Sleep Center expands occupancy for Walla Walla's homeless | Governments | union-bulletin.com

2022-06-28 15:47:19 By : Ms. Tracy Wong

Walla Walla's Sleep Center Executive Director Jordan Green talks Thursday, June 23, 2022, about a vacant lot just south of the current location where the center will expand.

A recent improvement at the city of Walla Walla's Sleep Center is a covered patio area, Thursday, June 23, 2022.

Conestoga huts at the city of Walla Walla's Sleep Center at 1181 W. Rees Ave. The huts are insulated, but not heated or cooled. Photos taken in July 2019.

Walla Walla's Sleep Center Executive Director Jordan Green talks Thursday, June 23, 2022, about a vacant lot just south of the current location where the center will expand.

Walla Walla’s Sleep Center, which provides shelter and basic amenities to people experiencing homelessness, is expanding.

Walla Walla City Council unanimously approved paying $275,000 in city funds for 10 additional sleeping units, which will be larger than the ones already present and will include heating and air conditioning. The funds will also pay to grade and prepare the rest of the Sleep Center site for possible future expansions.

In addition, a new $35,000 bathroom and shower unit to accommodate the expanded occupancy will be paid for by the Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless, the local nonprofit that operates the Sleep Center, using money from a spring fundraiser.

The city’s decision on Wednesday, June 8, comes after more than a year during which the shelter was unable to house everyone who sought their services, with approximately five to 10 turned away each night in the last six months, according to a staff report.

The shelter currently can house around 55-60 people, depending on whether people want to be housed in the same huts.

Conestoga huts at the city of Walla Walla's Sleep Center at 1181 W. Rees Ave. The huts are insulated, but not heated or cooled. Photos taken in July 2019.

While other area organizations will, at times, fill some of the unmet need, such as the emergency warming center at New Beginnings Chapel, some people still had nowhere to sleep at night.

A lack of shelter space also meant the city was not legally allowed to enforce laws against sleeping on public property, due to the 2018 Martin v. Boise decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, as the number of people turned away spiked, nearby residents have called the city to complain, said Deputy City Manager Elizabeth Chamberlain during the June 8 meeting.

When the current site of the Sleep Center opened in Walla Walla’s heavy industrial district in 2018, additional space on the lot was deemed suitable for four phases of possible future expansion. The June 8 decision authorized $116,000 for engineering, permitting and preparing the site for all four phases, though the 10 new units will only occupy one.

The 10 prefabricated units, which are produced by Everett-based Pallet Shelter, will be somewhat larger than the 6-foot-by-10-foot Conestoga huts built by volunteers when the Sleep Center first opened in 2018, though still under 100 square feet, Chamberlain said. They can each house up to two people and will collectively cost around $156,000.

The larger units were mostly chosen for the same reason that the Sleep Center needed to expand, city officials said: It is becoming more difficult to transition people out of homelessness due to staggeringly low rental vacancies, particularly for the low-cost housing that can be acquired with housing vouchers.

Those government vouchers can only be used on the cheapest rentals, and with overall vacancy rates in the city at or beneath 1%, few options are available.

“We’ve had at least half a dozen people in the last year have vouchers expire in their hands,” said Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless Executive Director Jordan Green during the June 8 meeting.

Acquiring housing vouchers can be an onerous, drawn-out process, and having them expire due to no fault of the recipient not only presents an additional trauma for people who had been given a sense of hope, but it could mean it will be years before they are able to get the voucher again, Green said.

The improved units can be used for people transitioning out of the Conestoga huts and making progress acquiring services but are thus far unable to find permanent housing, Green said, and can also be used as a motivator for those in the camp to follow rules and seek services.

While it seems unlikely that the Sleep Center will use up all of its remaining capacity to expand, Green said the problem can only be alleviated long term by increasing affordable-housing stock.

In 2020, the Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless worked to get 48 people shifted into long-term housing. In 2021, 36 were transitioned. But in 2022, due to a “log jam” of available rentals, fewer people are able to be move out of the Sleep Center, leaving less room for the newly homeless or people otherwise newly seeking services from the center.

“Our only hope is if rental capacity is added to the city and makes some of those (affordable) places available for people with vouchers,” Green said told the Union-Bulletin on Wednesday, June 22.

A recent improvement at the city of Walla Walla's Sleep Center is a covered patio area, Thursday, June 23, 2022.

Emry Dinman can be reached at emrydinman@wwub.com or 425-941-5829.

Reporter covering agriculture, Walla Walla city and county government, and other topics.

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