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Ashland council makes moves to offer better extreme weather shelter By Morgan Rothborne Updated: Dec 09, 2022 03:19 PM A A Ashland’s warming shelter is held in Pioneer Hall. Ashland City Council wants to find an organization to run it, and authorized up to $100,000 to do it. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune] Ashland City Council took action Tuesday night to address problems plaguing the city’s extreme weather shelter operations. The council granted City Manager Joe Lessard the authority to enter into a contract with an as-yet undetermined third party to coordinate the city’s shelters — approving up to but no more than $100,000 to fund shelter operations. “This issue has come before council several times, and it has been very difficult to manage, not because of a lack of compassion but because of the resources it takes,” said Councilor Tanya Graham. “As long as I’ve been on this council, there has been a desire to do more and a financial constraint around it.” At the close of autumn, the council approved opening the cold weather shelter when it hits 32 degrees. The threshold had been 20 degrees. Tuesday night, the council examined how it will answer to that decision this winter. Based on past weather data, the change could mean as many as 22 days of shelter per month for the five coldest months and up to 102 days a year, said Lessard. Historically, the city of Ashland has called for shelter the day before weather conditions require it, relying on volunteers to coordinate and staff the shelter. Linda Reid, staff liaison for the city’s Housing and Human Services Commission, relayed a request for help from the city’s shelter volunteers. “In the course of the pandemic, we lost a lot of the more seasoned volunteers,” she said. “They have expressed that they want the city to partner with an external organization to provide more structure and organization rather than relying on the generosity of volunteers and churches.” “When I call an emergency shelter operation, it does not guarantee that a shelter will open,” Lessard said. “When we have a prolonged period of time, we cannot always be sure we will have volunteers to run it.” The city is eyeing Options for Helping Residents of Ashland, a nonprofit Ashland has worked with to operate shelters in years past, to establish a more reliable, organized extreme weather shelter system. But no organization has submitted a formal proposal to the city, according to meeting materials. Councilor Tonya Graham expressed concern about the feasibility of offering shelter for the protracted period of time incurred by the new 32-degree standard — and whether $100,000 would be enough to get the city through the winter. “If this winter ends up being more severe than we anticipated, we will report back to the council, but I believe we have enough for initial support,” Lessard said. Because it is the city manager’s role to call for a shelter, the resolution grants him the power and the responsibility to exercise his discretion, to weigh the threat of existing conditions against the available resources and make the call, he explained. Mayor Julie Akins framed the issue as health and safety for the people of Ashland, not only for homeless people, but all residents of Ashland, many of whom post on social media or in emails to councilors about warming fires, garbage and inappropriate toilet use. “If there’s a concern about warming fires, then you can’t leave people out there at extremely cold temperatures. I’m personally concerned about death, about our most vulnerable and poverty-stricken residents having somewhere to be. I’m concerned, dare I say, about the morality of that,” Akins said. The council also revised its conditions for shelter in the far-gone months of summer, when 95 degrees was agreed as hot enough to call for a cooling shelter. Smoke or “any combination of weather conditions, community circumstances, including interruption of electric or essential city services” determined to be potentially hazardous to human life also could be grounds for calling a shelter. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.