Bellevue City Council narrowly approves city’s first homeless shelter

Despite major opposition, a divided Bellevue City Council voted Monday night to move ahead with a homeless shelter and continue developing a site in the Eastgate neighborhood.

RELATED: Meet Bellevue’s on duty skateboarding police officer

While the Council voted 4-3 to move forward on the project, it also gave itself 45 days to consider two alternative sites. This would be the city’s first permanent men’s shelter.

The shelter could house 100 men every night and would be “low-barrier,” which means no one in need of help would be turned away.

The four-acre site is just east of the Eastgate Park and Ride. It was on the top of the city’s list because of the proximity to the Eastgate Public Health Center, the Eastgate Park and Ride and DSHS.

Residents say it is too close to neighborhoods, Bellevue College and childcare facilities. Neighbors worry it will increase loitering and crime in their neighborhoods.

Neighbors say there are other sites that would be a better fit. They say they are doing research the city failed to do when it narrowed a list of fourteen sites to six and then down to one.

The shelter would be run by Congregations for the Homeless, which has been operating a men’s homeless shelter that houses about 75 men and has not had a permanent location.

RELATED: Lessons learned to fight the Seattle homeless crisis

City councilmember Kevin Wallace told KIRO 7 there is another site that could be a better fit for the shelter, where it would be a half mile from residents. That site is owned by Sound Transit and will eventually house a maintenance facility as part of the Sound Transit 3 project in the 1800 block of 120th Ave NE.

As part of the deal, Sound Transit needs to provide low-income housing on a portion of the property. Wallace thinks there is room for the shelter there, too. Wallace credits council candidate Jared Nieuwenhuis, who brought up the site as a possibility.

Wallace told KIRO-7 he is interested in the city considering that site and not just moving forward with the Eastgate site.

David Bowling, with Congregations for the Homeless, says he wants to work with the community and is hopeful the city will move forward with the Eastgate site. He said siting the shelter has been in the works for a couple of years and starting over with a new location possibly would increase the time it will take to get some of the homeless men in the area the services they need.

The city council will listen to speakers tonight and then vote on whether to continue their talks with King County, which owns the Eastgate property.