Beginning this Fall, UCAN began offering a variety of services to help shelter homeless folks living in the Grants Pass area. We are now the operator of a congregate shelter, a tiny home community and have opened an emergency warming center to prevent hypothermia and frostbite on very cold days.
Beginning on December 1 of 2022, UCAN took over operation of both the Grants Pass Shelter as well as the tiny home community at Foundry Village. The Grants Pass shelter is a group shelter that has around 25 beds in semi-private rooms. The shelter is a low-barrier shelter, meaning UCAN allows guests to live in the shelter with fewer barriers than are found at other shelters. Guests do not have to participate in treatment programs to reside at the shelter, but many work with staff to seek permanent housing.
Foundry Village offers eight and a half tiny homes to serve up to 17 guests, as well as a community building. The community building has a variety of amenities, including a kitchen, bathroom and showers, and laundry facilities. Moving forward, UCAN is contemplating having Foundry Village serve as more traditional transitional housing, perhaps as a place where guests from the Grants Pass shelter move to when they near finding permanent housing. We may also identify specific types of folks to serve at Foundry Village, such as homeless families, or homeless individuals with physical disabilities.
The final resource UCAN has made available to homeless folks this year is the Grants Pass emergency warming shelter. The shelter operates during particularly inclement weather, and is intended to keep local homeless residents safe and dry during such weather events. With multiple cold weather storms this winter, including several snow events, we have operated the shelter for 40 days.
We are most grateful for the tremendous effort and dedication our Grants Pass staff has shown in swiftly taking over operations of the Grants Pass Shelter and Foundry Village, as well as standing up the local emergency warming shelter. Without their dedication, the Grants Pass Shelter and Foundry Village would likely have closed in December, leaving several dozen homeless individuals on the street. Operation of the emergency warming shelter has kept well over 100 homeless folks healthy and safe.
