BELLINGHAM - A shelter with 16 beds for homeless youths could be completed in two months, Northwest Youth Services Executive Director Riannon Bardsley said, if the agency gets the money it needs to finish the work.
Despite a $156,000 shortfall on the $324,000 project as of Wednesday, Jan. 25, Bardsley is optimistic. The original aim was to complete the work in the first quarter of 2012, and that hasn't changed, she said.
"This is still my goal," Bardsley said in an email. "If we can raise all the money, we could be done the end of the first quarter of 2012."
Once the shelter on the second floor of the agency's office building on North State Street is up and running, it will have 16 beds for homeless, at-risk or runaway teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. Today, six beds are available to homeless youths at an off-site location rented by Northwest Youth Services.
The agency owns its office building, so the new shelter will eliminate rental costs and additional utility bills, Bardsley said.
Earlier in the week, the shelter project got a boost when a donor who wished to remain anonymous walked into the agency's offices and wrote a check for $20,000, Bardsley said. The agency still needs at least $100,000 in cash and up to $56,000 in in-kind donations to finish the renovation, she said.
In-kind donations would include materials or labor offered by businesses at no cost or a reduced price.
Agency staffers took current and potential supporters on a tour of the space Wednesday night. The framing for the walls is in place, giving attendees a good sense of the layout, but further progress won't happen at full speed until more funding comes in, along with licensing and permit approvals from the state and city.
The project's budget grew by more than 50 percent after Northwest Youth Services learned it had to build separate bathrooms and kitchens for what are in fact two separate facilities - a short-term, day-and-night residence with three beds, and an emergency shelter with 13 beds for only overnight use.
Northwest Youth Service board members and staffers leading the tour said an important component of the new facility will be the emergency shelter, something the agency doesn't operate now.
The emergency shelter will allow the agency to take in youths without signed permission from a guardian, board Secretary Jeannine Lyon said before the tour began. These youths can sleep in a warm bed, use a washer and dryer, and simply be somewhere safe.
On the residential side, youths will stay for up to three weeks, Bardsley said.
The federal government imposes the 21-day limit. In any case, Lyon said, the goal is not to keep homeless children for an extended time. Rather, it's to help them find independent housing or get counseling with their family.
"We are not replacing foster care," Bardsley said. "This is a space for kids not in any system."
Margie Kimberley was among a group from First Congregational Church of Bellingham taking the tour. The church is one of several major supporters of the new shelter.
A retired Bellingham teacher, Kimberley has a sense for what at-risk youths need. If homeless youths can't get services here, Kimberley said, they are sent to Everett and lose contact with whatever support system they might have.
"They're pulled out of their home community, where they oftentimes have some support," Kimberley said. "The already infirm ground where they stand becomes more unstable."
