Bellingham finds new site for winter shelter for those who are homeless
Up to 28 people who are homeless will stay at a temporary winter shelter at Frank Geri Softball Fields on Puget Street, according to an email from the Bellingham mayor’s office on Thursday, Dec. 10.
Bellingham nonprofit HomesNOW! will operate the encampment, which will be located in the parking lot of the softball fields that are part of the city’s Civic Athletic Complex in the Puget neighborhood.
HomesNOW! already runs Unity Village, a tiny homes encampment located in the parking lot at 210 McKenzie Ave. near the Post Point Water Treatment Plant in the Fairhaven neighborhood.
People will stay in tents first “to get the site up and running quickly, until the modular tiny homes arrive,” Janice Keller, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
The site is expected to be ready for occupancy next week, the city said in a post, adding that those modular homes are expected to arrive later in December.
Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood has said that the city is considering three locations for winter shelters.
“We continue to explore additional temporary winter shelter sites with interested partners,” the city’s post said.
Officials said the encampment is being developed under declarations of emergency from the governor, mayor and county executive to respond to the high risk of COVID infection among those who are homeless.
In this joint effort, Whatcom County government has agreed to buy up to 50 or more modular tiny homes and the city of Bellingham has agreed to find a location for the units and an organization to manage such a community.
The shelter at Geri Fields will close in spring, when a longer-term facility at a different location will open, Bellingham officials said.
The new winter encampment will:
▪ Provide shelter to those who have been screened by HomesNOW! and the Bellingham Police Department.
▪ Be drug- and alcohol-free.
▪ Be supervised 24/7 by HomesNOW!
▪ Not allow sex offenders.
Earlier this week, Fleetwood said he would announce a solution to the month-long homeless tent encampment on the lawns of City Hall and the Bellingham Public Library. Camp residents have been protesting a lack of shelter for people across Whatcom County.
“We are actively engaged in the urgent work of creating the conditions to end the encampment at City Hall and this is a key step in that work,” the city said of the Geri Fields shelter.
The tent encampment has been a focal point after an arson fire last weekend in a tent where propane tanks exploded. In addition, Lighthouse Mission Ministries, which operates the Base Camp homeless shelter, was notified on Nov. 28 that a homeless man who stayed at the shelter had tested positive for COVID-19.
He told Base Camp staff that he had been staying at the City Hall tent encampment as well.
There are at least seven confirmed COVID-19 cases between the two Bellingham sites.
Motel 6 shelter scrapped
The city and county had previously discussed using the rooms at the former Motel 6 on Byron Avenue to shelter those who are homeless this winter. Located off Samish Way near Interstate 5, the motel also has been serving as a quarantine and isolation center for COVID-19 since late April.
That plan has been put on hold, according to Jed Holmes, spokesperson for the Whatcom County executive’s office.
“Unfortunately, the facility cannot be easily divided into two functionally and physically separate operations. In particular, there are access and egress concerns which would need to be addressed through significant modifications to the current fencing, gates and curbs. Separate case management and security would also need to be established,” Holmes said to The Bellingham Herald.
“At present, the cost-benefit analysis does not seem to be in favor of investing in these modifications to make only a limited number of rooms available for shelter. This is further complicated by the fact that we are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases and future needs for isolation and quarantine space remain unclear,” he added.
The motel has 60 rooms, 58 of which have been available for use as a quarantine and isolation facility. The other two rooms were set aside for support services.
Because using Motel 6 as a shelter has been scrapped, Holmes said County Executive Satpal Sidhu has worked with the county Health Department to expand a program that shelters homeless households, with the hope of putting up to 20 more households a month into rooms in other motels.
Modular homes
Whatcom County is buying what Holmes described as “individual shelter structures” from 360 Modular Building Systems in Ferndale.
The first batch will total 25, at a cost of $197,018 — or $7,250 each plus taxes.
Holmes said the price for the structures covers delivery as well as basic amenities, such as a bed and pad, lights inside and outside and an electric heater.
The county will buy an additional 25 structures for shelter, from the Ferndale company, if the city asks, he said.
Holmes said Sidhu used emergency purchasing powers to contract with 360 Modular Building Systems for the structures.
They were selected after input from the Homeless Strategies Workgroup and discussions between the city and county administration on costs, shelter needs and product characteristics, he said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
