The nonprofit Rogue Retreat — a major provider of services to homeless people in Southern Oregon — is managing the site. It's providing overnight shelter for 28 people, as well as case management and peer support services. Local volunteers are also providing meals.
The building was not designed for overnight sleeping, so it doesn’t meet fire codes. That’s why the shelter can only be open for 90 days. It also means that even though 28 people can stay there, 14 of them have to be awake.
Rogue Retreat CEO Sam Engel says they’ll make it work.
"If somebody can't sleep, they're a little anxious, they're stressed out, they want to get up and talk to somebody. That means that we can make that bed open to somebody else who would like to sleep, and we're just going to kind of keep playing that day by day," he said.
There are also movies, games and activities to help keep people awake, according to Rogue Retreat Development Director Stephanie Deneke.
Ashland’s Emergency Management Coordinator Kelly Burns said Rogue Retreat also has to perform a fire watch every 15 minutes, meaning a walk of the building's entire interior and exterior.
The building is an approximately 3,000-square-foot commercial use office space and needs additional exits, smoke detectors and a sprinkler system, among other things
It opened as a homeless shelter in fall 2023 when the state was under an emergency order and was then run by the nonprofit group Opportunities for Housing, Resources and Assistance, known as OHRA.
But last spring, Ashland City Council declined over $2 million in state funding to keep the 30-bed shelter open. Councilors argued there was no long-term plan.
Since then, the city has struggled to figure out what to do with the building, while searching for more shelter options for homeless residents.
First Presbyterian Church of Ashland recently operated a severe weather shelter.
Burns said this new version of the shelter will provide three straight months of protection from winter weather, rather than only opening during inclement weather.
"We already know that being out in the cold and the wet isn't good for humans, and so our city manager took a look at the budget for what we could afford, and we tried to come up with a solution for that building for this winter season," he said.
The contract between Rogue Retreat and the city of Ashland can go up to $120,000, depending on costs.
The shelter is open from 7 p.m. until 9 a.m. The hours for support services are still being determined. Engel said people with high medical needs are being prioritized.
Meanwhile, Burns said he's also working to create a variety of shelter options in the community, both for homeless residents and for potential disaster situations.
"Some folks that actually need overnight shelter don't do well in a low-barrier, general population setting — say, women and children. So it would be preferable to have multiple spaces and then multiple spaces that can actually serve specific populations of humans that need that service," he said.
Meanwhile, the City Council is exploring using Community Development Block Grant funds to renovate the building. That would allow the city to keep the shelter open for longer than 90 days.
"What we need to do next is to figure out exactly what those changes at the building are going to cost," Ashland Mayor Tonya Graham said.
The City Council also still needs to approve the new master plan for the site, which was recently written by a committee formed for that purpose.
"[The plan] does not include ongoing, permanent sheltering at the site, only services and severe weather sheltering," Graham said, so the goal is to use the building as a severe weather shelter again at the end of the year.
She expects the Council to approve the master plan later this month.
