Port Huron's temporary men's homeless shelter closes. Here's what's next.

Staff and residents staying at Port Huron’s temporary warming shelter kept the atmosphere light late Sunday amid the final hours for the facility before its guest left for the last time Monday morning.

It was first set up in January in the basement of All Nations Church of God in Christ, 2030 Church St., to accommodate men facing or at risk of homelessness. It was organized through a consortium of local officials, funded through the city, and staffed to host them overnight through the YMCA of the Blue Water Area.

Organizers have said the arrangement was always meant to end in April. However, more than a year after St. Clair County’s only fixed men’s shelter closed, details on finding another solution remain in flux.

Josh Chapman, CEO and president of the YMCA, has been the spokesman for the effort since the start of the year, adding that there were still “a lot of moving pieces” between finding a space that could work or a permanent homeless shelter, developing a sustainable plan to run it, and financing it.

“We actually have a pretty decent lead on a permanent location, but it’s still very much in conversation,” he said on Sunday. “… I think probably more so now than ever, we’ve had a lot of folks involved in this process, in this work, and I think they’re more engaged to help put an end or provide an option to solve chronic homelessness in our community.”

Overall, warming shelter staff said they counted over 1,021 heads to hit the pillows in the four months it operated, accommodating 69 individuals.

Some got situated before departing on their own. Some they assisted in finding housing — staff Patrick Trautmann and Shawn Walford pointed to a handful on Sunday — while others remained after weeks at the facility on Sunday night.

“At our peak, we were doing about 20 a week,” Trautmann said. “And then, it’s been really thinning out.”

 “We thought when the weather broke, we’d get like four or five people, but we were still averaging (more than that),” Walford added. “So, it just goes to show you that even if it’s warm out, they still know this is here. It’s safe. There’s community.”

A bittersweet ending for shelter community

The next steps slated for each individual at the shelter varied. But most of them reflected positively on their experience there.

“These guys are wonderful,” said Dave Lieske, who’d been at the shelter nightly since early March after losing an apartment and staying at local hotels. “They like picking on me, but that’s their thing.”

Lieske, who recently turned 60, sat on his cot — a birthday balloon still floating on a chair next to him — as a few low laughs playfully eked out from the table staffed nearby.

“We can strike that from the record. As Dave’s spokesman, he didn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trautmann said with a laugh.

Trautmann said he had advocated for Lieske at Community Mental Health, and Lieske said they were following up the next day with the hope of getting him into Sanborn Gratiot Memorial Home.

Later this month, Lieske said he was scheduled for open heart surgery to replace an artificial valve. But he joked that, like his balloon, he wasn’t expecting to pop anytime soon.

Another resident, James McGill, who had been staying at the shelter since this winter, said he wasn’t sure what was next for him.

“I put in for senior housing. It was approved. We’re just waiting on an apartment,” he said.

For Trautmann and Walford, Sunday was bittersweet.

“It’s definitely been a marathon,” Trautmann said. “Met a lot of cool people here, and they’ve all gotten bonds. It was just a real good time. I think we’ve done proof of concept, and I think we proved the need that there is. So, hopefully, as long as the area churches in the city can keep cooperating and working together, a permanent thing could be done.”

Discussion to find permanent shelter fix shifting

Blue Water Area Rescue Mission’s men’s homeless shelter on 24th Street closed in early 2022.

Since then, local organizers have worked to identify a permanent shelter fix via a subcommittee of a local community services coordinating body.

Port Huron City Council members originally OK’d the use of American Rescue Plan dollars to finance the temporary men’s facility late last year. Although it was through an agreement with Blue Water Community Action, the YMCA staffed the shelter with security and personnel in the space renovated and volunteered by the church.

Moving forward, Chapman said Community Action — the region’s designated housing assessment resource agency — remains the go-to agency for those facing homeless and in need of a more immediate place to stay.

Officials from the agency did not return a request for comment as of Tuesday.

Other groups involved in the discussion include Operation Transformation, CMH, and the United Way of St. Clair County, among others.

In March, City Council members OK’d the use of another $937,946 in additional ARP funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME federal block grant program to go toward housing needs, including $400,00 set aside for the acquisition and development of non-congregate shelters.

Although there are existing shelters for women and children and victims of domestic abuse, Chapman said so much of that discussion is transitioning to combat homelessness outside of the traditional settings — meaning, beyond just the lack of a facility for men.

“The model is really shifting from conjugal to non-conjugal settings. So, with that, if we’re going to serve X amount of people, we need to have X amount of spaces and X amount of toilet or restroom facilities,” he said. “We want to be cognizant (that) it’s not just men that need help right now. There are women, there are families, there are couples, so whatever space that we have, we (want to have) that flexibility to offer.”

Anyone at risk of facing homelessness was encouraged to call Blue Water Community Action at (810) 982-8541.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.