Share aims to open a women’s homeless shelter, called Women’s Housing and Transition, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in west Vancouver later this month.
If the name sounds familiar, that’s because WHAT used to be housed at St. Paul Lutheran Church. It had to vacate because St. Paul hosts homeless men during the winter months.
So, there’s been some shuffling happening, but volunteers are trying to get rooms at St. Luke’s ready for a Dec. 12 opening. The shelter will accommodate 12 women until the end of March. Room dividers create semi-private spaces for the three women sharing each room. Everyone gets a bed, lamp and nightstand.
“Our goal is for it to feel like a home,” said Deb Stavig, a St. Luke’s parishioner.
If You Go
• What: Craft sale to raise funds for Women’s Housing and Transition.
• Where: The parish hall at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 426 E. Fourth Plain Blvd.
• When: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
You Can Help
The WHAT shelter is in need of the following items. Call St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 360-696-0181 Tuesdays through Fridays to arrange a donation:
• Mirrors
• Under-bed storage
• Towels and twin-sized bed linens
• Microwave oven
• Electric kettle
• Coffee pot
• Toaster
She was cleaning the space Thursday. The rooms — built in 1955 as classrooms — are in the basement of the church at 426 E. Fourth Plain Blvd. Besides the four bedrooms, there will be a living room and an office for Share staff.
Share and the Council for the Homeless approached St. Luke’s about hosting the women’s shelter. The Rev. Jaime Case, the church’s rector, formed a committee of parishioners who researched details and concerns around opening a shelter.
St. Luke’s already helps the homeless. The church has an outreach program during the week that distributes food, clothing and bus passes, and shelter clients will be able to take advantage of that. The Unhoused Residents Association meets at the church. Also, St. Luke’s used to host people in their parking lot who were living out of small, portable shelters. That arrangement didn’t work out for the church. People were in the parking lot all the time, inviting their friends to the property and Case (who lives next door) was constantly being called to resolve issues.
“It wasn’t being managed by a professional organization, and screening was an issue,” Stavig said. “I don’t see it as a negative because you have to sometimes take a risk to just see, well, where are we at? Clearly that was more risky than people wanted to be right now.”
“All the more amazing that they had a bad experience and still wanted to be involved,” said Amy Reynolds, the deputy director of Share.
Reynolds said Share is in the process of hiring case managers and overnight staff. Unlike Share’s other shelters, clients at WHAT can have pets with them and they can show up intoxicated. Women will be able to arrive around 6:30 p.m. and stay until about 8 a.m.
St. Luke’s is bringing its rooms up to code before Dec. 12. Old aluminum-framed windows have to be replaced, and smoke alarms and escape ladders have to be installed.
To raise money for the renovations, the church is holding a craft sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The sale will include items such as hand-knitted wool mufflers and baby clothing, birdhouses, Christmas ornaments and greeting cards.
Case would love to expand the downstairs restrooms and install showers, but it would be a costly “remodeling nightmare.” The money isn’t there.
“We want it to work long term,” he said. Lots of groups use the well-worn building, which Case considers a community building — not just a church.
Stavig said the parish is looking forward to getting more involved with the shelter and its clients, possibly through game nights, cooking or other activities.
“We have to see if that’s something the women are comfortable with,” she said.
Despite the costly renovations that may or may not happen, Stavig said she’s seen a lot of generosity within the church as people donate their time, money and resources.
“These times it’s nice to see the goodness in people,” she said.
During the seven-month period WHAT was at St. Paul, 46 women used the shelter and 13 of them moved into permanent housing. Clark County Community Services set aside $110,000 for the seven months it was at St. Paul.
Share will pay $2,000 in rent to St. Luke’s. The shelter will run through at least the end of March, but it’s unclear what will happen after that. Will the shelter continue, move back to St. Paul or could shelter spaces be established at both churches? Funding for WHAT will end, too, so Share will have to approach the county about renewing it.
Reynolds said Share is also on the lookout for a congregation that could become an overnight shelter during instances of severe weather — what could be called a pop-up shelter. Living Hope Church used to do that, but isn’t able to anymore.
