The Columbia Inn on Marine Drive was converted into a homeless shelter.

The Columbia Inn is beginning to gradually move the needle on housing in Clatsop County.

The former motel on Marine Drive in Astoria, which was acquired by the county last year through the state’s Project Turnkey 2.0, is run by Clatsop Community Action and offers year-round housing and emergency shelter for individuals and families. Since mid-October, the facility has provided shelter to 187 people, including 55 youth, and has helped transition five households into permanent housing.

“CCA is extremely proud of the project,” Viviana Matthews, the executive director of Clatsop Community Action, told county commissioners at a work session on Feb. 21. “And we’re so grateful to every single one of you to allow us to provide services to our community.”

The Columbia Inn has 21 rooms, including 17 rooms designated for families, and additional rooms used for congregational shelter for up to six people each. It offers more than 60 beds, although its operational capacity is closer to about 50 at this point, Matthews told commissioners.

Matthews said the Columbia Inn is particularly focused on supporting often-marginalized and underserved populations, including families with children, young people from 18 to 24, people escaping domestic violence, people with mobility-affecting disabilities, veterans and people from the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities. The shelter has a designated case manager to help provide customized support and connect people with community resources.

“We do have crises, we do have emergencies, and we do have the intervention,” she said. “And because it’s a low-barrier shelter, the people we are seeing there have many barriers, and they have to navigate through extremely complex situations. So that’s why it’s essential to have a case manager there to work directly with the people … to address any of those barriers.”

The Columbia Inn doesn’t require guests to be sober, although it does prohibit the consumption of drugs on the property. Access is by referral only, which can be made by agencies like The Harbor, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Columbia Memorial Hospital, Providence Seaside Hospital, the Oregon Department of Human Services, law enforcement agencies and schools. Matthews said collaboration with these agencies is a key component for success.

Other organizations in the county also offer shelter options with different parameters. In February, for example, LiFEBoat Services opened a low-barrier, year-round shelter on Commercial Street, which operates on a first-come, first-serve basis without a referral requirement.

So far, the Columbia Inn has given people a place to sleep — but Matthews said she’s also watched it offer a sense of community.

When the shelter was first starting, it purchased dinners for people from the county jail. For Christmas, however, Clatsop Community Action employees decided to cook dinner themselves. Ever since, staff and families who live in the shelter have been making meals together.

“Even the kiddos take turns, you know – they made homemade pizza a couple of weekends ago,” Matthews said. “All of that is a sense of community that is so much needed, especially for the unsheltered population.”