St. Vincent de Paul Juneau warming shelter moves operations to JACC

St. Vincent de Paul Juneau’s Emergency Cold Weather Shelter is moving operations from the current location on Teal Street in the Mendenhall Valley to the Juneau Arts & Culture Center today, March 20. The City and Borough of Juneau contracts with St. Vincent de Paul to run the shelter.

The move is part of a COVID-19 response by CBJ and St. Vincent de Paul to adhere to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that allow 6 feet of space between cots or mats. The additional space will also allow other shelters the opportunity to use the space in order to meet these guidelines.

St. Vincent de Paul will be working under its current contract and operating the program in the same manner that it has since November 2019. A minimum of 28 cots will be available, although with the increased space and bathroom facilities, the JACC space should be able to shelter more in the future.

Similar to other municipalities, like Anchorage and Seattle that have provided large spaces for shelter use to assist homeless individuals in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, this is the first step in a comprehensive planning process that will target quarantine and isolation strategies next.

For more information, contact CBJ Chief Housing Officer Scott Ciambor at 586-0220 or [email protected].