Bellingham increases severe weather shelter funding to keep the facility operating
In the midst of an extended cold snap and with lowland snow in the forecast, Bellingham is adding $150,000 toward funding a severe weather shelter being operated by the Whatcom County Department of Health and Community Services.
City Council members voted unanimously for the funding on Monday night, supplementing the $500,000 that Whatcom County is spending. The city money kicks in once the county has spent $450,000, according to the contract.
Ann Beck, the Health Department’s human services manager, told council members that those without shelter are desperate to keep warm. The shelter at 925 N. Forest St. in the Lutheran Community Services building has overnight space for up to 70 people.
Demand is high, and several “compassionate” county employees have been working nights in addition to their day jobs to make sure that the shelter can operate from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. when temperatures fall below 32 degrees, Beck said during a City Council committee meeting Monday afternoon.
Two of Bellingham’s largest encampments were cleared during this most recent cold season, possibly contributing to the demand for overnight shelter. The most recent data released from the 2024 Point-In-Time Count surveyed 671 households experiencing homelessness in Whatcom County, although that number is not considered to be an accurate representation of the true number of unhoused community members.
The demand is so great, Beck said, that people are sitting in chairs in the hallway, waiting for someone to leave so they can have a bed.
Shelter guests also do not want to leave the shelter in the morning because of how cold recent weather has been, Beck said.
“It’s very cold and (unhoused people) don’t want to go. The load is becoming very heavy for (county employees),” Beck said.
Beck said that she’s upset with the “vitriol” aimed at unhoused community members at recent government meetings and on social media.
“These are human beings. They were once somebody’s babies. We’re just trying to keep them alive during some very cold weather,” Beck said.
Overnight low temperatures for Bellingham have been averaging 29.7 degrees in January, a figure that’s more than 4 degrees below the normal 34 degrees. Daytime highs are averaging 44.2 degrees against a normal 46.3 degrees, according to National Weather Service data.
Cold weather is expected to linger past the weekend, and snow is possible Sunday and Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.
A petition to increase the temperature threshold for opening the county’s severe winter weather shelter in Bellingham circulated in early December.
The Change.org petition, which has garnered almost 900 signatures, urged Whatcom County Officials to further raise the winter weather shelter threshold to 40°F, including wind chill, “to account for the life-threatening effects of wind chill and wet conditions, which can cause hypothermia at temperatures well above freezing.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 9:26 AM.
