‘We have to do better’: Advocates for homeless call for a year-round shelter in Clatsop County

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, June 28, 2023

LiFEBoat Services hopes to open a year-round homeless shelter on Commercial Street.

After a scramble last winter to keep people off the streets on the coldest nights, advocates for the homeless are calling for a year-round shelter in Clatsop County.

The county has relied on seasonal overnight shelters in Astoria and Seaside to prevent people from dying outside in the cold.

The Astoria Warming Center, which closed indefinitely this year, operated out of the First United Methodist Church above downtown. The shelter on S. Roosevelt Drive in Seaside is operated by Clatsop Community Action and Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers.

The seasonal overnight shelters typically open by late November, but when temperatures were expected to dip earlier in the month, county emergency management officials stepped in to help temporarily open the shelters ahead of schedule. 

The county and Astoria took similar steps after the Astoria Warming Center, which had been working through leadership challenges, abruptly closed in February following a violent outburst involving a homeless man and two staffers.

After the closure, city officials turned to Clatsop Community Action, a social services agency that provides food, housing and energy assistance, to help fill the gap in Astoria.

The Astorian sought documents from the county through the state’s public records law and asked Clatsop Community Action, the county, the city and others to review what happened after a winter where homeless response appeared rushed and disorganized.

“As a social service worker, the human aspect of it — it’s heartbreaking,” Viviana Matthews, the executive director of Clatsop Community Action, told the newspaper. “And we got to do something about people being on the street. Even though people may not be ready to go into a housing program or may not be ready to be a tenant for that matter, we’ve got to offer some kind of place to be when it’s super cold outside.”

Clatsop County has had among the highest per capita rates of homelessness in Oregon. But county and city leaders have resisted developing a year-round homeless shelter and have instead worked with nonprofits on seasonal outreach.

“We have to do better,” said Matthews, who believes a year-round, low-barrier homeless shelter needs to be part of the equation. 

“CCA wants to be a key partner,” she said, adding that other partners need to come to the table, including Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria and Providence Seaside Hospital, the county and cities. “It takes a community to solve issues so it’s going to take a lot more than CCA to solve homelessness. This is an issue that affects all of us. Every single one of us.”

Flurry

When the county’s Emergency Management Department reached out to nonprofits in early November to ask what they would need to open emergency shelters ahead of schedule, the unusual request led to a weekend flurry to organize staff and resources. 

Matthews was caught by surprise by the request, but said the nonprofit was happy to collaborate to make sure people had a place to stay during a potential cold snap.

The emergency shelter in Seaside opened on a Saturday — Nov. 5 — and the Astoria Warming Center opened on Sunday night.

The county publicly announced the shelter openings on the afternoon of Nov. 5, hours before the emergency shelter was set to open in Seaside. The weekend announcement drew attention because the county had not previously been involved in shelter openings. At the time, the future of the Astoria Warming Center was also unclear because of management difficulties and board turnover at the nonprofit. And the weather outside was not particularly cold for the North Coast.

Patty Jo Angelini, a county spokeswoman, said the county was concerned for the homeless given the potential for below-freezing temperatures, precipitation and possible ice and winds.

“At that time, local seasonal emergency shelters were not scheduled to open,” Angelini said in a statement on behalf of the Emergency Management Department. Justin Gibbs, the county’s emergency management director, declined to speak with The Astorian for this story. 

“Our concern prompted us to reach out to local operators so we could understand what they would need for an earlier opening,” Angelini said. “Once we had that information, we coordinated with our stakeholder group and secured state resources to support the opening of temporary warming centers and publicize shelter openings.”

The state provided two shelter staffers and 400 meals for the Astoria Warming Center and two shelter staffers for the warming center in Seaside, according to the county.

That November weekend was not the only time local governments stepped in to coordinate shelter with nonprofits during the winter.

When temperatures dipped in late January, the county announced that the state Department of Human Services would again provide staffing to allow the Astoria Warming Center to open 24/7 during the cold stretch. 

Astoria took similar steps as the county after the Astoria Warming Center closed in February, weeks before the end of the season.

The closure, prompted by the arrest of a homeless man who allegedly stabbed a warming center staffer and threw an explosive device at another, led to more people sleeping outside in Astoria. 

Shortly after the incident, Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly told The Astorian the county’s Emergency Management Department reached out to the city with concerns about the city’s homeless population during a winter storm.

Kelly said the city contacted the warming center to see if it would open or if Clatsop Community Action could use the nonprofit’s space at the church. However, the warming center’s leaders indicated neither was an option.

The city quickly coordinated with Clatsop Community Action and the Astoria Armory, which agreed to open the lobby off Exchange Street for a temporary overnight shelter.

Clatsop Community Action opened a shelter at the Armory two more times during cold snaps later that month.

Matthews said she was able to start predicting when the city and county would reach out based on the weather forecast.

“I think it was very productive,” she said in response to questions from The Astorian about the process. “I learned that people care about other humans. I’ve learned that social services is absolutely able to work with the police department and be a great partner. I couldn’t do the work that we do without their support.”

Matthews said Clatsop Community Action is seeking funds to provide a year-round shelter.

In the meantime, she said, progress will be made through the Columbia Inn in Astoria, which was acquired by the county through the state’s Project Turnkey 2.0.

The 22-unit motel off Marine Drive could provide housing to 44 people, with seven rooms dedicated to congregated, low-barrier overnight shelter. The facility will be operated by Clatsop Community Action, along with The Harbor, an advocacy group in Astoria for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

The Astoria Warming Center is expected to merge with LiFEBoat Services, which operates a daytime drop-in center on Commercial Street downtown and has been making improvements to the space to eventually provide a year-round shelter.

‘Disparate pieces’

Astoria took the lead on homeless response on the North Coast by creating a task force in 2017. While many praised the task force for bringing local government leaders and advocates together to coordinate and share ideas, the group found few concrete solutions before disbanding last year.

City leaders have said the city does not have the money or desire from residents to make an investment in a year-round, city-run homeless shelter.

In response to questions from The Astorian about whether the city would partner on a warming center, City Manager Scott Spence said there has not been any specific conversations with the City Council about the idea.

Homelessness has been a topic of discussion among the City Council.

“I think there’s a level of concern that there’s not necessarily a statewide strategy,” Spence said. “And what we’ve seen at least in the recent past that there is funding available, which is great from the state, but then you have all these disparate pieces — county, cities doing kind of individual different strategies and it’s not a coordinated approach to try to address this problem.”

Over the past several years, the city has offered some financial support to the Astoria Warming Center to operate a seasonal overnight shelter, but it is unclear whether that support will carry over to LiFEBoat Services.

LiFEBoat plans to convert the building on Commercial Street into a low-barrier shelter with 40 beds and move daytime navigation services to the Astoria Warming Center’s space at the church on Franklin Avenue. The nonprofit hopes to secure funding from the state this summer to complete the project.

After a winter where homeless response on the North Coast appeared rushed and disorganized, The Astorian asked local government leaders and social services advocates to review what happened.

Let us know what you think in a letter to the editor:

https://www.dailyastorian.com/site/forms/online_services/letter_editor/

Marketplace