Homeless services provider OHRA said it expects to have everyone currently living at the shelter housed before the last night on March 31. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had three people left to find housing for.
The shelter, at 2200 Ashland Street, opened in November, when the state was under a homeless emergency order. But state funding will end on Sunday.
Earlier this month, Ashland’s City Council turned down over $2 million in state funds that would have been used to renovate the building and fund its operations.
Councilors argued there was no long-term plan for the shelter, which provides 30 beds. It needs to be renovated to install bathrooms, showers and a sprinkler system, among other things. Councilors were concerned about the cost and timing for such work. A staff report said the site "would require significant investment and renovations."
"It does not seem to me that a protracted construction season over that time period for a significant amount of money, to make a building be what it was never designed to be, makes sense when what we’re dealing with is an actual emergency on the street where people need to get immediate shelter," Mayor Tonya Graham said at the March 5 meeting.
Linda Reid, Ashland’s housing program specialist, agreed, saying in a Friday interview, "There was just a lot of, I feel like, a lot of unknowns to bring to the council that they probably weren't really well-suited to make an informed decision at this time. And it did seem like an awful lot of money for maybe very little benefit."
"The need for shelter is still great," said Cass Sinclair, the executive director of OHRA. "I think that folks can see that there are campers behind [the] chamber in [the] city of Ashland. And so the need is still great for shelter in our community, as it is in the entire Jackson County."
Sinclair said a total of 73 people have come through the emergency shelter in the past five months. Some have been permanently housed, moved back in with family or transferred to other shelters or hotels. The OHRA Center provides transitional housing in Ashland. Sinclair said some people from the Ashland emergency shelter are being housed there, although its 52 rooms are now full.
The city will continue to run its severe weather shelter at the site if it has enough volunteers to staff it. The city opens inclement weather shelters in cases of severe heat, smoke or snow.
Reid said the city is working on a master plan about homelessness, set to come out in June, and will discuss future uses for the shelter building.
"Ultimately, this investment in the community has been beneficial, will continue to be beneficial. Even though at this point, we don't know what that looks like, I think there's certainly a commitment to making sure that this building continues to provide that benefit to the community," she said.
She said the councilors are seeking to thoughtfully address issues in the long-term, rather than just focusing on emergency needs, as happened during the COVID pandemic.
But there appear to be questions about the future of the building, which the city acquired in September 2023, mostly related to money from the state that was used to purchase the building.
In a text on Friday, Mayor Graham said, "We are in conversations with the state about the contract, as there appears to be a difference of opinion in terms of what it obligates the city to do in the near term with the building that has been used as a shelter for the last couple of months."
Graham did not respond to further requests for comment before deadline.
