Women In Safe Homes has transformed a former youth detention center in Ketchikan into a safe haven for domestic and sexual abuse survivors. The new shelter opened Oct. 23, and serves residents of southern Southeast, including Wrangell.
“We have people here right now from Wrangell,” Agnes Moran, executive director of WISH, said last week.
The nonprofit will pay travel costs for out-of-town residents who need to stay at the facility, she said. About a dozen people a year from Wrangell come to the shelter, Moran said.
The organization houses almost 200 people over the course of a year.
Though staff and residents have started the move into the new shelter, the transition will not be completed until the end of the month.
The building opened as a youth detention center in 2002 but the state closed it in 2016, citing high costs. The city of Ketchikan took over ownership. The building was built on city property.
The inside of the building has been transformed from a cold, gray jail to a warm, cheerful space with fresh paint and wooden wainscotting to brighten the concrete-block walls. The original building was constructed with soaring ceilings buttressed by thick, wooden beams, which were retained.
Cell walls have been knocked out to create larger spaces. Concrete beds and metal toilets are gone. In their place is a decidedly warmer décor. Walls are painted in pastels.
The $1.6 million renovation project not only transformed the interior of the building with more and larger windows and quiet reading areas, but expanded it as well, said Amanda Robinson, the city’s project manager.
The renovation expanded bedrooms and the dining area. The larger bedrooms can house up to six residents each. The new shelter has beds for 30 people.
The old facility offered only dorm-style rooms, in contrast to the new facility that offers not only larger rooms, but three rooms that have single bunkbeds.
“That’s really important to our population,” Moran said, “because quite often we’ll get folks in who just can’t live well in a dorm setting.”
Another advantage with the single bunkbed rooms, Moran said, is that possibly a father and child could be housed in those rooms. Because men must be housed separately from women, in the old shelter one male client would take up an entire six-person room.
Almost $1.35 million in federal grants, along with grant funds from the Rasmuson Foundation, First Bank and Royal Caribbean cruise line, covered much of the cost, with WISH taking out a mortgage for the balance.
There is a secure vestibule that visitors enter, which provides extra security beyond the interior and exterior cameras, Moran said. A WISH advocate is stationed at the desk facing the glassed-in area, to talk with visitors and ask questions before allowing them to enter the main area.
“It’s just another layer of security before you enter the building,” she said.
Moran said the only requirement to stay at the shelter is that the person has experienced domestic violence or sexual assault.
WISH operates a 24-hour phone line for victims of sexual or domestic violence. Call 907-225-9474 or toll-free at 1-800-478-9474.
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