PORT TOWNSEND — The American Legion Post 26 has annually upgraded the legion’s basement a little for the Jefferson County Emergency Winter Homeless Shelter, now in its seventh season, with a lot of help from community volunteers.

This year, what started in the basement as a simple electrical system improvement to accommodate new kitchen appliances donated by the Port Townsend Noon Rotary Club evolved into a full-blown $100,000 remodeling project by Port Townsend’s Little & Little Construction, funded through Olympic Community Action Programs.

“It’s a work in progress,” Legion Post Cmdr. Joe Carey said, walking around the formerly cold and outdated basement this week.

“To upgrade equipment in the kitchen, we had to upgrade the electrical,” Carey said, adding that it was found to be a fire hazard and had to be replaced.

“So one thing led to another.”

Meals are provided at the shelter, where check-in is between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. each day.

The shelter is open overnight until 8 a.m. daily through mid-March.

Shelter improvements

When the ceiling was removed to inspect the wiring, it was obvious it needed replacement.

“The wiring was so bad, had a rat fallen on it that would have been the end of the Legion,” Carey said.

The project brings the basement of the Marvin G. Shields Memorial American Legion Post 26 at 209 Monroe St. up to Port Townsend building code requirements, Carey said.

Instead of the spartan open area used when the shelter opened in 2005, there are new walls erected defining space where up to 20 homeless men can sleep on cots, with a glassed-in office for OlyCAP representatives, a volunteer overnight monitoring space and a TV room filled with comfortable furniture.

Bathrooms with showers and toilets are under construction as well so that clients will no longer have to use the facilities upstairs adjacent to the Legion’s lounge.

Carey and the Legion executed a five-year lease of the basement space with OlyCAP that includes a five-year option for renewing the lease.

That gave OlyCAP the impetus it needed to put money into the shelter, which opened Sunday despite the construction work under way.

Carey said city and Fire Department permits were secured before the shelter opened for the season.

The Legion Hall and OlyCAP designed the new quarters with the help of Port Townsend architect Richard Berg.

Done by Christmas

Work started in January, and most of it should be done by Christmas, Carey said.

After the shelter closes in March, he said, a fire sprinkler system will be installed to make the facility even safer.

Petitions for more private sleeping quarters also will be installed, he said.

“How far we go, I don’t know,” Carey said.

Jim Maupin, Noon Rotary president, said the club took in $12,000 in donations during its annual fundraiser, which was earmarked for homeless shelter kitchen appliances, part of a wish list by those who helped found the shelter.

The money went to buy nonskid commercial floor mats, a $2,500 warming oven, a $3,000 commercial dishwasher and a large three-compartment sink with a heavy-duty faucet.

“The rest of the money will go to some other shelter need,” Maupin said.

Carl Hanson, co-chairman of the Community Outreach Association Shelter Team, or COAST, a network of Jefferson County and Port Townsend churches that co-founded the shelter with OlyCAP in 2005, said he was impressed with what evolved at the shelter this year.

“It’s amazing how the community continues to come forth,” Hanson said.

“Last season, we had 450 volunteers bringing in food and acting as monitors.”

Women in separate site

This year, OlyCAP is putting the women in a separate site.

It was originally set up primarily for men, with a major focus on veterans, but had partitioned areas for women.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Hanson said.

So OlyCAP will house women in a couple of its cottages usually used for transitional housing.

The women will check in at the shelter and join other guests for dinner at 5 p.m., then be transported by monitors to the cottages where they will have breakfast in the mornings.

“It’s been wonderful working with Joe and the others and seeing how this community steps forward,” Hanson said.

COAST provides volunteers and funding, including food for meals.

“The Legion, OlyCap and COAST — we couldn’t make this happen if it weren’t for those three legs of the stool,” Hanson said.

OlyCAP Executive Director Tim Hockett said the construction project is paid for by a county fund designated for the homeless, which contains about $170,000 this year.

The Legion’s lease with OlyCAP is $120 per year.

Hockett praised the partnership between his agency for the needy, COAST with its churches and other community organizations involved, and the Legion.

“Even though there is construction under way, the goal and the vision is so fantastic that the long-term goal is worth the short-term inconvenience,” Hockett said.

________

Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.