The science is settled.
Kelly Cleland knows where he would be if he didn’t have the men’s cold weather shelter in Corvallis.
“I’d be in really bad shape,” Cleland said on a freezing January night at the shelter, before reconsidering his answer. “No, if it wasn’t for this place, I’d be dead.”
The 50-year-old Cleland is one of about 25 men who have stayed at the men’s cold weather shelter on Southwest Fourth Street in Corvallis nearly every night since it opened Nov. 1, trying to escape one of the most brutal winters in the city’s history. This year alone, 110 men have stayed at the shelter for at least one night, according to Corvallis Housing First, the organization that runs the shelter. And for the past five seasons, the Fourth Street location has provided a refuge for an average of 30 men every night.
But this season is slated to be the last for the Fourth Street site. And there are no firm plans in place for a men’s shelter for next season. So every man at the shelter is afraid he might be left out in the cold next November.
Like Cleland, 54-year-old Wayne Bascom has stayed at the shelter almost every night this season. And, like Cleland, Bascom is convinced that he won’t survive if there’s no shelter in place next season.
“We’re f—ed,” said Bascom. “You want to know what it’s like to be homeless? It’s cold. And it … sucks.”
The controversial Fourth Street location will not be available next winter. The Corvallis City Council passed an amendment in September opposing further city funding for the site, which has posed livability concerns for nearby businesses and homeowners and has been the focus of several police crackdowns since it opened five years ago.
The site itself is expected to see many changes over the next two years: Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, a private nonprofit housing developer, reached a verbal agreement with Corvallis Housing First in November to purchase both the shelter property and the car wash next door to build affordable housing units.
Jim Moorefield, executive director for Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, said building permanent, affordable housing is the key to solving homelessness. But while Corvallis Housing First, Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services and other local organizations are continuing the focus on getting more homeless people into permanent housing, Moorefield acknowledged that the men who depend on the cold weather shelter still will need somewhere to go next winter.
HT: Tom Nelson