Juneau’s homeless shelter is reducing its services due to what staff say is a deteriorating and unsafe environment in the neighborhood.
The shelter has seen an increase in homeless people camping nearby compared to other years. Shelter officials say the reduction may cut down on campers – and chaos.
In a letter shared with patrons this week, Glory Hall Executive Director Kaia Quinto said the Glory Hall homeless shelter will stop offering daytime services — including meals — to people who are not sleeping there beginning Aug. 26.
Quinto said continuing assaults, a lack of security, criminal activity and general chaos are some of the reasons for the decision. She said the decision to reduce access to the shelter’s services was not an easy one — but necessary for the safety of staff, patrons and neighbors.
“The situation around the neighborhood is pretty untenable right now,” she said. “It’s just really important that we focus on keeping as peaceful an environment as we can.”
Quinto said patrons will still be able to receive services inside the facility during office hours after the changes go into effect later this month. But their time inside will be limited to when they are actively meeting with service providers.
She said she can’t say how long the reduction will last, but hopes it won’t be permanent. She said the current situation is affecting her staff’s mental health and wellbeing.
“It’s having a major toll,” she said. “It’s hard to recruit and keep staff when every other employer can provide better and safer working conditions. This job is hard enough.”
The announcement comes just days after the Juneau Assembly narrowly rejected a plan to create a shelter safety zone that would have tightened restrictions on camping in the area around the shelter. Shelter staff, patrons and neighbors asked the Assembly for the safety zone.
“The vicinity has become an epicenter for sales of illegal substances and stolen merchandise,” the letter stated.
This summer, the shelter has seen an increase in camping nearby. That’s in part due to the closure of the city-run campground near downtown two years ago.
City leaders say the shelter safety zone was intended to increase protection for staff and people using the shelter’s services. But Assembly members who voted the plan down argued it would only be a stopgap solution for the larger issue of homelessness in Juneau.
“I just can’t see how it takes us forward as a community on this issue, more than just whack-a-mole on the next piece of the problem,” said Assembly member Neil Steininger.
On Monday, the Assembly asked the city to look into other potential safety measures for the Teal Street area, like hiring private security to patrol the area or establishing a city-sanctioned summer shelter.
Brittany Fuhr was outside the shelter on her lunch break Thursday. She was sitting with her friends by one of the more than a dozen tents that lined the sidewalk on Teal Street. She said it seems like there are a lot more people camping and in need of the shelter’s services than in previous years.
“There are definitely more people, like bodies, as far as people walking around, people crossing the road, which is always scary,” she said.
She said that uptick in people might be adding to the increase in issues staff say they are seeing. Though Fuhr worries that the change to services will only add to the chaos.
“Closing a door doesn’t make the problem go away,” she said.
Until the problem is resolved, the shelter is working with partner agencies to establish a meal program at an alternative location.
