Bellevue Homeless Shelter: Council To Mull Code Revisions For Eastgate Site

BELLEVUE, WA - The City Council on Monday night voted 6-1 to explore land use code revisions to allow for the establishment of a homeless shelter in the Eastgate area - but the contentious issue is far from decided. Also at Monday's meeting, the Council continued to explore two other possible sites for the shelter, and approved new funds for the Lincoln Center winter shelter.

In mid-April, the Council voted 4-3 to support a shelter in the Eastgate area. But at the same time, the Council decided to take 45 days to study two other possible locations for the shelter. On Monday, the Council asked city officials to enter talks with Sound Transit about possibly locating the shelter at a transit facility along 120th Avenue Northeast in the BelRed area.

The Council also approved spending $200,000 to upgrade the Eastside Winter Shelter located at 515 116th Ave. Northeast, which has also been considered as a potential site for a permanent shelter.

The vote on the land use code for the Eastgate site was simply to consider whether to amend the code. The actual code revisions won't be considered until the June 26 Council meeting, but perhaps at a later meeting.

Wherever it's located, the shelter would be the first on the Eastside and would be operated by the nonprofit Congregations for the Homeless.

Image via City of Bellevue