50-bed Corvallis men’s shelter closes for season

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) – The Men’s Cold Weather Shelter in Corvallis has been closed for the season, leaving the city with fewer beds to house the homeless.

The Corvallis Gazette-Times reports the 50-bed shelter was intended as a stopgap until a permanent location is found. It’s not clear where the shelter will be located when it reopens in the fall.

The Housing Opportunities Action Council operates the shelter. Program manager Shawn Collins says there were a lot of lessons learned this year. One of the biggest was that there are homeless people with medical conditions that are beyond the shelter’s ability to handle, including multiple people with cancer.

Collins says volunteers operated the shelter every night for more than 150 days.

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Information from: Gazette-Times, http://www.gtconnect.com