The new Lewis County night-by-night homeless shelter has finally received a certificate of occupancy, opening the door for the Salvation Army to begin its transition from the county’s current temporary shelter in Centralia.
The Lewis County Citizens Budget Committee toured the new Lewis County night-by-night shelter Tuesday afternoon. They might be one of the last groups to do so before the building becomes fully operational and fulfills its intended use as a shelter after years of effort.
The Lewis County Citizens Budget Committee includes five county residents, Usha Sahadeva-Brooks, Tim Wood, Michael Blessing, Paul Crowner and Bill Serrahn, who was absent from the tour.
The two leads for the project, county contractor Eric Eisenberg, who handles the paperwork side of things, and Lewis County Capital Projects Manager Matt Patana, who handles the construction side, led the tour on Tuesday, explaining the background of the shelter and the way it will be used.
The shelter was granted a certificate of occupancy earlier in the day, meaning that the county will now move forward with some final cleanup efforts before turning the building over to the Salvation Army, which will begin setting up the facility and transitioning from the current shelter location in Centralia to the new building at 2015 NE Kresky Ave., Chehalis.
“Now that it's announced, it's a question of getting everything exactly ready for it to happen,” Eisenberg said during the tour. “One of the things we need to do is we need to clean it up some. Our folks will be cleaning that up probably starting this week. The Salvation Army hopes to move equipment and things in starting next week, and then they'll be opening thereafter.”
The Salvation Army of Lewis County announced in a news release the following day that it plans to open the shelter officially on Monday, Oct. 13.
The news release added that the shelter will operate nightly from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Guests will check in each evening and check out each morning. Guests at the shelter can also access additional resources, including connections to housing navigation, behavioral health referrals, veterans services, ID services and even a weekly meal service.
Transportation to the shelter is also available through Lewis County Transit with a bus stop just outside of the shelter. The shelter welcomes all guests and pets under the care of responsible caretakers. The facility is also Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible and can make accommodations upon request.
As previously reported by The Chronicle, the new Lewis County night-by-night shelter at 2015 NE Kresky Ave. was adapted out of a former Washington State Employees Credit Union branch and has been more or less ready to go since February.
Improvements to the interior of the building included taking down walls to create easy sightlines and transitioning the main entrance to the side of the building, which will have a fenced-in covered area to begin receiving guests each night. The facility will also have a small kitchen area and offices for staff, and a spare large office space to host other providers with other services such as coordinated entry.
Construction on the building was finished as far back as February with the exception of the exterior improvements, including sidewalk and stormwater drainage, often referred to as frontage improvements. All of the improvements to the building itself and the infrastructure around it is now complete.
The completion and next steps mark the end of nearly four years of work to develop a new night-by-night shelter in Lewis County. Additional information and reporting on the development of the shelter is available on The Chronicle website or by visiting https://tinyurl.com/zpuc5pby.
The certificate also marks the end of a more recent disagreement with the City of Chehalis, which chose not to allow Lewis County to open the shelter before completing exterior infrastructure improvements at the start of the summer 2025.
More reporting on that issue is available on The Chronicle website or by visiting https://tinyurl.com/bdzzxj7a.
