Bellingham takes ‘another step forward in our collaborative work to expand shelter options’
The City of Bellingham on Wednesday announced that it has opened a Young Adult Winter Shelter at Civic Stadium in partnership with Northwest Youth Services and Whatcom County.
“Our winter shelter for young adults is another step forward in our collaborative work to expand shelter options that are healthy, safe and offer services to help people find permanent housing,” Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood said in a release on the winter shelter. “Young adults are a vulnerable population among people experiencing homelessness.
“We are pleased to partner with Northwest Youth Services and the county to provide age-appropriate services that we hope will lead to safety and healing, stability and permanent homes.”
The overnight-only shelter can provide room for up to 25 adults between ages 18 and 24 in the Civic Stadium locker room during the winter months, according to the release. Services will also include meals, showers, restrooms, basic medical supplies, age-appropriate resource referrals and some service navigation support.
The program started Monday, Dec. 13, and will operate through March 1, 2022, as a low-barrier shelter option for young adults, according to the release. It is offered in addition to the Base Camp overflow shelter and Gardenview Tiny House Village, which opened Dec. 10.
The program is operated by Northwest Youth Services and funded through a joint partnership by the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County.
“The overall goal with operating a winter shelter is to cultivate a temporary safe, welcoming, and healing environment for young adults, during the most critical months in our community,” Executive Director of Northwest Youth Services Jason McGill said in the release. “In addition, this will be an opportunity to ensure that young adults are connected to other services that Northwest Youth Services offers, so they are able to either jump start or continue on in their healing journey.”
Funding for the Young Adult Winter Shelter was approved by the Bellingham City Council during its regular meeting on Oct. 25, according to the release, and comes in part from revenue raised by Washington State House Bill 1590, the recently passed affordable housing sales tax.
“To offer a safe space for young adults to access during the harshest weather months in our community, we knew that we could not achieve this alone,” McGill said in the release. “Partnering with the city and county was critical. Not only did the city and county offer the necessary resources, but they also ensured that the process to achieving this critical service was a priority.”
Nightly guests at the Young Adult Winter Shelter will be admitted on site at the Civic Stadium locker room, with check in daily at 7:30 p.m., the release states. Northwest Youth Services’ staff will be available for support until guests leave at 8 a.m. Doors to the shelter will close at 10 p.m. nightly.
Referrals will be made by Northwest Youth Service’s street outreach team and its other community programs, and other community emergency housing providers will direct young people to the shelter.
Northwest Youth Services already provides programming targeted towards supporting youth in the community, according to the release, including the Positive Adolescent Development shelter serving youth between 13 to 17 years old, and the Ground Floor Day Center, which supports’ the needs of homeless youth during the daytime hours.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 12:28 PM.
