St Paul’s United Church to open 20-bed homeless shelter

Meghan Walker Ballard

St. Paul’s United Church (6512 12th Ave NW) will soon become an overnight shelter for homeless men and women in Ballard.

The shelter, funded by SHARE, has been housed at Trinity United Methodist Church, but with the congregation moving to a new location, they can no longer provide a space for the 20-bed shelter. So, when St. Paul’s Pastor Tim Devine learned about the displacement, he spoke with his congregation and SHARE and decided to offer St. Paul’s.

“I originally didn’t think our building was large enough,” Devine told My Ballard, but ultimately decided to go ahead with the shelter because of such positive feedback from the congregation.

The St. Paul’s shelter will open on Jan. 20 — the church held a public meeting last night to answer questions and meet with neighbors. Devine said he thought the neighborhood meeting went well.

“People had genuine concerns, which I think we addressed,” he said, adding that they’ll host regular quarterly meetings to check in with the community about the impacts.

The people who will use the shelter are mostly the same people that were at Trinity, Devine said, adding that it’s not the type of shelter where people line up outside the building to try to get a bed. Currently, most of the residents are men — all go through a SHARE screening process prior to using the shelter.

One difference from Trinity is that St. Paul’s doesn’t have showers — the residents will have to go to Ballard’s Urban Rest Stop for that. SHARE provides bus passes so they can do volunteer work or to their jobs, or to the library to access the internet.

“One of the things that sold me on the idea was that they’re self-policing, and their rules are extensive,” Devine said. People using the shelter must be in by 9pm and out by 7am — they can’t stay on church premises during the day.

“I think the congregation is excited, and curious to see how it goes,” Devine said. He added that the building is already heavily used by 12-step groups.

“It feels like it’s furthering the ministry.”

Thanks to Allison for the tip

 

 

63 thoughts to “St Paul’s United Church to open 20-bed homeless shelter”

  1. Ah good. There isn’t enough transient crime and open drug and alcohol use in Ballard already.
    BRING THEM ALL TO BALLARD!

    Just curious, were any of the neighbors ALLOWED TO VOTE to turn Ballard into a overpriced slum?
    I don’t remember seeing it on any ballots. Come to think of it, we don’t seem to get much say about anything around here other than which new face will be on Twitter rehashing the same old useless PC ideology and failed policies.

    To make matters worse, these liberal rainbow churches are just fronts for Progressive donation-fed nonprofit job schemes. They are the lefty version of of the right wing megachurch. Bunch of nonsense having nothing to do with Scripture but everything to do with virtue signaling and job security for the “ministry”.

    Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, Ballard!

          1. They are very good at taking donations, paying themselves well, and feeding junkies and criminals who camp everywhere.

            MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

      2. Share/Wheel is huge scam we’re all paying for with taxes, stolen property, damaged neighborhoods and quality of life. When you Progressives call the truth “hate” you really embarrass yourselves. I suppose when people are vastly overpaid to write code or push papers for the city govt they forget about the idea of hard work and its value in society.

        Ballard was once full of working class people who would rather die than impose on their neighbors, much less force others to pay for junkies and endure all manner of unseemly juvenile behavior from this horde of personality defects and unparented overgrown children in tents and RVs.

        We’re been in a race to abandon shared principles and standards to so now everyone is a victim and nobody is responsible for anything except “cis-het patriarchy”. Clown world!

        When you Progressives aren’t SHOUTING at everyone about your ATHEISM you then busy yourselves using these fake churches to further what seems to be the goal of destroying anything of value.

        https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/rvs-drugs-and-skyrocketing-crime-push-seattles-sodo-district-from-sleepy-to-creepy/

    2. It’s so sad and pathetic that someone would be triggered, angered and spread whiny divisive psychobabble over a story about a private organization offering help to people in need.

      1. It’s sad you seem unable to understand that opening the trough for everyone west of the Rockies has tuned Ballard, and much of Seattle, into a dump.

        1. Yeah, I understand you are a sad, pathetic, miserable, easily triggered troll, who hates homeless people, liberals and Christians. boring!

      1. that’s what they said about all the services near Commons Park – somehow the area saw a massive uptick in tents, weird behavior, drugs, screaming mentally ill people.

      2. Wrong. Completely. Seattle is destination for drifters and who can live off the grid and face little police response. You cannot simultaneously claim Seattle is a “boomtown hot spot destination” for normal people but pretend we are not well-known as a great place for drifters and assorted transients.

        It has always been a problem but now it is an invasion.

  3. Great to have such caring, helpful, and positive people in our community, especially during a time where hatred and division is becoming more and more common.

    1. Yes the hatred against taxpayers and acceptable norms of behavior is truly shocking. What was once a clean safe place is now an overpriced dump full of people screeching against the natives and locals on behalf of criminal ingrates and addicts.

      You Progressives seem incapable of understanding that forcing the poor to compete with illegal immigrants for a dwindling supply of affordable housing ACTUALLY MAKES THE HOMELESS PROBLEM WORSE. Pathetic.

      You can’t have “open borders” and also provide affordable and/or free housing for the native poor. The techies never stop talking about automation but you guys think it’s the pioneer settler days and everyone can just start a farm on free land or get a factory job. Insanity.

      1. It’s so sad and pathetic that someone would be triggered, angered and spread whiny divisive psychobabble over a story about a private organization offering help to people in need.

  5. I hope they have someone to sanitize the Church daily after the homeless people leave to protect congregation from germs and lice and crabs !

  6. If these shelter inhabitants were homeless families or the working poor, I would be open to it giving it a chance, but if these are just more examples of Ballard’s finest criminal addicts, the ones that steal from retail establishments every day, break into your cars and homes, relieve themselves anywhere they feel the urge, litter the ground with dirty needles and become outraged when you try to prevent them from doing any of those things, then god help the congregation once they get to experience up close and personal what I and other Ballard residents know all too well.

      1. I think toughlove is making a reasonable assumption.

        Even if only 20% fit this description, that is a problem for the surrounding areas.

        I would be interested in knowing what the screening process entails.

        1. If 20% of the adult black male population is in prison right now can you make reasonable assumptions about the rest? Is life ever that simple?

  7. I’m happy to see that St. Paul’s is picking up the torch.

    A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge. ~ Proverbs 29:7

      1. Wow. That was a scathing comeback. SHARE is about 95% public funded. You of course are invited to supply “facts” to refute this.

          2. Nope. We’ve made our case against the enabling of criminals and addicts endlessly. You force us to fund them and insult us to boot.
            This is usually considered rude in healthy societies.

  9. I’ve lived in the backyard of this church for 35 years + now. While I am no fan of our current leaders and what they’re up to and who they support, I have yet to see any issues with what they’re doing. And yes, share-wheel IS a giant scheme/scam to separate us from our wallets. As a surviving drunk, sober for 17 years now, I find most if not all limitations ARE self-inflicted and enabling people is NOT the answer. Patting people on their heads and telling them “they’re victims” doesn’t cut it for me. I hope these people can transition back into society and be productive, putting back into the kettle, and not being a drag on it.

  10. Anyone remember how this ended last time?

    https://www.myballard.com/2009/09/14/sex-offender-removed-from-share-shelter/

    SHARE: Sex offender removed from shelter

    09/14/2009 Geeky Swedes Ballard
    A sex offender who has been living at the Calvary Lutheran homeless shelter in Loyal Heights has been removed, SHARE confirmed to My Ballard today.

    This weekend a My Ballard reader posted a notice in the forum claiming that a Level III sex offender was living at the church for a few weeks. We spoke with Alan at SHARE this morning, and he confirmed a sex offender moved into the shelter on August 21st.

    Despite the neighborhood’s repeated requests, SHARE refused to conduct sex offender checks, even calling them “un-American.” Alan says that the discovery of this sex offender does not change their stance. “We’ve never had a problem,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything.” We spoke with one neighbor who lives near the church. “This is what we were concerned about,” he tells us. “They are no longer welcome in my neighborhood.”

  12. My best wishes to the residents in the area.

    It’s good they will be keeping tabs on the community impact.

    Isn’t this right next to the High School?

  13. Pastor Devine is a good man. I know he takes all communities safety serious. Give it a chance I am glad the church is involved.

  15. My hope is that the city will listen to the frustrations of Ballard neighbors, and finally come up with some real ideas to address this problem. At this point, there is no comprehensive plan and local organizations do what they think is best, but are often making the problem worse. I think what bothers me the most is the lack of accountability, on the side of the folks who are living on the street. Generosity is wonderful, but has anyone put a spreadsheet together to track it’s success? Are people being lifted out of homelessness and drug addiction? Can anyone direct me to a resource for statistics on the growth of the problem and the successes attained by specific programs?

    1. The only answer the Progressives have is “more tax money now!”.
      Any private enterprise would be ruined by this approach, and nobody would invest in a business model like this. The Progs put their money in very safe investments but demand we pay taxes into a broken system endlessly.

      1. Conservatives only answer is cut taxes for the rich, give tax breaks to big businesses, and hope a hope jobs and opportunity trickles down to the middle and lower class.

        1. Amazon and Big Data did more damage to domestic manufacturing jobs, privacy, and affordable housing in major cities than any conservative, and yes there are bad conservatives. Funny though, liberals never stop to think that maybe they have some very bad apples in their bureaucracies and corporations.

          It’s interesting that liberals pride themselves on looking towards “the future” yet act like it’s still 1988. Silicon Valley is the big player in the economy – which is overwhelmingly liberal/sjw/progressive – yet progressives pretend like the rich are all cigar smoking fat cats from the 20th century. Blue states mock red ones as “backwards and poor” yet still maintain that conservatives are the rich party.

          A quick look at places like San Francisco, and now Seattle, pretty much debunks this view of liberal Utopias. Everyone loves luxury if they can afford it, but the rich liberals can bash away at conservatives because they think they are “saving the planet” or “solving homelessness” while they continue to force the working class to compete harder for dwindling jobs and housing.

          Liberals still use gasoline, airplanes, buy (and sell!) sweatshop products and wage wars. The conservatives are there to provide a nice alibi and a target for projection. The same is true of all this “evil america” nonsense the liberal boomers spouted for decades without ever looking in the mirror.

          1. sorry I upset you so much, maybe you need a time-out in your safe place?

            But in response to your anti-liberal psycobabble, whenever the conservative Republicans are in power, they cut taxes, give the rich tax breaks, and say jobs will trickle down to the middle and lowers class, and that small businesses startups will thrive. It never works and our country ends up a mess, but conservatives always drink the kool-aid. Drink up!

          2. Huh. Didn’t see any arguments there. And you guys came up with the snowflake crap and “toxic masculinity” and all that intersectional garbage, so any safe spaces are the ones the social justice types need when they suffer their panic attacks. Look at the populist revolt in France. Global capital is SERVED BY THE LIBERALS largely and many people are fed up.

            Yes, the tax system is messed up, but I would love the liberals to stop pretending that the wealthy do not also support the Democrats.

          3. If you are assuming that everyone with liberal or progressive ideals votes Democrat, you are flat wrong. Additionally if you assume that everyone with with liberal or progressive ideals likes the current state our city, is happy with our local government, considers all all progress is good progress, then you are wrong and quite ignorant. And if you truly believe “Global capital is SERVED BY THE LIBERALS largely”, you are not just wrong and ignorant, but stupid as well.

            People honestly believe that the problems we have going on in this city, and in this country, are the sole fault or responsibility of Democrats, liberals, Republicans, or conservatives, and that it is not the fault and responsibility of EVERYONE for being self absorbed, complacent and blaming each other while watching shit go bad. In my opinion that is a bigger epidemic than opioid addiction, crime and homelessness.

          4. Ah, so I’m “stupid” along with the Gilet Jaunes in France. Interesting.

            People wanting to keep more of their OWN MONEY is not “self absorbed”. Your liberal identity politics is all about “me me me” but when the bill comes due it’s “us us we”. Huh.

            Would you willfully PAY for someone else’s gambling debt, prostitutes, or booze? No?

            Then why are you helping support heroin addicts?

            If someone CHOOSES to get pregnant repeatedly while in poverty, or CHOOSES to to stick a needle in their arm that is not my responsibility. Now, yes we do need a safety net for CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND ONE’S CONTROL but enabling lazy addicts and criminals and paying for the mess of irresponsible people is a quick way to ruin the social contract. With your logic, everyone is responsible for everyone else.

            Do you jump off of buildings and blame others because you broke your legs?
            Much of this really is that simple.

          5. No, you are not responsible for someone else breaking their own leg, or an individual’s poor choices, which is actually pretty obvious that is not what you nor I are talking about.

            But yes, you, I and every other citizen ARE responsible and to blame for doing nothing, being complacent, and just blaming others for the things you whine and troll about here on myballard.com, such as corrupt government, slow police response time to crimes, high taxes, illegal encampments, crumbling infrastructure, etc.

            So yes, you are stupid and ignorant if believe you have no responsibilities, or are only accountable yourself when you choose to live in a city or a community. If you don’t like this, or cannot accept this, maybe move out to the woods somewhere.

          6. Wrong again. Taxpayers have EVERY RIGHT to complain about our corrupt local government. If I bought a $10,000 item on Amazon I sure as hell would complain if it was defective. Once again, you don’t seem to understand why taxpayers are outraged at being insulted and mocked by people who encourage bad behavior and expect them to pay for it, endure it in their presence and sometimes at their own peril.

            You liberals used to all about “free speech” and guilt but now it’s all tone policing when it comes to the obvious dysfunction of the City of Seattle.

          7. Complain all you want, but when you don’t take action, all you end up with something defective.

            I do understand the outrage, but I don’t understand the whining and trolling on this website, and lack of action to do anything about it.

          8. Haha I love it. Mayor McTwitter and the liberal outrage brigade calls people like me “whiners and trolls”. Your whole political movement is a bunch of cat ladies on social media whining and reaching in our pockets to pay for their pet causes or “calling people out” for having a pair of testicles.

            If these churches are getting tax dollars, where is your outrage about muh separation of church and state?

          9. I won’t argue whether or not you have testicles, but based on the fact that you troll this website and that your comments are ignorant, you certainly don’t have balls and most likely you are smooth-in-the-front like a Ken doll.

          10. Ah, ok well you win the argument, SurlyAF. I’m now trans so why are you being such a bigot? :D

            This really is all you guys have: despite all the sjw nonsense you end up just telling people they’re either 1) gay or 2) not real men.

            Huh. Pretty funny. Then again the liberals are known for their infantile obsessions with anatomy and body processes.

          11. Cool story bro. Keep telling yourself you have balls for internet trolling and are a social justice warrior.

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