Westside Neighbors Shelter reducing overnight operations due to lack of funding

(WSB photo, October)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

It costs about $26,000 a month to run West Seattle’s only overnight shelter, Westside Neighbors Shelter in The Triangle.

That covers not only regular operational costs like utilities, but also security – insurance requires one overnight watchperson for every 24 people staying overnight, and they’ve been hosting 36.

So the shelter board has voted to reduce overnight operations to cold-weather-emergency-only as of December 31 – unless they can raise enough money to keep going at full overnight operations.

All this is according to a conversation we just had with Laurie Utterback of the shelter board, who we contacted for clarification after multiple people told us word was circulating in the community that the shelter would be shutting down.

Earlier this fall, the shelter made a deal with a Burien church to provide administration and security help. But that isn’t free, and Utterback said they’ve got a bill to pay that will take almost all the money the shelter has. They were going to have to cease overnight operations – except for very cold weather – as of tomorrow, Utterback says, but now that’s been extended to the end of the year, thanks to donations from a religious congregation that got word of their dilemma. After that – again, unless they can raise enough money to cover costs – they will only accept overnight guests in very cold weather, which is the only service they get some government funding to cover. The daytime warming center will continue, Utterback says. Costs including security add up to about $26,000 a month,

The shelter is in American Legion Post 160’s building at 3618 SW Alaska in the West Seattle Triangle. The agreement with Highline United Methodist Church followed discussion of community concerns including street disorder surrounding the shelter, which has been run for years virtually single-handedly by the Post 160 commander, Keith Hughes. In addition, they’ve been talking with Seattle Police and now have a trespass agreement with SPD making it easier to remove troublemakers.

ADDED: For anyone wondering how to help, that information is in this news release sent just after we published this report.

Share This

from West Seattle Blog… https://ift.tt/Ht3sVTS
via IFTTT