Valley Cities and Catholic Community Services open overnight shelter

Sheltering and expanding sheltering for homeless people in Auburn was the top action item to come out of the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness when it wrapped up its work in April 2016.

In September of this year, in partnership with Valley Cities and the Auburn Food Bank, the City of Auburn opened the Ray of Hope day shelter on a vacant lot that Valley Cities is donating temporarily at 2536 I St. NE to provide for the day-shelter structure – a construction trailer – that the City is leasing.

Two weeks ago, according to the City of Auburn’s Administrative Director Dana Hinman, Valley Cities, with the help of Catholic Community Services, opened its companion overnight night shelter in its Common Building to provide nighttime services to Auburn’s homeless. It has also reallocated its outreach worker staff to support shelter clients,

Staff at Valley Cities were unavailable for comment Tuesday afternoon, so more precise details were unavailable at the time this issue went to press.

The Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force, composed of community leaders, police and fire, the school district, service providers, residents, members of the faith community, police and fire, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, business owners and key city staff, sought to better understand the scope and causes of homelessness in Auburn, the systems in place to address homelessness and consider the range of concerns and ideas the community identified.