With winter weather looming, Whatcom County doesn’t have site for a severe weather shelter

Two months before wintry weather could start affecting Western Washington, Whatcom County still needs a building where it can run a severe weather shelter, one that can be activated when extreme cold or other adverse conditions are in the forecast.

Officials with the Whatcom County Department of Health and Community Services discussed the situation recently in a County Council committee meeting.

Ann Beck, community health and human services manager, told the council’s Public Works and Health Committee that several locations that have been used in the past — the Civic Stadium locker rooms, the former Drop-in Center on West Holly Street and the State Street location used last winter — are not available this winter. Base Camp won’t be available and the Lighthouse Mission, which is opening in October, won’t have the staff to take the 100 people it’s designed for this winter.

“We would definitely like to talk with anybody who space to offer. We’re just going to keep asking,” Beck told the committee.

Health Department officials are working with a real estate agent and are in talks with faith-based facility in Bellingham. But nothing is certain, she said.

“(The faith-based organization) are still talking through what this would look like for them. As of now, that’s our only possible glimmer of a space,” Beck said.

They’re looking for a “safe, dry, warm” location with running water, locking doors and restrooms, Beck said.

Chris D’Onofrio, the Health Department’s housing program supervisor, said that the Lighthouse Mission is focused on getting its new shelter open at Holly and F streets.

“They feel uncomfortable having a lot of new activity in that neighborhood right as they’re opening their new shelter. They are yet to bring on enough staff to provide the supervision there. They’re leaning toward 20 beds this winter and doing what they can to bring on additional staff and volunteers,” D’Onofrio told the committee.

As with last year, no civic organization came forward to operate the severe weather shelter, so the Health Department is looking to hire about 20 temporary on-call employees and add volunteers. Officials are partnering with the Volunteer Center for about 14 hours of training that includes CPR, and narcan use and de-escalation techniques.

The shelter likely would operate from November and continue through February or mid-March.

Last year, the severe weather shelter operated for 20 nights when temperatures dipped below 28 degrees, giving an average of 47 people each night a warm place to sleep. The cost to operate was $404,000, according to an “after action report” on the 2023-24 season presented to the County Council in May.

Meanwhile, about 100 households will get motel stays, mostly families with children, through Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of Whatcom County, Lydia Place, the YWCA, the Opportunity Council and Ferndale Community Services, Beck said.