Most campers opt not to come in out of the rain and cold as warming shelter opens for third season
- Mark Sabbatini
- Oct 16
- 6 min read
Rows of tents remain on Teal Street for now, but city manager says "we will need to clean up the camp before there is much snowfall"
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A sparse crowd showed up at the city’s cold-weather emergency shelter in Thane that opened for its third season on a stormy Wednesday night, as people experiencing homelessness mostly opted to remain in encampments such as the rows of tents along Teal Street that have become home in recent months.
About five guests were at the shelter shortly after it opened at 9 p.m., three of them brought on a shuttle from Teal Street where people have been camping in large numbers since the shelter ended its last season in mid-April. Meanwhile, at the encampment of at least 20 tents, a warming fire burned in a container near a group of empty chairs. People living there mostly kept out of the rain and wind.
A total of 14 people stayed at the shelter overnight, most of whom were picked up from downtown streets by the shuttle later in the night, said Dave Ringle, a staff member at the facility operated by St. Vincent de Paul Juneau. Ringle is St. Vincent's former executive director and retired earlier this year. An average of about 45 people stayed at the shelter during the past year while it was open between Oct. 15 and April 15, with a peak demand of about 70 during the winter’s harshest nights.
Some people currently camping on Teal Street said they didn’t know the shelter was opening Wednesday night, although St. Vincent's and other local officials said efforts to notify campers were made. Concerns were also expressed about abandoning tents and possessions that might be stolen or otherwise removed in their absence.
"What little you do have you still want to hold on to, and there's no guarantee that if you leave tonight that it’ll be here in the morning," Joseph Cropley, one of the tent residents, said Thursday morning.
Cropley said the shuttle waited for about 10 minutes on Wednesday night before departing for the shelter, but his attempts to inform his neighbors about it received little response.
"I was out here so I got to see (the shuttle) and I ran up and down here, and I went tent to tent saying it," he said. "But even doing so, they could say they didn't hear, because when you're inside the tent and it's blowing, you can’t hear much. It’s like a freight train going by."
The campers who’ve been allowed to remain in the area much of the summer and fall will have to move as winter conditions set in, City Manager Katie Koester stated in an email to the Juneau Independent on Thursday.
"We will remain consistent with our enforcement and break up encampments when there becomes a public health or safety concern," she wrote. "In the case of the tents near the Glory Hall, we will need to clean up the camp before there is much snowfall. We are very concerned from a life safety perspective that when snow removal begins, the possibility of a person either getting struck by a plow or buried under the plowed snow will be very high."
The Thane warming shelter is in a city-owned warehouse about a mile south of the Goldbelt Tram. Its designated hours are from 9 p.m. until 6:45 a.m.
People staying overnight at the Thane shelter sleep on rows of cots (set to be replaced with heavy-duty sleeping mats during the next couple of weeks), can get convenience foods like ramen noodles and oatmeal, and have access to simple restroom facilities (no showers yet). St. Vincent's Executive Director Jennifer Skinner said the hope is a hot water hookup and other necessary equipment to provide a shower will be installed during the season — although one problem to solve is rationing access among dozens of guests.
Among the first arrivals on Wednesday night was Harold Lloyd Hassell, who said he had been at the shelter during the past year and had been staying at various locations since it closed in April. He said he’s in the process of getting transitional housing through a veteran’s program and a new job, possibly in the meat department of a local supermarket, so he’s hoping showers are a reality soon.
"I have a good job prospect…but if I can't have daily hygiene and quality rest, that's critical — I'm not a healthy individual to be, especially, handling people's food," he said. "And mental health is critical when you work with others."
A limiting factor for people at the shelter is a new rule that restricts possessions to one backpack and one suitcase unless staff approval for more is given. As in previous years, belongings cannot be left at the shelter when departing in the morning.
"They bring their livelihood with them because they travel not-so-light sometimes," Skinner said. "Things really are important, they matter even more when you have less of them."
However, she added, "there's nowhere to store it, so we want to be mindful of that."
People staying overnight can arrive and depart on shuttles that make stops downtown and at the Glory Hall homeless shelter on Teal Street. Until recently, The Glory Hall provided meals and other services to people living on the street, but problems with the proliferation of campers nearby forced the facility to suspend day access to non-residents.
Kaia Quinto, executive director of the Glory Hall, said Thursday the hope is to resume at least some daytime services when enhanced security measures, including a two-door front entrance system, are in place. In the meantime, she said the goal of offering more peace of mind to people working and living at the site has been successful.
"We're playing bingo and making friendship bracelets," she said, "The environment inside is very wonderful."
The Glory Hall has also added another outreach worker to help people camping or otherwise outside the building who need services. It is also assisting the city with cleanups to keep the encampment tidier for the people living there, Quinto said.
Hopes of providing effective outreach are also cited as a motivation by employees at the Thane shelter, some of whom say they have been homeless themselves. Jenni Brett said she applied for a job at the shelter after being criticized for offering food or other help to people experiencing homelessness while she was working at a guest lodge in town.
"I myself have experienced homelessness in my life, so I know what it's like," she said. "Most people these days are one paycheck away from being homeless and almost anybody at any time could be homeless. The uber-rich obviously would never experience that, so they don't understand it because it hasn't touched their life."
Brett said she also has a family member who has struggled with mental illness and understands how that can result in a vicious cycle that keeps people from establishing stable lives — "but there can be a break in that."
"This is people that are willing to take the time to show that compassion and show that they care," she said. "It doesn't always work out, but nobody ever made changes by sitting on their asses and not doing anything. It's the people who stand up and say, 'This is not OK, I'm going to do this and I don't care in regards to anything in the world. I'm going to stand up and do this because it's the right thing to do.'"
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
