An extended cold snap is expected to keep the severe-weather shelter at Crossroads Community Center open through Saturday, for a total of nine nights.
Clients can register at the shelter from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., and are required to leave the center at 6:30 a.m.
The city of Bellevue opens the Crossroads shelter, located at 16000 NE 10th St., whenever temperatures dip below freezing or weather conditions threaten life.
The shelter can hold up to 50 individuals, and provides cots, blankets, coffee, water, and prepackaged snacks. Clients also have access to a recreation room that includes pool, foosball, and ping-pong tables.
Around 20 people have stayed at the shelter each night since word spread that it was open, according to the city.
“Thank God for this,” said Deven Smith, who spent three days outside before finding the Crossroads shelter.
“I felt like I was sleeping in a freezer, only about 15 degrees colder,” Smith said. “I shook and shivered so bad I couldn’t sleep.”
People using the Crossroads shelter come from a variety of backgrounds.
James Max Carson is a married man who spent 14 years working for general contractors. He sustained a job-related injury that has kept him out of work for the past several months.
Carson lost his house to foreclosure, and expects to be on the streets until January, when he begins receiving social-security money. In the meantime, he’s searching for affordable apartments and working occasional odd jobs.
“All I can do is stay focused and pray something good will happen,” he said. “I don’t want to give up. It’s hard, but I’m still trying.”
Carson’s wife is a caretaker. She lives in her client’s home to stay off the streets.
Andrew Carrigan is an 18-year-old who moved from San Francisco to Bellevue after finding work with a medical-marijuana distributor, whom he says turned out to have a bogus operation.
Carrigan left that job and recently found work doing computer repairs for an electronics store in Renton. He’s staying in shelters and with friends while saving money for an apartment.
Most people using the Crossroads shelter say it is cleaner and safer than anything offered in Seattle, where shelters are more common than they are on the Eastside.
“There’s a lot of drugs in those places, and I’m not a drug individual,” Carson said. “I despise of those places. They’re dirty, and they’re not good safe havens.
“I like it better here. You can relax, and you don’t have to watch your back.”
Other severe-weather shelters are located in Kent and Renton.
The Crossroads shelter is operated in partnership with Catholic Community Services and the Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Council.
The city regularly provides updated shelter information on its Extreme Weather Response web page.
