The Pacific Building Shelter Project is a proposed site of a homeless shelter in Port Orchard, WA.

On March 25th, 2023, NWH was notified that he Pacific Building project team entered the next phase of permitting that included public comment. The Hearing Examiner will be reviewing permit documents but is also interested in public sentiment (support/opposition) for the proposed shelter operations in South Kitsap County. Anton Preisinger, on behalf of NW Hospitality, sent the following letter to the Kitsap County Hearing Examiner, during the public comment phase, in support of the shelter.

Dear Kitsap County Hearing Examiner,

I am the Founding Executive Director of Northwest Hospitality, a homeless services organization that has served thousands of unhoused and vulnerable people throughout Kitsap, King, Pierce, Snohomish, and several other counties throughout Washington State. We provide services ranging from a pair of socks to meals, vehicle repairs, rental assistance, and everything in between while working with people to build relationships that can turn into further opportunities for recovery and the pursuit of positive personal goals. We are an entirely volunteer-based organization, community-focused, and primarily funded by individual donors looking to uplift people living in their community.

The purpose of my letter is to express my sincere and abiding support for the Pacific Building Homeless Shelter being developed on Mile Hill in Port Orchard. There is no possible way for me to overstate the importance this shelter will have on the homelessness response in Kitsap County. To myself, the Northwest Hospitality Board of Directors, our colleagues, and our outreach partners, this shelter is the foundation of a network of services that will change the lives of all our vulnerable neighbors and the face of communities spanning the entire county. Without this shelter on Mile Hill, all service providers working with people with no place to call home will continue to flounder without the requisite resources to respond meaningfully to the most basic needs. Waitlists and disappointment have been the prominent experiences of people asking for help through the county’s services for years, partly because Kitsap County had never operated a 24/7 shelter until the pandemic compelled one to open. More people than ever are being forced into homelessness today due to the housing market and other pressures, many still related to the pandemic. The effectiveness of this type of shelter combined with wrap-around service provision has been demonstrated and recognized in our community. Doing anything but fully supporting the Pacific Building shelter at this point would be a tragic failure to serve the public need and would negatively impact every Kitsap County resident.

A small group of NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) detractors have compiled a long list of complaints in response to this shelter’s proposal, but every last complaint fails to stand up to the most basic scrutiny. The NIMBYs have responded to the idea of a shelter with fear out of their ignorance of homelessness. The people this shelter will serve are already here, struggling to succeed without adequate help in our community; they aren’t going to come to town just because we open a non-emergent shelter that requires referral through the county’s coordinated entry system. The drugs the NIMBYs are worried about are already here, and the problems they cause will get worse - for housed and unhoused alike - not better, without a shelter to serve some of the people dealers prey upon. The shelter, paired with an appropriately-funded network of additional resources, will directly contribute to a healthier and safer community by giving people the tools they need to succeed. The shelter will reduce the number of people living without homes and forced into situations that compel survival instincts, rather than the social contract, to dictate behaviors. None of these problems can improve without the Pacific Building shelter, similar resources, and the services they promise to provide.

I implore you to support the success of this shelter and our county by doing everything within your means to see it in active use as soon as possible. The best way to build a stronger community is to lift our neighbors who have fallen on hard times and give them the confidence that they will continue to be supported by effective and available services provided by a community that cares about human life and dignity more than politics or money. The Pacific Building Homeless Shelter is critical to accomplishing that stronger community. Thank you for your time and dedication to this exceptionally vital matter.

Gratefully,

Anton Preisinger

Founding Executive Director
Board Chairperson
Northwest Hospitality
www.nwhospitality.org
1-888-222-5240