1/27/2023
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KXLY
The Wall St Journal
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KXLY
SPOKANE, Wash. -- On Monday, City Council voted in favor of a resolution that allows the city to look at purchasing the building the houses the Trent Resource Center, or 'TRAC.'
"It makes clear sense if we're going to have this longer than a year, we should be purchasing it," said councilmember Zack Zappone.
Zappone, along with four other councilmembers voted in favor of this resolution, which passed 5-2.
The debate on whether to lease or outright purchase 'TRAC' has been ongoing for months; the cost of which remains at the center of the argument.
The city is four months into a five year lease agreement, paying roughly $28,000 each month in rent. Then, the cost of food and servicing are factored in.
"Those restrooms are cleaned every day, those showers are dumped on a regular basis," said Brian Coddington, Communications Director for the City of Spokane. "Tens of thousands of dollars are spent on those restroom facilities and those showers."
Part of what's driving those costs is the fact that there are no physical bathrooms or showers on-site. The city spends thousands of dollars servicing portable toilets each week.
The future installation of an on-site restroom is non-negotiable, but that is stemming a large part of the argument: should the city purchase the building they plan on renovating?
City Council President Breean Beggs seems to think so.
"It just seems challenging to invest the money in bathrooms for someone else to reap the benefits of," said Beggs. "So if we're going to keep this for more than a few months which I'm assuming we are, we should buy the building."
The mayor's office, on the other hand, says if the city invests in restrooms and showers now, it'll eliminate those costs in the future, limiting the total costs needed to maintain the shelter.
"The estimates are that by doing those small improvements - adding permanent showers, adding permanent restrooms - that pays itself back in a matter of months," said Coddington.
Should the city continue their five year lease agreement at their current rent, they'll pay roughly $1.7 million in just property costs.
In the event that they decide to purchase the building, the property is estimated to be around $4 million, but with the potential to accrue in value.
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The Wall St Journal
Department placed more than 40,000 veterans in permanent housing in 2022, part of a broader Biden administration goal
Ben KeslingJan. 26, 2023 at 6:00 am ET
More than 40,000 homeless veterans were placed in permanent housing last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday, exceeding its target in a renewed push to address the longstanding problem of veteran homelessness.
Increased funding for housing veterans is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to address homelessness and affordable-housing issues.
“Basically we reinvigorated the effort and had the message coming from the top down,” said Monica Diaz, executive director of the VA’s Homeless Veteran Program.
There is no definitive count of homeless veterans available, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, but one of the most-cited statistics comes from the Point-in-Time count, an annual snapshot of the unhoused. In 2022, the count tallied just over 33,000 homeless veterans, according to the VA. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness, according to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
The VA set a goal of housing 38,000 homeless veterans last year and exceeded it with placement of 40,401 veterans, in part because it has refocused on a homelessness-prevention model known as housing first. The priority is to get the unhoused into reliable shelter before addressing other issues such as addiction, mental health or unemployment.
“While these numbers show the VA is working to get more veterans into safe and stable housing, there is more to be done,” said U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
The housing-first model is a key part of the Biden administration’s goal, announced late last year, to reduce overall homelessness in the U.S. by 25% by 2025.
The number of homeless veterans had been steadily decreasing until 2016, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
In 2017, the VA’s then-Secretary David Shulkin tried to slash funding for programs related to veteran homelessness, part of the Trump administration’s effort to cut funding at a number of agencies. Growth of one of the most successful programs to house homeless veterans, a joint effort with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, slowed during this period.
That program, known by the acronym HUD-VASH, is now receiving renewed attention. It provides housing for veterans and gives them supportive services to prevent them from slipping back into homelessness.
Ms. Diaz and other VA officials said the department’s success in meeting its goal, and the robust services it provides, can be a model for other government organizations. And yet, there remain unhoused veterans.
“If there is even one, I say we need to do more,” said Ms. Diaz.
Write to Ben Kesling at ben.kesling@wsj.com