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With the American Rescue Workers' (ARW) closing of the Saving Grace Shelter on Sept. 11, there are no shelters operating in Williamsport for women, children and families that are experiencing homelessness.
There is a temporary shelter for men at ARW's Elmira Street location and the YWCA Northcentral PA offers shelter for victims of domestic abuse at their facility.
The Saving Grace Shelter, located at the corner of Campbell and Grace streets had been closed in anticipation of it being sold to Next Step Ministries, which is the non-profit founded by John and Sue Best, who have operated the Code Blue Shelter at First Church for several years.
Best confirmed that Next Step was no longer pursuing the sale of the Saving Grace site.
"When we initially announced this through the Sun-Gazette and other media, that announcement really, as you will remember, was pretty much driven by the Rescue Workers," Best said.
"In our agreement of sale, we reserved a 90-day period for fact-finding and due diligence. And during that period, one of the things that we found out is the maximum occupancy is 24 people, and that's just not acceptable to us. We would like to have at least double that or more, because you know we want to address the homeless population in Williamsport and the surrounding area. It's huge and getting bigger," he said.
He explained that they had contacted the city's Codes Department to see what they needed to do in order to proceed with their plans, which would include not only a year-round overnight shelter for men, women and children, but also services during the day to help those experiencing homelessness to find a way forward.
Best pointed out that codes had been very cooperative, but because Next Step wanted to double the capacity, there were certain things that would need to be done.
"We would have needed to change the codes designation from a residential rating to an institutional rating, that would have at least doubled the number of people we could hold. But what codes said is, you're probably and underscore the word probably, going to need to install a sprinkler system, open up another means of egress and deal with other issues, all of which are very expensive to deal with. So on that basis, we decided just to walk away and withdraw our offer," Best said.
Best stressed that there is no negativity toward the Rescue Workers over the situation.
"They were very cooperative and you know it just didn't fit with us," he said.
"Although we walked away from the Saving Grace facility as far as our shelter, you know, it's a great building, and others may be interested in looking at it," he said.
With the closing of Saving Grace and Family Promise no longer operating, the Sun-Gazette has received several reports of people sleeping on benches and in protected doorways in the city.
The overnight Code Blue shelter operates from January through March and offers space for men, women and children, but until then there seems to be no available shelters other than for men.