Wenatchee Amends Housing Code for Severe Weather Emergency Shelters

The Wenatchee City Council continued the push for temporary heating shelters by allowing emergency exemptions for the housing of indigent persons.

Mayor Frank Kuntz said exceptions had to be made after the council in October approved the use of up to $66,000 for one or more severe weather emergency shelters in the Wenatchee Valley. Those shelters would operate from December through February.

"Obviously we have a couple of facilities that may be kind of warming shelters for homeless people this winter." explained Kuntz, "In order to do that inside the city we had to change our code because our code wouldn't allow those."

A building will be allowed to house indigent people through the building code exemption if (among other conditions): the structure poses no threat to human life, health, or safety; the building is owned or administered by a public agency or nonprofit, and; a fire official has approved the exemption.

According to the Severe Weather Response Committee, 3 people died of exposure to the cold in Wenatchee last winter. There were 122 unsheltered homeless in Wenatchee as of September.