Vancouver’s plans to open a winter shelter Saturday next to an elementary school have ignited fear and anger among parents.
The shelter, which will host 40 to 45 people, will operate from 6:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., but parents are demanding 24/7 security. They also want those who seek shelter to undergo drug testing. If those measures aren’t possible, the parents argue the city should cancel the shelter’s opening.
City officials are trying to address the shortage of winter shelters, which overflowed with people seeking refuge from the deadly cold during January’s ice storm. The warming shelters, which include four other sites, are budgeted for $435,000 total.
Just a few weeks ago, the city identified Vancouver’s arts hub, the former library building at 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd., as a potential site for a warming shelter, said Jamie Spinelli, the city’s homeless response manager. She said once the city confirmed the building was usable, officials immediately notified the school next door, Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts Elementary.
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Call the Council for the Homeless Housing Hotline at 360-695-9677 to learn about available shelter and housing assistance in Clark County.
Still, parents say they felt blindsided by the school’s Dec. 3 announcement that the shelter would open just 11 days later.
They expressed anger during a Friday PTA meeting with city staff. (The school principal turned The Columbian away from the meeting.) Parents reportedly yelled at city staff that the shelter poses a danger to their children. They said people with mental illness will wander onto campus, causing lockdowns, or that people will leave drug paraphernalia where children could find it.
VITA parent Qing Zhou expressed his concerns to the Vancouver City Council at its Monday meeting. He told the council he has warned his 8-year-old daughter that fentanyl can look like candy and not to touch it if she finds it on campus.
“She’s very scared,” Zhou said. “She told her mom that she doesn’t want to go to school for the next three months.”
Shelter details
At the PTA meeting, Spinelli said she told parents people can only enter the shelter once they’ve called a housing hotline operated by Council for the Homeless and undergone a background check that rules out sex offenders and people who recently committed violent crimes. Then, people can take the bus to the shelter, which has a stop directly in front of the building. The shelter will not let anyone in or out after 10 p.m.
Once people leave the shelter at 7 a.m., staff from the city and Outsiders Inn, the nonprofit overseeing operation of winter shelters, will stick around until about 7:30 a.m.
Parents said the city should have a uniformed police officer constantly patrolling the area. (The school does not have its own security, according to the district.) They also asked the city to test people entering the shelter for drugs and bar those who have been using them. The city does not plan to take either of those measures, Spinelli said.
“I’ve been very clear that we will always reassess the situation,” she said. “And if something needs to change, something needs to change.”
Outsiders Inn Executive Director Adam Kravitz said he was frustrated by comments at the PTA meeting: “That homeless people were generally dangerous, that homeless people did drugs and homeless people bring crime.”
“That’s just not true,” he said.
Most of the people in his shelter at St. Paul Lutheran Church are people with disabilities or older adults who struggle with daily activities. He’s seen many families with children use the winter shelters.
Spinelli said the winter shelter next to VITA will prioritize families from the school, which has two students identified as homeless, according to the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
After those families are served, the city will admit people according to vulnerability — including older adults, people with disabilities, single women and medically fragile people.
Spinelli said she understands parents’ concerns. But the plans for the shelter came together within a matter of weeks, she said.
“If I could have provided more notice, I would have, but that’s just what it’s like to respond to an emergency. You don’t often get to plan for them,” she said.
Frostbite, power outages
Washington’s winter is predicted to be colder and wetter than usual.
The conditions for homeless people, including people living in their cars or RVs, were especially dangerous in January, Spinelli said.
“I have seen more amputations due to frostbite this year than any other year in my career,” she said.
Clark County’s shelter system was largely unprepared for the level of need that month. Faith leaders called The Columbian, shocked and overwhelmed by the number of people practically falling through their church doors.
River City Church, which technically has capacity for 15 people overnight, let in about 300 people during the winter storm. Many arrived with frostbite.
The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that one person died from hypothermia during last winter but did not specify whether that person was homeless. However, not all those who use warming shelters are homeless, Kravitz said.
January’s nearly weeklong ice storm cut off power for tens of thousands of people in Clark County. Hundreds lost power for prolonged periods and had no heat during the freezing conditions. Others simply couldn’t afford to keep their heat running.
“I really just want for everyone to be safe and secure, have a nice Christmas and get along,” Kravitz said.
Change of heart
VITA kindergarten parent Katelyn Robley said she was initially frustrated with the city for seeking a shelter next to the school. In interviews with multiple TV news stations, she questioned why the city chose the building, asked for more security and demanded more transparency from the city about the process.
But listening to city staff at Friday’s PTA meeting eased Robley’s mind, she said.
“I’ve had some time to digest it. I think a lot of people, their safety concerns were valid,” Robley said. “But hearing Jamie (Spinelli) speak, I just don’t feel the city bringing this to the area was with any malicious intent. … Being divisive is not setting the best example for our kids.”
She and other mothers reached out to Spinelli apologizing for the behavior of some parents at the meeting and asked how they could contribute to the shelter, especially during the holidays. (School lets out for winter break Dec. 20.)
Robley now plans to attend the shelter opening on Saturday with her children. They’ll be holding welcome signs, she said.
“This is something that’s happening,” she said. “We can choose to welcome the residents to the shelter … with the kind of compassion we would want if we were in that situation.”
