In less than a month, dozens of homeless infants, children, parents and family members will have a new place to sleep and access to food, stability and supportive services.ARCHES Nest, set to open on Jan. 24, will repurpose a former veteran’s shelter to serve families with children under 18.Sara Webb, Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency’s program manager, is looking at the space from a new, tot-sized, perspective.“It’s amazing when you start looking at having kids in the building, like littles,” Webb said. New features will include updated cabinet locks and covers for electrical sockets. “You have to really start looking down. Like what is a kid going to touch that’s below a foot?”The building at 2933 Center St. S.E. was originally a nursing home before becoming the Tanner Project in November 2020, a transitional shelter for homeless veterans. The veterans were in single, double and triple rooms there. In 2023 that program was moved to the ARCHES Lodge, a repurposed hotel, which gave veterans private rooms and bathrooms.  The new shelter is part of a dramatic expansion of both shelter beds and affordable housing projects in Salem in recent years. Hundreds of beds have been added since 2020.  Webb said the agency’s leaders went back and forth on whether to sell the Tanner Project’s building. A review of sheltering needs in the community ultimately led them to keep it. Last school year, there was a 17% increase in child homelessness statewide, according to federal data shared by the sheltering agency. The Salem-Keizer School District last year had 928 homeless students. “The biggest thing that was missing is there’s just not enough shelter beds for families and kids,” Webb said.Salem’s existing family shelters include Family Promise, St. Francis Family Housing and Church at the Park’s family micro shelter site.The Tanner Project was the first shelter opening led by Webb. ARCHES Nest will be her fifth in Salem, and brings her office back to the same building with a new set of residents. “This was my first office, so it feels like home,” she said. “And it’s been really helpful, because I’m like ‘I already know what table doesn’t go there.” ARCHES Nest, a new family shelter in Salem, is set to open in late January 2025. (Abbey McDonald/ Salem Reporter) With a few weeks to go, Webb is organizing the final touches on the space. Tape on doors marks the number of beds which will go into each room, and furniture is already being moved in. The shelter will host 36 people total, with bed arrangements subject to change based on family sizes.Smaller rooms will give enough space for a single parent and an infant crib, while larger families with several children can have two large rooms connected by a shared bathroom.  The renovation also means a new paint job replacing red, white and blues with cheerful pastels. The decor will have a kid-friendly focus, including cartoon animals and play mats in corners. The renovation and new beds, cribs and other supplies were funded using $1.8 million from Governor Tina Kotel’s 2023 emergency order, distributed by the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, said Deputy Executive Director Ashley Hamilton. About $200,000 for the remaining project cost came from the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund, part of a $5 million grant they secured in 2023.Continued operational funding beyond July is currently being secured, Hamilton said.Families will be placed through referrals by community partners, and pulled from the coordinated entry system, a shared regional database of homeless community members.Beyond a place to sleep, free laundry, communal showers and basic necessities, the renovation invested in expanding access to food. Several new, large fridges have been installed in the community kitchens. Locks have been added to cabinets so each family will have their own pantry space. “The need for food goes up exponentially when you have kids, especially teenagers. They just eat a ton,” Webb said.  As a low-barrier shelter, pets will also be welcome. Sobriety won’t be required, but possession and use of alcohol or drugs won’t be allowed on-site. There will be shared play spaces and gazebos. On-site case management will help residents access resources, and there will be an emphasis on building life-skills like riding the bus and grocery shopping.  The shelter will offer mental health resources and connections to treatment for children, which Webb hopes will disrupt the cycle where children who experience traumatic events grow up to struggle with mental health. They’ve hired staff specializing in kids’ case management for the shelter, alongside the experts for the adults.  The shelter will have a minimum of two case managers on-site at night, and during the day there will be up to six.“The primary goal is to find stable housing for them,” Webb said. “We’ll make sure we’re building the supports around it depending on what they need.”It’ll also be a unique opportunity to be neighbors with people with shared experiences, Webb said. Some families will have been living in their cars, afraid to ask for help.“To be able to bring them in a building where other families have experienced the same kind of fear and trauma that they have, I’m really hoping that we’ll see … people really band together,” she said. After the shelter opens on Jan. 24, Webb said families will start moving in when staffing is complete, which she expects to be a short wait. Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251. 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