Open All Day! All Winter! How the Winter Welcoming Center is meeting rising needs across Jefferson County.
OPEN ALL DAY
💙
7 DAYS A WEEK
❄️
OPEN ALL DAY 💙 7 DAYS A WEEK ❄️
Photo by Paul Heins
This, the Winter Welcoming Center's 8th season, started 11 days early on Nov. 5th due to the displacement of the people camped near Evan’s Vista. Our daily numbers are increasing. We have seen as many as 45 people in a day. On Nov. 24th, with the help of OlyCAP, Bayside Housing & Services, the Jefferson County Health Department, and the REAL Team from Discovery Behavioral Health, we extended our hours from 8:30am-12:30pm to 8:30am-4:00pm. We are now open all day, 7 days a week, till April 15th - that is our big news! The funds we raise through the Bean for Bags program will help pay for the increase in staff time and supplies, which include the food and hygiene items we provide.
The Jefferson County, Port Townsend Housing/Homeless 5 Year Plan lists as one of its goals that the Welcoming Center will operate year-round. This is what we are building towards in 2026. We are actively seeking a building that will serve as an Urban Rest Stop, featuring showers, laundry facilities, lockers, a mail-receiving address, and all the amenities we currently offer. This new center will have private spaces where we can welcome case managers, JC Mash, and mental health providers. It will also include a Harm Reduction Center.
Our mission is “We Save Lives,” and the growing number of people who are elderly and disabled that we are seeing everyday attests to that. With growing coordination with the Shelter, OlyCAP, and other organizations, we know that we are supporting people to find homes, and till then, we are providing a warm, safe place for all to be. Our values extend to our staff, who mostly have experienced or are experiencing homelessness. The other activity we are working on is to increase the training of our staff, and any training we host at the Welcoming Center is open to all.
Jefferson Interfaith Action Coalition and First Presbyterian Church acts as the facilitating agent for the WWC. If you have questions, please contact 360-385-2525, ext. 1. Jefferson Interfaith Action Coalition and First Presbyterian Church of Port Townsend are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.