COVINGTON, Ky. — Former employees of the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky are speaking out about what they say are dangerous working conditions and poor management.

This comes after neighbors of the shelter have made their own complaints about how guests are managed.

Deborah Zepf worked at the ESNKY for three years before resigning in August last year.

Already retired at the time she took the job, Zepf said it wasn’t a job she needed, but a calling to help those in need. And if it was a call, it was one she could no longer pick up by the time she resigned.

“My biggest concern there is safety,” Zepf said. “We were not trained properly on any issues, issues in trauma, issues on the safety of the employees. Most of the employees are women, to deal with 68 men that have drug issues, mental health issues, lots of issues. And we were there by ourselves. Sometimes just two staff members at a time at night.”

She said the police “were always there.”

“At least three, four times a week, for unruly behavior, fighting, drug overdoses, drug use in the shelter, outside the shelter. So we were left there to handle it. Management was never there at night,” Zepf said.

Zepf voiced these concerns at the Covington City Commission meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 23, calling for the city to investigate the shelter.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to the ESNKY and Executive Director Kim Webb for comment, but received no response.

Webb told Spectrum News 1 in August, when neighbors of the shelter complained about guests and that the shelter wasn’t being properly managed, “We have a really high standard set for us — both from a city perspective, but also from a county perspective, because Kenton County is our landlord. So, we have to meet those requirements.”

Zepf said while she worked at the shelter, staff members dealt drugs and used drugs inside the shelter. She also said guests who lost their jobs were allowed to stay despite the shelter’s requirement to keep a steady job.

“They want numbers to show the city. That didn’t happen. They’re showing false numbers,” Zepf said.

She said when other employees raised concerns to management, “It was just kind of brushed under the rug.”

“I’m thinking the issues are mismanagement,” she said. “One of the managers we had told that someone was there with a gun. He told us, the staff, to tell the guest to take the gun to the cemetery and then come back.”

Spectrum News 1 reached out to the City of Covington for comment, and was sent the following statement:

“City officials have been meeting with shelter administrators on an ongoing basis to discuss issues and concerns related to its operations and the impact on the surrounding neighborhood. 

As a licensed facility, some of the shelter’s operations are regulated by city ordinance, and the city will continue to enforce to the best of its ability those regulations. Other issues may be outside the city’s regulatory scheme and jurisdiction. We will continue to seek more information to formulate our response.”

Zepf said the way things are going, she’s worried about what could happen.

“I’m an advocate for [the shelter], but now how it’s run,” she said. “I think they have the resources, they just don’t offer them, they don’t want to give them. It’s a matter of time before something really big happens, someone dies, a staff member gets seriously hurt.”

Another former employee wrote in her concerns about the shelter as well to the city commission.

“I’ve witnessed attempted suicide, overdoses and multiple fights, often only with one other female on staff,” said Anne Alig, former ESNKY advocate and outreach support. “One particular instance was when I was only a few feet away from a guest, a male who was 6’5”, very large, and experiencing a mental breakdown. He threatened staff with a box cutter. He destroyed the property while we hid in a room in the back … There is no real training offered at the shelter.” Alig said the shelter is understaffed with no security.

“ESNKY is a sham. The building is a shell for a fundraising scheme to profit off some of our most vulnerable people. If it weren’t, wouldn’t there be provisions in place to protect the people it was supposedly created to protect?” Alig added.

“I’ve feared for my life. I still fear for the lives of those lured into this facility.”