Our view: Overnight shelter can't be 'hangout'

Sometimes trial and error is the only logical way to address a chronic problem. In the case of sheltering the homeless in Crescent City, we now know what doesn’t work.

Not that opening an overnight shelter at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds wasn’t a noble effort.

After temperatures plunged and a woman died outside of exposure, several elements of the community responded with energetic compassion. Our Daily Bread Ministries operated the shelter and came up with the initial dose of money. The fairgrounds agreed to provide the venue. Sutter Coast Hospital employees made a donation designed to keep the shelter open through the end of January.

It didn’t work out that way. Fairgrounds officials pulled the plug because of a series of shelter-related disturbances. One man was severely beaten after he was lured outside. When shelter occupants were removed for misbehavior such as public intoxication or fighting, they sometimes returned to cause more trouble. Officials are still investigating the reported theft of a van from the shelter parking lot that ended up at the bottom of an embankment on Pebble Beach Drive.

The fairgrounds paid its security guards to work extra hours in an attempt to restore order. Some people who had used the shelter spread out to camp in other portions of the fairgrounds, a facility that offers many public services and events not ideally placed next to such encampments.

So now the shelter is closed, and people are lamenting how a few bad apples spoiled things for everyone. But there’s going to be a few bad apples in any random grouping of people, so we need to think a little deeper about the fairgrounds experience.

First of all, a sprawling public facility is clearly not an appropriate location for a shelter. As Rachel Justice of Our Daily Bread said, “It was like a centralized location for a lot of bad stuff.” She also acknowledged that because the shelter was kept open during daytime hours, it became a “hangout” instead of merely a means of helping people make it through the night.

Creating a “hangout” for the homeless flies in the face of efforts to help them help themselves. There are myriad efforts ongoing in this community to help the homeless, the indigent, the working poor and others who are struggling. These range from faith-based organizations like the Community Assistance Network to grant-funded efforts such as Rural Human Services, which hands out prepackaged boxes of food at various locations.

We should continue to support the efforts to help the less-fortunate while addressing the causes of their misfortune. Where does that leave us on the issue of an overnight shelter?

Using the fairgrounds experience and the process of elimination, we know that a shelter needs to be in a more centralized location and that the potential effects on surrounding property need to be carefully considered. We know that it should be open only at night. To further ensure it doesn’t become a “hangout,” it should perhaps be open only when especially bad weather is forecast rather than every night.

The folks at Our Daily Bread Ministries say they want to try again, this time at the location where they serve free meals, 1135 Harrold Street. Whether this is the proper place and the proper organization is something for the community to discuss. Other groups may be interested in getting involved.

It’s a tough issue. An overnight shelter can save lives. It also can create new problems.