Homeless campers not sure where meals are coming from when daytime access to Glory Hall ends Tuesday
- Mark Sabbatini
- Aug 25
- 4 min read
Salvation Army, other organizers finalizing alternate plan that will involve multiple sites; shelter requests extra police to deter potential trouble under new policy
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
This story has been updated with additional information.
People being served lunch Monday at the Glory Hall said they aren’t sure where tomorrow’s meals are coming from since daytime access to non-residents at the shelter is ending. Officials planning to serve meals at different locations said they are still finalizing their plans.
Meals prepared by the shelter will be delivered to a handful of transitional housing and similar facilities starting Tuesday, but options for people living on the streets are still being determined, Kaia Quinto, executive director of the Glory Hall, said at midday Monday. The shelter announced earlier this month it is suspending daytime access indefinitely — and hopefully temporarily — due to safety concerns of residents and staff.
"I think there's probably not going to be breakfast tomorrow anywhere," she said, adding such meals at the shelter are generally simple fare requiring little or no cooking.
That means the first meal many people on the streets will most likely be able to get Tuesday is lunch during the weekly food pantry from noon to 4:30 p.m. at Resurrection Lutheran Church downtown. That may require a bus ride or some other means of transport for people camping in the vicinity of the Glory Hall, which is several miles away near Juneau International Airport.
Beyond that, arrangements are being made with The Salvation Army Juneau Corps and other organizations to provide meals, according to officials. Much of the effort is being coordinated by Tari Stage-Harvey, pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.
"We are a crew of congregations and concerned people who want to make sure people have access to food while Glory Hall reorients to ensure the safety of volunteers and residents," she wrote in an email to the Independent on Monday. "Shepherd of the Valley is using funds from one of our food ministries along with our summer lunch recipes to help a group of congregations take turns preparing meals and serving them. This is what we are able to offer with our limited resources and short time line to respond."
The church’s first scheduled day of serving is from 6-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Salvation Army Thrift Store parking lot, Stage-Harvey wrote. One meal a day will also be provided on Mondays and Fridays at least until Oct. 15. She said a more complete schedule of where meals for people in need are available on a daily basis is expected to be completed by Tuesday.
Eddy Rodriguez, who was at the Glory Hall during lunch on Monday and is spending nights on the streets, said she has some food with her if needed on Tuesday, but she doesn’t know yet where else she can go for meals.
"They haven't said anything to me," she said.
Virginia McPhail, who is staying at the Glory Hall after living in a tent earlier this summer, said the limited daytime access will make the shelter safer for people inside, but she sympathizes with those unable to get space who will be facing even more difficulty in the day-to-day challenge of getting enough proper food.
Camping in the vicinity of the Glory Hall has proliferated during the past two summers, after the Juneau Assembly discontinued an officially sanctioned campground on the southern outskirts of town due to rampant reports of illegal activity during the summer of 2023.
But complaints have also resulted from the current "dispersed camping" policy. City officials have acknowledged there are numerous legal and practical difficulties in trying to resolve concerns voiced both by people with home/businesses and the campers living nearby.
Among the options Assembly members considered this summer were a shelter safety zone in the Teal Street neighborhood where the Glory Hall and other social service agencies are located, and altering the city’s disorderly conduct code to give police greater freedom to arrest people sleeping or otherwise occupying public areas. However, neither action was implemented due to concerns expressed by some city officials that the measures could intrude on people’s rights and give police excessive arrest authority.
Quinto said she has asked the Juneau Police Department to provide an increased presence in the vicinity of the shelter Tuesday in case people outside are upset about the new policy restricting daytime access.
"That's just for the safety of our staff and the patrons staying upstairs, and our volunteers and all the patrons that want to come inside to see our navigators, outreach (and) case manager," she said.
The shelter typically prepares up to 80 dinners each day and the plan for Tuesday is to prepare about 70, many of which will be delivered to other facilities under arrangements already made, Quinto said.
She said she is hoping a solution to safety concerns that allows daytime access to the Glory Hall to resume by the time the city’s cold weather emergency shelter opens Oct. 15 can be found.
In an email earlier this month to people affiliated with the Glory Hall, Quinto noted the following meal distribution are planned:
• People staying at the Glory Hall will receive meals at the shelter.
• Mobile Integrated Health/CARES will deliver about 15 meals to clients throughout Juneau.
• The Glory Hall will deliver breakfast and dinner to tenants at the organization’s Forget-Me-Not Manor permanent supportive housing complex who cannot make their own meals, which Quinto estimates is five to 10 people.
• Other site-delivery meals by the shelter to five to 10 individuals who cannot get to the facility for reasons such as transportation and physical limitations.
Limited access for other services to people not staying at the shelter includes:
• Navigation services from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and case management and clinical services "available on a basis consistent with the visitor policy."
• PATH Program Services will be mostly off-site, but available Mondays through Thursdays from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
