6/17/2022
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KREM
KHQ
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KREM
City council will review the shelter's lease agreement during a briefing session on June 27 at 3:30 p.m.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane City Council will be reviewing an updated presentation from the City Administration regarding the lease agreement for the proposed homeless shelter on Trent Ave.
The city council will review the shelter's lease agreement during a briefing session on June 27 at 3:30 p.m. According to the city council, until now, a lease had not been finalized by the administration.
During June 6th's Public Safety & Community Health Committee meeting, the council was presented with draft lease terms. Council says three major changes have been made to the document since that day.
The changes include:
Section 3.03 – Monthly Management Fee reduced to 2.5%
Section 14.05 – Penalty for opting out of the lease early reduced to 8 months’ rent
Exhibit G – Added option for City to purchase building
Under this agreement, the total monthly rental cost would be $26,752.50, including a base rent of $26,100 along with a 2.5% management fee.
According to the city council, the next steps include:
Finalizing service provider agreements, both for daily shelter operations and on-site wrap-around services; and
Constructing necessary tenant improvements to the site.
“The E. Trent facility will have a capacity of 150-250 people depending on how many staff the selected providers have trained and ready to go,” said Council Member Lori Kinnear. “This facility will not be large enough to meet the needs of the nearly 450 people at Camp Hope. While this is one viable solution, the City and our partners will need to identify other locations for alternative homeless solutions.”
“There continue to be many moving parts to providing a safe space to our homeless population,” says Councilmember Betsy Wilkerson. “When we invest in people, it’s not a one-and-done and certainly not inexpensive. We have seen that the homeless population has created a community, and our challenge will be to create more opportunities for community within this population.”
The East Trent shelter is expected to be ready for occupancy around the beginning of August 2022, the council says. Residents interested in tuning into the briefing session on June 27 can do so on city council's website and Facebook page.
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KHQ
SPOKANE, Wash. - The group of refugees moving into the Thrive Center in Spokane held their first community meeting on Thursday to get more insight into how their new homes and lives will begin.
"It's very real when you sit in a room full of people, especially with little kids, you really recognize that this is really sobering," Mark Finney, Executive Director of Thrive International, said.
Finney's background is in refugee work. He started Thrive International in February–right before war broke out in Ukraine–wanted to create new ways for Spokane to help refugees, with no idea what was in store.
"To step up and say 'welcome, we're glad you're here. Come join our schools, come stay in our community, come start businesses here," Finney said. "Because even if you don't have a place where you came from, we're going to make sure you have a place here."
After months of work, the Thrive Center opened earlier this month in the former Quality Inn on 4th Avenue in Downtown Spokane.
The goal of the center is to provide three to six months of transitional housing and rental assistance through grants and donations. They also connect refugees with various resources like English classes, childcare and activities to help them finally feel at home.
Thrive is in the process of helping refugees get visas they need to work in their new community, too.
"This housing is like riding a bike with training wheels," Finney said. "We want them to get the best feel they can for riding the bike, so that when we take the training wheels off and they go out they've had all the experiences that they need to to be fine on their own."
The center is giving a safe place to call home to people like Sabina Belokrylaya, who came to Spokane in the aftermath of shelling near their home close to the Ukraine-Russia border.
"I'm just so happy to be here because I feel safe, and free to speak out finally," Belokrylaya said.
Belokrylaya said their long journey to the United States included weeks of hunkering down in a basement with more than a dozen people–with little food, water and limited restroom access–while fighting went on nearby.
Now her and her husband are moving into an older hotel in Spokane and using hot plates to cook their meals–but what matters is they're safe.
"This united us in this way, I'm so proud of Ukrainians," Belokrylaya said. "I love to know people. I love to know new traditions, new countries, and I feel safe in this place and I love this so much."
Belokrylaya and the other refugees settling at Thrive learned about the center mainly through the local Slavic community's churches and connections through social media, reaching people who needed help on the ground in Ukraine and in the United States.
Mark Finney sees his work as just getting started.
"Our hope is that as we get started here with the Ukrainian community, eventually over time this could be a transitional supportive place for folks from all over the world," Finney said.
If you'd like to help Thrive International help refugees rebuild their lives, they accept donations of household goods, clothes, toys and more, as well as monetary donations. Click here for more information.