Key West wants a new agency to run its homeless shelter as city looks to future needs

Key West’s homeless shelter needs new management as it works to build a new 24-hour facility in the future, the city manager said Wednesday.

So the city this week notified the Southernmost Homeless Assistance League that it will cut ties with the nonprofit on Sept. 30, ending its month-to-month contract.

SHAL has done a fantastic job, City Manager Greg Veliz, but it’s time for some new management.

“It’s time to start moving in a different direction,” Veliz said. “We’re trying to grow the facility and move into a 24-hour facility. We felt it was probably time to look for some new leadership.”

The city is preparing a request-for-proposals to attract a new agency.

The Keys Overnight Temporary Shelter, 5537 College Rd., is on Monroe County Sheriff’s Office property next to the jail and administrative offices on Stock Island.

SHAL has managed the 120-bed shelter for the city for about $440,000 a year since October 2011. It’s had a monthly contract with the city for about seven years.

“We’ve been on a month-to-month contract for so long we knew this day could come sooner or later,” said Peter Dswonyk, SHAL’s board chairman, who also called the decision disappointing.

SHAL will work with the city and the new provider during the transition, he said.

“We want it to go smoothly for everybody including the city but especially for our clients,” Dswonyk said.

SHAL has turned the homeless shelter into more than just a bunkhouse over the years, employing case managers who help people obtain state identification and benefits that are available to them.

Dswonyk, 66, came to Key West in 2011. He was homeless then.

“I stayed at KOTS myself and it was just a warehouse back then, just a place to get people off the street,” Dswonyk said. “We have people doing outreach now. We have two outreach coordinators.”

SHAL has helped people stuck in the Keys relocate back home or to a place where they have family.

“We pioneered the relocation program,” Dswonyk said, “and made it a regular thing.”

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.