Lighthouse Mission expansion plan faces this neighborhood opposition
Bellingham City Council created a three-block exclusion zone around the Lighthouse Mission on Monday, June 6, in advance of a hearing this week where the fate of a permit required to expand the homeless shelter will be decided.
Lighthouse Mission Ministries, which operates the 200-bed Base Camp shelter downtown, is seeking to build a four-story facility for up to 400 people at its 910 W. Holly St. location in the Lettered Streets neighborhood, on the edge of the Old Town district.
Hans Erchinger-Davis, the Lighthouse Mission’s president and CEO, said the mission’s staff has been trying to find a new shelter site for several years, but has repeatedly met with opposition.
“It’s been a pretty arduous task to find a location,” and the mission eventually decided to expand at its current “under utilized” property, Erchinger-Davis told The Bellingham Herald,
But several nearby residents oppose the plan, citing increased litter and criminal activity, and fears about the safety of their children.
“I’m worried about the conduct of people who are kicked out,” said Bri O’Hare, who’s lived in the Lettered Streets for four years.
“It was a really challenging and difficult situation to live by and next to” when the shelter was operating on West Holly Street before 2020, O’Hare told The Herald.
“Do we really want to be putting 400 low-barrier shelter beds in one spot?” said O’Hare, who was among several residents who contacted The Herald with their concerns.
Many of the neighbors have written to Mayor Seth Fleetwood and other city officials, and they plan to attend an online session regarding the Lighthouse Mission’s application for a conditional use permit at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 8.
“One of our concerns is that a lot of this has been done and none of us knew about it,” said Lettered Streets resident Scott Jones.
Jones said the proposed shelter is too big, and too close to a residential area.
“It feels like they’re warehousing people, rather than helping them get their lives together,” he told The Herald.
Lighthouse Mission’s plan would expand available shelter capacity citywide, including 100 beds for families, 25 beds for medical patients, and 25 beds for behavioral health patients, Erchinger-Davis said.
It also would have 100 beds available in emergencies such as extremely cold weather, solving the recurring problem of finding a temporary cold-weather shelter.
Further, it’s close to services that connect residents to jobs, housing and health care, Erchinger-Davis said.
“It needs to be where the services are. It has to be within walking distance. You can’t do that at Irongate or the airport,” he said.
It’s also impractical and expensive to have several smaller shelters at different locations, he said.
“Nobody else is willing to do it. This is our wheelhouse,” he said.
Erchinger-Davis said the Lighthouse Mission will have staff patrolling its Holly Street location, picking up trash and reporting criminal activity and a neighborhood liaison to provide communication with nearby residents.
And the exclusion zone around the new shelter will allow city officials to restrict parking, camping and loitering in the immediate area in an effort to limit what Erchinger-Davis called “predatory” activity nearby.
“We do have a moral obligation, we feel, to the neighbors,” Erchinger-Davis said. “We’re all about breaking barriers. We want to see lives transformed, not just three hots and a cot. A really solid safety net helps support everyone, and that includes the neighbors. We need the neighbors to cherish this kind of opportunity.”
This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 12:10 PM.
