Kitsap Rescue Mission was forced to shut-down its 26-bed homeless shelter on Bremerton’s Sixth Street in 2019, leaving county leadership and homeless advocates at the time looking for a long-term shelter replacement. The aging building sat unused until Peninsula Community Health Services began renovations that will become a respite center offering healthcare for unhoused people, while KRM relocated several times.
Now, a renovated facility nearing its one-year anniversary in Port Orchard has become a large part of the long-term strategy to shelter unhoused residents and move people toward stability under Kitsap Rescue Mission’s management.
In January 2025 the Kitsap Rescue Mission opened the Pacific Building in Port Orchard as Kitsap’s only continuous-stay shelter, with room for 75 individuals at a time. Robin Lund, KRM’s executive director, said during an interview at the building that the shelter is successfully helping unhoused families find permanent housing, though work remains to provide more similar resources for unsheltered people across the county…