Olympia converts Martin Way building into emergency homeless shelter
The city of Olympia is converting a vacant building on Martin Way into an emergency homeless shelter for the duration of the new coronavirus outbreak, officials say. Thurston County plans to contract with local nonprofit Interfaith Works to run the temporary shelter.
“These are emergency times and require an emergency response,” Interim Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley told The Olympian Friday.
The vacant building sits on property the city purchased with Home Fund revenue in 2018 that’s slated for a joint venture by the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and Interfaith Works.
Under the plan, the LIHI would develop and manage 65 units of supportive housing, according to the city’s web page on the project. Interfaith Works would operate a 60-bed shelter there, replacing the nonprofit’s 42-bed shelter in the basement of First Christian Church in downtown Olympia.
That plan calls for demolishing the one-story building that will, for now, be used as the emergency shelter.
The added shelter space is needed because established area shelters have had to reduce the number of occupants to comply with government-mandated social-distancing guidelines meant to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
Four area shelters — Interfaith Works, Family Support Center, Olympia Union Gospel Mission, and Community Youth Services — have lost a combined 37% of their shelter capacity under the guidelines, according to Keylee Marineau, Homeless Prevention and Affordable Housing Coordinator for the county.
That’s 78 people per night that will have been displaced from the places they normally stay. Some of them may move elsewhere. For instance, Marineau says the Saint Michael Parish shelter for men has increased its capacity by 15 beds while maintaining social distancing, while Drexel House has been able to maintain its capacity.
The Martin Way 24-hour shelter will hold 30 to 35 people, according to city officials.
Priority will go to those who have been displaced, Marineau said, and those who are part of populations especially vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19, such as people ages 65 and older who have underlying health conditions.
“We take very seriously the fact that by adhering to safety for social distancing, we’re also putting people at risk, because they’re losing shelter,” Marineau said in a phone interview. “And so it’s really important. That was one of the first things we did: How can we co-locate people who are being displaced?”
The city of Olympia identified about 10 people who were at-risk and living at the city-run mitigation site downtown and last week started putting them up in a hotel. Home Fund Manager Cary Retlin said those people may be included in the new shelter, but he wasn’t sure.
The building at 2828 Martin Way East once housed a podiatrist’s office on one side and a dentist’s office on the other. Officials say its many exam rooms will allow for adequate space to comply with social-distancing requirements. Plus, most rooms have a sink.
Officials say the city began readying the space last week: A doorway was created in the wall that once separated the two clinics, a big reception desk was removed to improve sight lines, and smoke detectors were installed.
The goal is to start welcoming people next week.
“This property is one we control,” Retlin said while The Olympian toured the site Friday. “We had the site, it’s currently vacant and not being used for anything, so it was really easy for us to rapidly press into service.”
Funding to operate the temporary shelter will come from a nearly $1 million grant Thurston County Public Health and Social Services’ office of Housing and Homelessness Prevention received last week from the state Department of Commerce. The money is meant to help the county respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, “specifically to help public health meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness,” a county press release reads.
“We know that folks who are homeless are at high risk of contracting COVID-19,” Retlin told The Olympian. “We’re worried about them, we want to make sure that we get as many folks — and this is part of the aim of the Commerce grant — is to get as many folks sheltered as rapidly as possible.”
The shelter will be staffed 24/7. Anyone with questions and concerns can contact Cary Retlin at cretlin@ci.olympia.wa.us or 360-570-3956.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included incorrect information about Drexel House, and omitted information about Saint Michael Parish shelter. That information has been corrected.
This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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