Bremerton mayor floats site for potential homeless shelter, with timeline for spring opening

Bremerton is one step closer to establishing an overnight shelter in the city to contend with growing unauthorized homeless encampments and restless complaints from neighboring residents. But the much needed site's planning is unlikely to accommodate the immediate need for shelter availability.

Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler and Public Works & Utilities representatives presented a location for a new overnight shelter at Wednesday's City Council meeting, identifying three acres of undeveloped property next to the Public Works offices at 100 Oyster Bay Ave. with three proposed options for use.

The three approaches are a regulated outdoor encampment for temporary encampment permits, a pallet community for temporary tiny homes or a "sprung" structure which would serve as a temporary building for congregate shelter. The shelter project could cost the city between $1.6 to $4 million.

The Oyster Bay site met feasibility criteria because it is owned by the city, constitutes more than an acre of usable space and has appropriate zoning. The site is also near Kitsap Transit bus routes and other resources, like health care and food.

But that does not mean a structure is coming to the site right away. The property will first need to be leveled to prepare it for construction before it will be ready for a thorough analysis, Wheeler said. The site will be evaluated to determine which shelter option, or combination of options, will be most feasible. The sprung structure option would require utility hookups like electrical, water and sewer, while the encampment option will comparatively require minimal site preparation, like controlling stormwater runoff.

“The preferred alternative will be what provides the opportunity for folks to be able to transition from being unsheltered and provides the greatest chance to ensure that capacity is maintained throughout 12 months here,” Wheeler said. “And the other consideration is protecting our public spaces.”

The administration will present the City Council with a preferred shelter option in December, Wheeler said, after the leveling and analysis are completed.

“First of all, this is good news,” said City Council member Eric Younger at Wednesday's meeting. However, he added, “I’m a little disappointed that we couldn't find a flat space where we could erect something up now.”

Currently, violations for unauthorized camping are unenforceable while there is no overnight shelter available in Kitsap County. The city law that would prohibit public encampments cannot be enforced until the Salvation Army opens its doors for an overnight shelter starting on Nov. 1, per a revised city ordinance that went into effect earlier this month. But Salvation Army will only have room for 75 guests (except during extreme weather during conditions when capacity can be expanded) and Captains Dana and Lance Walters of the Salvation Army anticipate the shelter will be operating at capacity when it initially opens.

There are at least 245 people experiencing homelessness in Bremerton, according to the 2023 Kitsap County point-in-time overview, and the Salvation Army will be the only shelter with available beds when it opens. Once it fills up, there are likely to be unhoused residents who won’t be able to find shelter either due to space unavailability, disabilities that can’t be accommodated by Salvation Army staff, such as incontinence, or behavior that staff can’t allow in the facility.

“Many people who are living on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, many people who are living on 8th and Broadway, many people who are living in encampments within the city limits of Bremerton are not going to be allowed into shelters,” said City Council member Anna Mockler at the meeting. “So the opening of the shelter in the absence of any chemical detox facility on Kitsap Peninsula, in the absence of more than 16 always-full beds at Kitsap Mental Health, if we are not providing some immediate dignity then I think we're failing in our duty as humans.”

After an option for the Oyster Bay Avenue site is selected in December, design and permitting would be completed between January and March 2024. Then construction bids for the site would be reviewed in April or May in order for completion between May and July.

“I think that we really need to figure out a way to provide immediate relief before Halloween,” said Mockler, before pointing to discussion from a previous meeting about the potential of using city parking lots for designated camping areas, because they are already leveled and have appropriate drainage.

The Salvation Army will close its winter overnight shelter on April 30, 2024. Wheeler said the administration is working on options to bridge the gap until some type of shelter is built on the Oyster Bay Avenue site, though he couldn’t give specifics.

A new 75-bed shelter at the Pacific Building in Port Orchard is also set to open in about a year, through a partnership with Kitsap County and the Kitsap Rescue Mission. But the mission will end its program that has created a shelter at the Quality Inn in Bremerton at that time and will offer many of its current 102 guests a space at the Pacific Building.

In the meantime, the administration is actively looking for funding with the county, going to the state and other agencies that offer grants and developing partnerships, Wheeler said. He said he has a list of funding recommendations that will be presented to the City Council on Oct. 18.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton homeless shelter options proposed for spring opening