighborhood. You can either help me support these people in my shelter or you can have them sleeping in your doorway.”

Westside Neighbors Shelter accepts donations of food and other supplies listed on its website 7 days a week from 7 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 10 pm. Here’s the most-recent wish list sent to us:

Instant hot chocolate packets
Instant oatmeal packets
ground coffee (don’t need to be fancy, Folgers is fine)
Powdered coffee creamer (like coffee mate canisters)
20 oz cups (like Dixie Ultra)
heavy-duty plastic spoons and forks
paper napkins and paper towels
Swiffer wet jet refill liquid and cleaning pads
Stocking caps, gloves, sweatshirts/hoodies, socks, men’s underwear and T-shirts