I received a generous response from Leo McFarland of VOA on the status of the 200-bed Triage Shelter that is progressing toward completion on Railway Rd.
McFarland writes,
McFarland writes,
Tom, all the contacts and referrals to the Triage Shelter are coming from the outreach team called the Impact Team. No walk ups are allowed per our contract with the City.
Last night's opening was scheduled to be limited to 50 individuals for several reasons. First the Impact team transports each referral over to the Shelter which limits the number that could be handled by this group on opening day.
Secondly, and more to the site permit challenge, we have not completed the full interior build out as yet. We are going to erect physical walls in the Shelter to provide for guests' privacy in the sleeping areas.
Everything is complete for this build except we cannot begin to set it up until the city issues us the building permit. It is under review by the city and we expect to get the green light very shortly. Secondly, the beds are required to be bolted to the concrete floor before we can use the upper bunks. This is a requirement of the building dept. We cannot affix the beds until we finish building the walls I mentioned earlier.
The schedule had us opening on Dec 15, but everyone wanted to push that day up due to weather conditions so we got ahead of all the final permitting processes which limits us in how many we can welcome into the Shelter until everything is complete.
Hope this helps a bit to clarify what is going on.
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