To help the homeless population in the Valley and provide them with a safe place to sleep during the winter months, the Snoqualmie Valley Winter Shelter opened its doors on Sunday, Nov. 20. This marks the fifth year that the winter shelter has been operating in the Valley.

The winter shelter, currently located at the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church in downtown Snoqualmie, is a non-religious, non-profit organization operated by the Valley Renewal Center that has been working with men, women and families in the Valley for five years.

Jennifer Kirk, director of the winter shelter, said the organization will move from Snoqualmie to North Bend and then to Fall City, during their season. The shelter will be at the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church from Nov. 20 to Jan. 18. Then it will move to Mount Si Lutheran Church in North Bend from Jan. 19 through March 4 and then to Fall City United Methodist Church from March 5 through April 26.

The shelter has received permits from both the cities of Snoqualmie and North Bend, allowing them to stay in each city for 60 and 45 days, respectively.

“It’s so important to us that we are able to partner with those cities and our goal is always to have a permit in hand before we open our shelter season,” Kirk said. “The city of Snoqualmie allows for a 60-day stay in one calendar year, the city of North Bend allows for a 45-day stay. We also always want to be very sensitive to the church… We work to limit our time at a church anyway because it is quite a commitment for them to make and it gives us an opportunity to serve in different locations.”

In Kirk’s presentation on the shelter to North Bend city council, she shared the data compiled from last year’s shelter season, which showed that 43 percent of the shelter’s guests were based in North Bend, 24 percent were from Snoqualmie, 12 percent were from Preston, and Carnation and Duvall made up 2 and 1 percent each.

In addition to the nightly shelter services, the shelter also began a day center service on July 11 at the American Legion Hall in downtown Snoqualmie. The day center, which is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, allows people to come in and get one-on-one consultation and help finding a job or accessing resources like computers or a phone.

“The addition of a day center has been huge because it is so hard to do any type of case management work in the winter shelter environment,” Kirk said. “They are able to connect at the day center, get resources for jobs, there is a phone and computers there, there are a lot of resources available. We can help people sign up for medical insurance, for social security, things like that.”

Kirk said one of the main focuses of the shelter is to provide a safe space for people to sleep and eat, while also creating a safe environment in the communities that host them. Their rules and guidelines allow them to help people struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol, but do not permit those substances inside the shelter.

“If we have someone coming to us who is struggling with active addiction, they are welcome to come in even if they are actively under the influence of drugs or alcohol,” she said. “They are not allowed to bring anything with them and not allowed to use anything while they are with us.”

They also want to create a safe place where staff can build a relationship with the people at the shelter and help them through financial difficulties, domestic violence situations, mental health issues and more, Kirk explained.

“Long term we hope to have a year round program at some point and we hope to have that in one location,”she said. “Having a year-round program would mean that we would not have to restaff every year. All of the public meetings involved, meetings with churches, the moves themselves are a lot of work, getting everything out of storage, getting everything in, and then moving to the next church in a couple of months. Having a year-round program in one location would be really beneficial to everybody.”

Kirk also said that the shelter would not be as successful as it is without the help from the Valley volunteers who donate their time, food, and effort to helping the homeless.

For more information on the winter shelter and how to donate or volunteer, visit valleyrenewalcenter.com.