Whidbey homeless shelter seeks $60,000 for septic upgrade in Coupeville

A septic system that cannot keep up with bathrooms, laundry and kitchen use is now the bottleneck at The Haven, the emergency overnight shelter near Coupeville that serves hot meals, showers and a place to sleep for people without stable housing.

The Whidbey Homeless Coalition said enlarging the system will cost $60,000, and board president Bobbi Lornson said the existing setup is constraining the shelter’s daily operations even though The Haven is capped at 30 guests and cannot grow beyond that because of other site limits. The problem is not cosmetic. It directly affects the shelter’s ability to provide sanitation, laundry access and meal service, the basic infrastructure that makes overnight shelter workable.

That strain has sharpened in the last five months. Staff have started requiring registration before stays and have occasionally turned people away as demand has risen. About 80% of The Haven’s guests come from Island County, underscoring how closely the shelter is tied to the county’s own homelessness problem rather than serving as a regional overflow option.

The Haven served 138 unique people in 2025 and more than 500 since opening in 2017. Last year, 23 guests moved into permanent housing and eight completed treatment programs, outcomes that show the shelter’s role is not just to provide a bed, but to help people stabilize long enough to move on. The shelter became a permanent Coupeville location in 2023 after a four-year legal fight that reached the Washington State Supreme Court, following years of operating out of rotating churches in Oak Harbor.

The coalition raised $28,000 at an Art and Elegance Gala in March, but Lornson said that still was not enough to cover the septic expansion. The group is aiming to secure the rest by August so construction, expected to take about two weeks, can begin as soon as possible. Its Summer Soiree is scheduled for June 13 at Clinton Progressive Hall and will include food, music, silent auctions, a raffle and children welcome.

The request lands in a county where need remains high. A Washington State Department of Commerce Snapshot found 1,229 people in Island County were homeless or unstably housed in January 2025, and the county’s Coordinated Entry program assisted 903 people in 2025 who were homeless or at risk of homelessness, up from 783 in 2019. Island County’s 2025-2030 homeless housing plan calls for more emergency shelter and stronger collaboration among cities, the county and service providers, making the septic upgrade at The Haven part of a much larger local response.