MCCAC, community partners rally to provide shelter during storms
By Alana Lackner, Columbia Gorge News
February 7, 2024
THE DALLES — When the winter storms hit the Gorge in January, no one was at a higher risk than those without housing. Across the Gorge, shelters and volunteers rushed to ensure that the unhoused would be safe from the biting cold. In The Dalles, this effort was headed by Mid-Columbia Action Council and its community partners.
Kelli Horvath, director of the office of housing stabilization at MCCAC, was on-site at The Dalles’ shelter, The Annex, during the storms, helping to make sure people were safe and sheltered.
“When I look back on it from the staffing and partner perspective, I’m really proud about how well people collaborated,” Horvath said. “And I think that we ultimately felt like it was a pretty successful effort to not only get ahead of the storm, but then also be as nimble as possible to meet people’s needs, even if there wasn’t a shelter bed for them in the moment.”
Because The Annex opened in the fall, Horvath said that they had been preparing for winter weather since the beginning. Part of that was easing staff into the opening of the facility by not fully filling The Annex, but also by planning to have “surge capacity,” which is where they house additional people throughout the duration of a severe weather event.
When the surge capacity came into effect, Horvath said there was a huge rush of people trying to get in. According to Horvath, one staff member compared the rush to her experience as a bartender.
“I think that was a really good way to capture what the life of a shelter staff member looks like in those scenarios,” Horvath said.
Horvath said that during the rush, there were community partners coming to The Annex to ask for warming bundles to distribute or to see if there was a place for a client. Staff were also calling people on the waitlist for The Annex to get them housed for the storm as well.
It was especially difficult because some staff members weren’t able to make it into town due to the weather. People were also working in roles that they wouldn’t normally. In fact, Horvath herself doesn’t normally help with operations at The Annex, and neither do some of the others who were helping, but they all came together to make things work.
“I was really proud of our expanded intake team and casework team at The Annex for coming up with some good systems to really expedite that process and make it possible for folks to show up and get placed and get in out of the cold as soon as possible,” Horvath said.
There was also the challenge of food, Horvath said. Meals on Wheels normally provides food to The Annex but because of the amount of people on-site, they weren’t able to keep up. They were also having their own transportation problems, she said.
“So I went to Grocery Outlet and I filled an entire grocery cart with $3 frozen meals, you know, so we could at least provide our one meal a day, because we couldn’t go to the food bank and get a cup of noodles [due to its closure],” she said. “... And we had folks come and drop off food and community volunteers who showed up in a big way too. So, you know, even when we were short-staffed, we really appreciated the way the community showed up.”
One of the other difficulties faced was that some of the houseless people seeking shelter had previously been exited from the shelter for breaking rules and weren’t allowed to stay at the property anymore. However, through working with community partners, Annex staff were able to find other places for them to stay.
“We just really are grateful that there’s a whole network to help us,” Horvath said.