224-bed homeless shelter opens in Anaheim

A 224-bed homeless shelter opened Friday in Anaheim as part of city efforts to settle a legal dispute with homeless advocates.

The 2-acre site, located on the Salvation Army grounds at 1455 South Salvation Place, features an open-air campus with 10 dormitories, a dining building, administrative spaces, a laundry room, bathrooms with showers, a dog run and an outdoor recreational area.

The shelter is adults-only, but will accept children in emergency cases. Residents will be transferred in by bus.

Privacy played an important role in the $13.1-million shelter’s design. Five dorms are for men, four are for women, and one is for couples. There are about 20 beds in each dorm; partitions separate the sleeping areas.

Case managers, clinicians, housing navigators, counselors and security officers will staff the center.

The dining area at a new 224-bed homeless shelter in Anaheim.

(Scott Smeltzer / Times OC)

The campus, which took about nine weeks to build, includes water-bottle filling and solar-charging stations for phones and electronics.

Another Anaheim shelter — with 101 beds — is expected to open in mid-February at 3035 La Mesa St.

The shelters are part of a legal settlement that requires Anaheim to provide 325 beds by early 2019. The agreement — reached in November — is in response to a lawsuit launched by homeless advocates against several cities after the removal of a tent city near Angel Stadium.

The emergency shelter, which opened Dec. 20, was meant to serve as an interim solution during the winter while the other two were constructed. The emergency facility will remain open for up to 90 days, with the potential of a one-month extension.

A laundry room at a new 224-bed homeless shelter in Anaheim.

(Scott Smeltzer / Times OC)

Anaheim city spokesman Mike Lyster said the emergency shelter is near its capacity of 200.

Admittance to the Salvation Army shelter will be through referrals, primarily from City Net, a nonprofit that recently led the county’s biennial homeless count.

Tallies from the countywide homeless count are expected in April.

The Salvation Army shelter will eventually become part of the organization’s Center of Hope, a proposed 155,000-square-foot homeless care center expected to open in early 2021. It will cost $60-million and have 600 beds.