The Redmond community came out in full force Nov. 2 to celebrate the completion of Shepherd’s House Ministries’ 46-bed low barrier homeless shelter during a packed ribbon-cutting ceremony at the shelter’s new location at 1350 South Highway 97.

The new shelter, the first official low-barrier shelter ever in Redmond, will officially begin housing new residents on Nov. 15. For Redmond’s homeless community, the new spot is a sigh of relief given a lack of shelter space as the weather begins turning cold.

Bethlehem Inn, Redmond’s first and only transitional shelter for people facing homelessness, temporarily closed while it develops a new program focused on independent living. The former motel is expected to reopen in January along with Oasis Village, another transitional housing project on its way to Redmond.

Nicholas Rowden, 36, of Redmond and his yellow lab and service dog, Crackers, will both be moving into the new shelter on Nov. 15. Rowden, originally from Medford, mingled with community members on Thursday to check out the new facility. Rowden said he has been homeless on and off since he was 18 years old.

“(Crackers) has been my best friend since he was seven weeks old and the only thing in my life that has never turned its back on me,” Rowden said.

He said he is thankful for a place like Shepherd’s House, and said he aspires to someday get off the streets for good.

“I have a lot of hope that hopefully with this we’ll be able to move off the street and move in here and it is a stepping stone,” Rowden said. “Hopefully we can move in here and wait, and get put on a waiting list for housing and then move into a new place with the help of this place.”

The shelter will be split, with 24 beds on a men’s only side and 12 beds on the other side for women. There is also space for families to live together, as well as bathrooms and showers and a common area. Three meals will be served each day.

John Lodise, the director of emergency services for Shepherd’s House, understands the needs of folks like Rowden. Lodise, who formerly practiced law in Los Angeles, said he himself was homeless for a period.

“Being homeless is not easy. You can’t be a lazy person to be homeless,” Lodise said. “Homeless people tend to be pretty energetic. They tend to be pretty hardworking and they tend to be very resourceful. But it is just that they tend to direct those things toward places that hurt them instead of places that will really let them do great things with their lives.”

Lodise said having a low-barrier shelter in town is a critical tool for getting people on the road to a more successful living situation. For some, the first step toward progress is an open door, a welcoming smile, a hot meal and some hope.

“That is how we are an important first step for a lot of folks. They come here. They are going to get fed. They are going to get clothes. They are going to get hygiene. They are going to get showers. They are going to get laundry,” Lodise said. “And they get those things without having to struggle to figure out how to get them. Now they have this whole part of their mind and this whole part of their energy that doesn’t have to be devoted to that.”

Claudia and Bruce Judson of Redmond, a retired couple who decided to give back by volunteering at the new shelter, were among the teeming group of attendees. Yesterday, Claudia Judson was helping make pizza dough for Thursday’s ribbon-cutting while her husband Bruce put together shelves, she said.

“It is just so beautiful because it is open all the time,” said Bruce Judson. “And that is what helps bring hope to God’s children, to the folks that we are serving. That they know they have a place to come, even if it is just to warm up and have a cup of coffee or a bed to sleep in or someone they can talk to.”

Several city officials were among the crowd during the ribbon-cutting, including Redmond City councilor Kathryn Osborne.

“This is just a monumental day for our community to see so many different service providers, volunteers, community partners and leaders to come together to see what has the potential to be a long term sustainable solution or one of the many tools that we need to fill a gap in our community. It’s huge,” Osborne said.

Linda Cline, Redmond’s housing program analyst, said she is confident people will see the difference the new shelter will make on the community.

“We don’t have a shelter currently and even when we did have a shelter, it wasn’t low barrier,” Cline said. “This is filling a critical need for that gap between homelessness and getting people into stable housing … we need all kinds of solutions for all kinds of people. People are complicated and they need different things at different times.”