Battle Looms Over Wapato Homeless Shelter

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Story Published: Jul 6, 2009 at 6:01 PM PST

By Ryan Simms

WAPATO -- It's a delicate balance. Help the homeless -- without hurting local businesses.

Turn the corner of second street in Wapato, and Yakima County's homeless problem becomes crystal clear.

"It takes a long time to build trust, and trust issues are really big, " says Robecka Morrow, director of "Noah's Ark," Wapato's largest homeless shelter.

Morrow's job has never been easy, especially now with new regulations that ban the homeless from entering her shelter between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m... Normal hours for many businesses that have complained "Noah's Ark" shouldn't be so close to the main artery of town.

With potentially hundreds of homeless people walking the streets of Wapato every day, a big question is whether the new restrictions will even work. President of the Wapato Chamber of Commerce, Debra Manjarraz, believes they will.

"Where do you go from here?" says Manjarraz. "You're not gonna close down the shelter. The shelter needs to stay... We just need to help them look for potentially another spot."

Robecka wants the public to know that success doesn't come overnight, telling Action News, "We've only been open for two years in September... And that's not very much time to put things together again."

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