Canyon County’s only overnight shelter for families could close. Here’s what that means

Canyon County’s only overnight shelter for families could close its doors if it doesn’t raise $300,000 by February.

Closing means 13 families could be forced to return to the streets after staying in the beds at the Salvation Army Community Family Shelter in Nampa, a Salvation Army administrator said.

The Salvation Army Community Family Shelter is the only overnight shelter in Canyon County that keeps parents and families together. The other Canyon County homeless shelter, The Boise Rescue Mission’s Valley Women’s and Children’s shelter, allows for women with children only, no men.

Last summer, the Boise Rescue Mission closed its men’s shelter in Nampa, leaving only its Boise men’s shelter available for homeless, single men in Canyon County. The Rescue Mission has a recovery lodge in Nampa for medically fragile people. According to its website it can serve up to 45 people.

The Salvation Army shelter is typically open only during the winter months to house families, but in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic and the following housing crisis, the shelter realized the need was year-round, said Capt. Allison Struck, core officer of the Nampa Salvation Army.

The shelter stayed open for two years during the pandemic, but it faced a funding shortfall of $300,000 when COVID-19 federal funding ran out, Struck said.

“(The shelter) is not just a families come in and stay for one night,” Struck said by phone. “They can stay for up to six months, get set up with a case manager and and all of the support that comes with getting them into permanent housing.”

If the shelter doesn’t raise the $300,000 to keep the shelter open year-round, then it would have to displace the 13 families now staying there. Struck said she hoped the shelter could still reopen next winter if it doesn’t receive the money it seeks.

“But the real hope is not to displace to families that are currently in our program, and to be able to keep taking families off the waiting list as they get placed in permanent housing,” she said.

The Nampa shelter is the Salvation Army’s only overnight shelter in the Treasure Valley. If it closed, the Salvation Army’s daytime programs and meals for homeless residents would still continue at the shelter building at at 1412 4th St. South near downtown Nampa.

Last year, as the country recovered from the pandemic, the Nampa homeless shelter saw a greater number of first-time homeless families than it had ever seen, they said.

People can donate to the Salvation Army Community Family Shelter at: give-cs.salvationarmy.org/campaign/nampa-homeless-shelter/c446568.

“What we really want people to understand is that we all share a desire for kids to be safe,” Struck said. “So that they can do the things that kids should be doing, going to school and learning and playing with their friends; not wondering where they will sleep or where their next meal is going to come from.”

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