Ketchikan will open a seasonal warming shelter on Saturday that’s for all unhoused people. It’s the only seasonal shelter in town that’s available to anyone.
The 26-bed facility, at the corner of Dock and Main Street, will be run by the Ketchikan Indian Community or KIC. The tribal government first opened the warming shelter last winter, but it was only available to tribal members.
Unlike Ketchikan’s Park Avenue Temporary Home shelter, clients of this KIC shelter will not be required to show ID or be sober to enter. However, they must follow the shelter’s rules to stay the night.
The new warming shelter comes over a year after the city’s main homeless shelter, which was run by First City Homeless Services, closed last year. It also comes after former borough mayor Rodney Dial last year vetoed funding for a winter warming shelter at First United Methodist Church. Park Avenue Temporary Home, which would have run it, canceled the shelter’s funding proposal.
Although the KIC warming shelter can only sleep about 30 people, it can serve up to almost 50 clients at a time before doors close at 10 p.m. Project leads say the facility will open each day at 7 p.m. for people needing food or other services.
The facility has two rooms for sleeping, a bathroom and a small kitchen. It’s also equipped with security cameras and is a few blocks from the city’s police station.
Project leads say the shelter did not receive financial support from the city. They say the seasonal warming shelter should be open through April, when grant funding ends.
The warming shelter is the first of several KIC projects in Ketchikan aimed at addressing housing. The organization is currently building affordable apartments for elders and a resource center across from the Plaza mall.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
