SEATTLE — A controversial homeless shelter in Seattle’s Little Saigon neighborhood has closed its doors, a year after its planned closure was first announced.
The Navigation Center on 12th Avenue and Weller Street is now boarded up and surrounded by a chain link fence. It was last slated to close in January, then was delayed until the end of March. The Downtown Emergency Service Center, which operates the low-barrier supportive shelter, said it closed March 18th.
“It would have been nice to know, but it’s okay, it’s okay as long as it closed by end of the month, that’s a big deal for us,” said Gary Lee with the Chinatown-International District Public Safety Council. He members of the Council and other community groups rallied outside the facility in mid-February, putting the city on notice about their frustration over the delay and expectation for the facility to close at the end of March…