The Vancouver arts hub will be one of the city's new winter homeless shelter sites.
Erik Neumann / OPB
The city of Vancouver, Washington, will open two winter shelters Saturday for people experiencing homelessness. City officials also finalized contracts with service providers for another three emergency shelter sites to respond to specific cold-weather events.
The new sites are being opened under the city’s emergency declaration, which was created in late 2023. It gives the city flexibility to quickly address the homelessness crisis within city limits. According to the latest numbers released this week by city staff, there were 1,366 people experiencing homelessness in Vancouver in 2024.
Beds in the new shelters will be filled by referral, according to the city. Individuals will be required to go through an intake and screening process by Clark County service provider, Council for the Homeless. It is intended to prioritize families with children and vulnerable groups and screen out sex offenders and people who recently committed violent crimes.
Vancouver saw a 43% increase in unsheltered families over the past year, according to a city review of homelessness in 2024 from Homeless Response Manager Jamie Spinelli.
“[That is] why we’ve been working to expand shelter capacity so rapidly, including the winter shelters,” Spinelli said during a Monday city council meeting.
New shelter locations
Two winter shelters will be open from Dec. 14 through March 2025. They will be operated by nonprofit Outsiders Inn, which also operates several of Vancouver’s current Safe Stay Communities of modular tiny homes.
- The Vancouver arts hub building at 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd. Vancouver. Open 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. nightly. This shelter will accommodate up to 45 overnight beds.
- 521 Chkalov Drive, Vancouver. Open 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Saturday to Tuesday. This site will accommodate up to 15 overnight beds.
Three additional severe weather shelters have been identified around downtown Vancouver as potential spaces to use when a severe weather event is declared by local government and the Council for the Homeless.
- Esther Short Commons at 555 W. 8th St. Vancouver. This space will be opened for people who live out of their vehicles in the city’s Safe Park Zone program. It will include 15 overnight beds and will be operated by Thrive2Survive, a Clark County homeless service provider.
- The Luepke Community Center at 1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver
- The Aspen Room on the ground floor of City Hall at 415 W. 6th St. Vancouver
Trends show slight reductions in unsheltered homelessness
A report presented to the Vancouver City Council on Monday showed a mixed picture of homelessness trends over the past year. While there were slightly more people identified as homeless in Vancouver in 2024, for the first time in six years, the number of people living on the streets went down as more were able to access shelter services. Spinelli noted this as one reason to show optimism.
“Every year from 2019 on, we have had more people experiencing homelessness unsheltered than inside,” Spinelli said Monday night. “And that finally went the other direction this year.”
Still, there are reasons for concern as the city tries to make a dent in the problem. In addition to the increase in unsheltered families, 54 people experiencing homelessness died in 2024, a 29% increase in deaths from the previous year.
The announcement of a homeless shelter in the Vancouver arts hub created concern earlier this month from parents of children at the neighboring Vancouver Innovation, Technology and Arts Elementary School. VITA is located directly next door to the shelter space.
Vancouver’s two new winter shelter sites are a stop gap measure as the city works to make progress building a 150-bed congregate shelter in the Van Mall neighborhood. Known as the bridge shelter, the facility will offer a suite of services including case management, drug treatment, and work opportunities.
Construction for that facility has been delayed. It is expected to open in mid-2026.
