It's been a busy time at the Bethel Winter House - too busy. The cold weather shelter for the homeless may not be able to hold up under the pressure of too many intoxicated people.
“There were 22 people who were at the shelter, and these guys were pretty darn rowdy, and my workers called the police," said Shelter Director Eva Malvich, talking about the events of Thursday, January 5th.
“It took three hours for a response. In the meantime, we have people who are belligerent and acting out. We don’t like that kind of situation. We want to protect both our clients and our workers. So in desperation, because the police weren’t showing up, we were sending people from the shelter to the sobering center with cash that was out of the worker’s own pocket," said Malvich.
The city told Malvich some nights there were no Community Service Patrol available, which worries her.
The Bethel Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on this story by the time it was broadcast. Malvich says she spoke with Police Chief Andre Achee last week, and he said he would try to work more closely with the shelter in the future. He mentioned being understaffed, and said he would look into which officers were on duty that night.
The police department uses social media to let the public know about the large call volumes that they respond to, and which of those calls are related to alcohol. Malvich sees that too.
“We do have a liquor store readily available here, and for 18 bucks somebody can get a bottle of R&R and have fun in our town," said Malvich.
Malvich says that she's getting a lot of community support for Winter House: Taxi Alaska is offering free rides to the shelter and other organizations are providing donations. But safety remains a concern, and Winter House has had to hire a security guard which is driving costs beyond what the operation can afford. If these problems don’t get solved, Malvich says she’ll have no choice but to shut the shelter down.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story Eva Malvich stated there were not Community Service Patrol available the night of January 7th, she has since retracted that statement which she says was meant to apply to a earlier date, January 5th.
Correction: Eva Malvich initially told KYUK this event occurred on January 7th, she has amended that date to January 5th.