Steven Pack holds up a cot they will be using at the shelter during a walk through on Friday.
Gin Pack talks about the new night by night shelter at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds during a walk through on Friday.
Meja Handlen, Lewis County Social Services Manager, right, and Ryan Cole, Lewis County COVID Outreach Specialist, talk about social distancing protocols at the shelter during a walk through on Friday.
Lewis County Public Health and Social Services has partnered with the Salvation Army to operate a night-by-night homeless shelter that will be open every night from Nov. 1 to March 31, replacing the severe weather shelter which was open only on nights when temperatures dropped below 38 degrees.
The night-by-night shelter will be at the same location as the severe weather shelter at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds in Chehalis. The new shelter will not be run by volunteers like the severe weather shelter but by paid employees.
“The Salvation Army determined that the volunteer-based shelter isn’t going to work with COVID-19. A great number of volunteers are in the high-risk category,” said Lewis County Social Services Manager Meja Handlen.
The city of Centralia allocated $5,000 in CARES Act funding to aid with the setup of the night-by-night shelter. The shelter also received about $198,000 from the state Department of Commerce in an Emergency Solutions grant — which will go toward supplies, outreach, rental assistance and the shelter.
The shelter can sleep about 50 people and has the ability to expand. Staff will welcome people into the shelter from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night and close the next morning at 8 a.m. Handlen emphasized the shelter’s accessibility to all — calling it the “come as you are” shelter.
Handlen said that she believes the consistency of the night-by-night shelter will create more opportunities for staff to connect individuals who are struggling with homelessness or drug abuse with services and resources.
“With the severe weather shelter, you might see someone every night for a week if it’s below 38 degrees but then if there is a stretch of warmer weather then we lose that connection,” Handlen said.
Peer support services will be available for those who stay at the shelter, she said. The peer support comes from those who have lived experience with homelessness or drug abuse and has since recovered.
The Salvation Army has established the mission statement of the shelter as: “To provide shelter with a minimum of barriers for attendance. To see the wholeness of a person as a priority and to come alongside individuals to resource them with the tools necessary to end the cycle of poverty.”
The Hub City Mission, which operated the severe weather shelter for the past 7 years, has helped with the logistics of setting up the new shelter.
The Salvation Army is hiring seasonal part-time and full-time night shelter employees to operate the shelter. Handlen said it takes about four employees to run the shelter.
