A high-stakes fight over Bremerton’s next major homeless shelter has split the City Council, put millions of dollars on the clock, and left a Sheridan Road site in limbo just as daytime services elsewhere are shrinking.
Two council members went on record this week against a nonprofit-backed “hybrid” shelter proposal for Sheridan Road, sending the question back to the full council and leaving the project’s future to a later vote. With outside funding tied to tight deadlines, advocates warned that delay could mean fewer beds at the very moment the Salvation Army is cutting back daytime services.
At the Wednesday, Jan. 14 meeting, which stretched for hours, Councilmembers Jennifer Chamberlin and Denise Frey each said they opposed using the Sheridan Road property for the shelter plan. Councilmember Michael Goodnow pressed his colleagues on whether the city was “wasting the nonprofits’ time.” The nonprofit coalition asked the city for a package of support, including a formal endorsement, ongoing operating funds, faster permitting and help bringing in state and county partners. In the end, the council postponed taking a formal position until Jan. 28, according to the Kitsap Sun.
What the nonprofits are proposing
A coalition led by the Bremerton Housing Authority, working with Kitsap Mental Health Services, Kitsap Community Resources and St. Vincent de Paul, is pitching a five-acre Sheridan Road campus that would combine an 80-bed congregate shelter with roughly 60 pallet homes and on-site wrap-around services, The Seattle Times reports…