A Juneau man has been charged with felony sexual assault for allegedly raping another patron at Juneau’s emergency cold-weather warming shelter.
Shelter staff called the police early on Dec. 5 after finding Antoine Zeno, 44, allegedly assaulting a woman. Staff saw Zeno pulling the woman off of her mattress and under his blanket, according to the charging document. When they approached Zeno to ask what they were doing, the woman was unresponsive, and apparently inebriated, the report said.
The cold weather shelter, funded by the city and operated by the nonprofit St. Vincent de Paul, is open for overnight stays to anyone who shows up, under a nightly agreement to not be disruptive.
Jennifer Skinner, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul, said staff followed protocol by conducting rounds and responded quickly once they realized something was wrong. She said Zeno and the alleged victim had arrived with a group, and there was no initial indication of concern.
The warming shelter, located at a city-owned warehouse in Thane, is a co-ed, “low-barrier” facility, according to Skinner. That arrangement carries a greater inherent risk of sexual assault than a gender-segregated facility, Skinner said, but that separating men and women isn’t feasible because many guests come as families or couples.
“They would more than likely not come to the warming shelter if they could not be around one another because they would feel like that was another barrier to them living and experiencing life on their own terms,” Skinner said.
Sexual assault rates are significantly higher among people experiencing homelessness. Studies suggest that unhoused women are three times more vulnerable to rape than women in the general population, with one study by the National Sexual Assault Coalition citing that 56% of unhoused women will be raped during their lifetime, compared to 18% in the general population.
Since news of the incident surfaced this week, Skinner said in an interview Wednesday that the shelter has faced some public backlash.
“There’s a lot of people criticizing us for allowing something to happen, but until you know what the inside of the warming shelter looks like, or any shelter looks like, I really heed a warning: Don’t make a judgment about something people don’t have a clue about,” Skinner said.
Skinner said the alleged victim has returned to the shelter each night since the incident, and “has expressed her gratitude for our staff and our approach and our care for her every single day.”
Since last week, staff have increased the frequency of safety rounds, and shelter leadership is in communication with the city about potential policy changes.
Zeno’s preliminary hearing, scheduled in District Court for Friday morning, was vacated and sent directly to Superior Court.
