Local luminaries gathered this morning to cut the ribbon on Arcata’s newest homeless shelter, the climax of years of effort from the Arcata House Partnership, a homeless-services organization. 

“Could you imagine 10 years ago that we’d be here?” Darlene Spoor, Arcata House Partnership’s executive director, asked the crowd.

Named the “Ramp House,” after local advocate Rudy Ramp, the shelter has room for 40 adults. Pets will be allowed as well, though there’s not space for 40 of them. The housing is “non-congregant,” so residents aren’t forced to bunk barracks-style.

Occupants will be allowed to stay for up to 90 days. There are rooms with single beds, and some double rooms for couples. Spoor claimed it’s the only ADA-accessible shelter on the North Coast. They’ll be served by 10-12 full-time, around-the-clock staff. She expects it to be full of people, who will come in from “off the street,” by mid-November. 

Funding came from the state’s Encampment Resolution funds. AHP received about $3.7 million in 2024, which allowed it to construct the shelter and will keep it running through June 2027. Spoor’s hopeful AHP will get more funding from the same source next year, which will keep the Ramp House going ‘til 2031. 

This is AHP’s fifth shelter, though counting them is wonky. Sometimes it doesn’t have enough money to open up its domestic violence shelter, and the extreme weather shelter is only open when the weather is extreme. 

Spoor highlighted the difficulties AHP’s clients have in finding housing after they’re out of one of their shelters, which can sometimes turn them right back around onto the street. AHP is fielding more and more calls from people— many of them seniors — who are becoming homeless for the first time in their lives, Spoor said, but they already serve more than 1,000 people every year, and it’s never easy to take on more. For every one person they house, she estimated, another three become unhoused. 

“We hope that people are in and out in 90 days,” Spoor said to the crowd. “That’s not always possible, because on the other end of this is a roadblock called ‘affordable housing.’” There are nearly 3,000 people waiting for a spot in one of AHP’s affordable housing programs, she said. People get frustrated when they don’t see any reduction in the number of homeless on the streets, but there’s only so much they can do. “This is going to be life-changing for a lot of people,” she continued. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to keep people warm and safe. But we still have a lot of work to do as a community, and as Arcata House Partnership providers and supporters.”