Homeless Haven

 

As winter descends in Ellensburg, local churches are opening their doors to the homeless, and providing a place to sleep for those with nowhere to turn.

Starting in November, six churches are rotating as cold-weather shelters during winter nights. This is the second year churches will shelter those in need.

During winter 2014, only three churches were able to provide shelter for five days a week, from December through February. This year, the churches will provide shelter seven days a week through February 2016, or until the cold weather ends.

Pastor Jen Stuart of United Methodist Church helped start the shelters last year and is happy to see it grow.

Initially their plan was to work with FISH, a local food bank, to provide homeless people with food and shelter.

This plan was revised when the FISH Food Bank building caught fire Thanksgiving weekend last year, and the churches were only able to provide a place to sleep.

The churches are serving with the Kittitas Valley Ministerial Association, which provides hotel room vouchers for the homeless. Local churches were able to provide these to the homeless in the years before the shelter.

Despite this, the churches wanted to do more. Kari Mirro, Reach Ministries’ director for Mercer Creek Church, sees vouchers as a “bandaid fix.”

Prior to 2008, Mercer Creek had an open door policy, and police would direct anyone in need to sleep there for the night.

According to Mirro, this was deemed an insurance liability and until 2014 they provided hotel vouchers.

The shelters work on a volunteer basis, consisting mainly of church community members and a few college students. While the number of volunteers is increasing, it’s rarely enough, according to Mirro.

Last year the shelters housed an average of four to five homeless a night. A volunteer would stay overnight to watch the building and another would come in the morning to clear everyone out.

“We would love to see more college students,” Mirro said. “A lot of them can tolerate the overnight shift better than a lot of people.”

According to Mirro, volunteer hours can go towards college credit.

Because different groups define homelessness differently, there is no exact number of homeless people in Ellensburg.’

“I don’t think anyone can answer that,” said Don Green, pastor for First Christian Church.

This gray area becomes larger as a lot of homeless people move around with the warm weather, according to Mirro.

HopeSource, a local social services organization, does a point-in-time count of the homeless population in January. The last count was five.

During the previous three-month shelter, 37 individual homeless people were served and, in total, 202 signed in to the shelters.

According to Green, the shelters see mainly those who have nowhere else to turn. A lot of people couch surf and eventually get kicked out.

“We help those whose only alternative is sleeping on a park bench or under a bridge,” Green said.

Many people are surprised that there’s a homeless population in Ellensburg, according to Mirro.

“Even though you don’t see them,” Mirro said. “Doesn’t mean they’re not there.”