8/30/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
City OKs operator for shelter that may open as soon as Labor Day
KREM
KXLY
The Center Square
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The Spokesman-Review
City OKs operator for shelter that may open as soon as Labor Day
By Greg Mason
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Spokane’s new homeless shelter on East Trent Avenue is expected to open next week after the City Council voted Monday to approve a contract with the facility’s designated operator.
The City Council authorized an approximately $6.6 million contract with the Guardians Foundation to operate the shelter through Dec. 31, 2023. The city, which has leased the 4320 E. Trent Ave. property for the next five years, intends to use the warehouse as a shelter for at least 150 people with surge capacity for excessive heat, cold, smoke or other emergencies.
“I know from hearing people in the community that this location, this building, the operator – it’s not ideal for some people, but it is what we have and it is a game-changer,” said City Council President Breean Beggs.
The shelter, dubbed the Trent Resource and Assistance Center, could open as soon as Labor Day once improvements – including those for insulation, accessibility, fencing, fire safety equipment and walls for separate spaces – are completed and inspected, the city announced after Monday night’s meeting.
“The center immediately gives us the ability to offer individuals a safe, healthy and humane place to get out of the elements, eat regular meals, and connect to services and supports they need to take the next steps in their journey out of homelessness,” Mayor Nadine Woodward said in a statement. “This is a significant accomplishment for the region and our partners. It takes all of us working together to meet the needs of everyone in our community.”
The Trent shelter is a component of the city’s effort to relocate people out of the tent city known as Camp Hope at Second Avenue and Ray Street.
It’s unclear how many Camp Hope residents will use the shelter, however.
A survey of Camp Hope residents conducted by the nonprofit Jewels Helping Hands, which has overseen activities at Camp Hope, reported that 51 of the 601 people polled in early July would be willing to go to a shelter, depending on the operator.
Councilman Zack Zappone – who publicly invited Woodward to spend three nights at the newly opened shelter with him, Empire Health Foundation President Zeke Smith and Chris Patterson from Hello for Good, capacity permitting – said he weighed his decision between the need for shelter capacity and concerns with the shelter, such as sustaining the facility’s costs.
“I think we might have to seriously talk to the community about our investment as a community in the city and maybe the county about funding homelessness. Maybe that’s a homelessness levy and a public safety levy,” Zappone said. “That’s something we could talk about in the next year.
“I think of opening Trent for the next 16 months as kind of a pilot program. We can see (if this is) going to be used, because that’s kind of the other issue: Will people actually use it?”
City officials earlier this month used phases to describe how the Trent shelter will work.
As part of the first phase, the shelter will open with 150 spaces separated into demographic groupings by approximately 3-foothigh portable partitions. Groupings could include couples, single women, older single men, younger single men and LGBTQ individuals.
John Hall, director of the city’s Neighborhood, Housing and Human Services department, said last week that Trent is expected to have approximately 40 beds available along with a minimum of 100 mats to accommodate immediate needs.
The second phase is thus far tied to state funding, as the city has requested more than $3 million from the state Department of Commerce for operational costs, expenses to build 60 two-person enclosed rooms referred to as “pods” and for other building improvements, such as restroom, shower, laundry, kitchen and office upgrades.
“It will really work if we invest the money for bathrooms and sleeping pods with a door for privacy,” Beggs said. “Everybody wants a door for privacy when they’re changing, when they’re sleeping, and we can do that affordably.”
Hall said Monday he believes the city should have everything in order to actually start, “probably after Labor Day.”
The City Council voted 5-2 on Monday to approve the Guardians contract, with council members Michael Cathcart and Karen Stratton opposed.
Cathcart, who did not explain his vote during the meeting, released a statement afterward, saying his vote “should not be construed as opposition to the proposed operations provider, service provider or our unhoused community members.”
Rather, Cathcart said he’s concerned with the city’s financial standing and recent council discussions surrounding a proposed public camping enforcement ordinance. A version of the legislation proposes to prohibit camping within three blocks of any congregate shelters, not the half-mile advocated by Cathcart.
“The general public likely hasn’t grasped the severity of the City’s current budget position which could reach $30-50M in potential unfunded expenses,” he said in a statement. “This astronomical and, quite frankly, unknown total combined with the impending if not existing recession, we are not in a strong financial position to make financial commitments of such magnitude without a sustainable funding source at this time.”
If it does open next week, the Trent shelter will do so without a services provider.
Part of the plan with Trent Avenue has been to have an agency provide services such as case management and resources for health care and job training. After several delays with finding a services provider over the past few months, the city opened another request for proposals at the start of August that yielded a bid from only one agency, Hall said: the Revive Center for Returning Citizens.
Revive has proposed offering a suite of services for $3 million centered on the following five “pillars,” Hall said: peer support, behavioral health services, wraparound case management, supported employment services and permanent supportive housing resources.
Hall said the city is in negotiations with Revive about scaling that down to $1.5 million.
“We do not have $3 million,” he said.
From here, the city will prepare a package for the City Council’s consideration that will include a potential contract, additional details about the services offered and identified potential funding sources, Hall said.
Funding for the Trent shelter is a big question mark – particularly after the end of next year.
At the moment, the city is looking at potentially funding the shelter’s first year and four months through a mix of federal American Rescue Plan funding, state dollars through the Department of Commerce and local funds through the city’s criminal justice fund and local housing sales tax revenue.
“This contract is through December 2023. I want to let people know there is no money after 2023, so sustainability is critical with what we do after 2023,” Councilwoman Betsy Wilkerson said. “It’s the cliff – we’re calling it the cliff. What will we do then after December 2023?”
Councilwoman Lori Kinnear said she believes it’s important for the Trent shelter to move forward, “cliff” notwithstanding.
“We have people who have no place to go and winter’s coming as it does every year,” she said. “In all good conscience, we can’t turn this down.” Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman.com.
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KREM
Spokane City Council finalized the shelter operator agreement with the Guardians Foundation during Monday night's legislative meeting.
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SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane City Council members approved a $6.5 million contract with the Guardians Foundation to operate the Trent Ave. shelter through December 2023.
This means that the Trent shelter will open its doors to Spokane's homeless population by next week. The agreement passed by a vote of 5-2.
There are currently 1,800 people experiencing homelessness in Spokane. The shelter features more than 33,000 square feet of indoor space.
“The center immediately gives us the ability to offer individuals a safe, heathy, and humane place to get out of the elements, eat regular meals, and connect to services and supports they need to take the next steps in their journey out of homelessness,” Mayor Nadine Woodward said. “This is a significant accomplishment for the region and our partners. It takes all of us working together to meet the needs of everyone in our community.”
Located at 4320 E. Trent Avenue, the shelter could open as early as Monday once improvements including insulation, ADA accessibility, fencing, fire safety equipment and walls to create separate spaces are completed and inspected. The City of Spokane says initial capacity is expected to be 150 individuals with separate spaces for men, women, couples, employees and members of LGBTQ+.
The City says that about 40 beds will be available for the opening of the shelter and capacity is expected to grow to at least 250 over time.
“We are going to be a new neighbor and with that comes the responsibility to be a good neighbor,” Guardians Executive Director Mike Shaw said. “Communication with our neighbors will be key to that relationship and help us make needed adjustments as we go.”
According to the City, conversations are still in progress with the state on how to begin moving homeless individuals from the encampment near I-90 and Freya.
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KXLY
Posted: August 29, 2022 9:20 PM Updated: August 30, 2022 7:52 AM by Will Wixey
SPOKANE, Wash. — Catholic Charities Eastern Washington is expanding its search to find a new location for House of Charity 2.0.
After nearly a year of evaluating possible site options, the organization is still looking.
“It is important for us to be intentional in our search to find a location that will allow us to provide quality, accessible services to those in need and do it in a way that is highly respectful of the neighborhood we share with others,” said Catholic Charities Chief Crisis and Shelter Officer Sharon Stadelman.
Catholic Charities hopes to find an accessible location that can potentially serve 250-300 people, has three to five acres to build a trauma-informed campus, and has access to public transportation.
“After evaluating several possible locations, we have developed a clearer idea of what is needed to be successful for our patrons and the community, and we are continuing to look for the best fit,” Stadelman said.
Catholic Charites and the City of Spokane agreed to work together to expand the service agency’s capacity to meet the needs of unhoused individuals. The organization plans to use the current House of Charity location in downtown Spokane as an administration space, but it will remain as a shelter for the time being.
Once a location is decided, construction could take about a year once the site is ready for building.
House of Charity 2.0 is separate from Catholic Charities’ affordable housing projects developing in the West Hills area.
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The Center Square
Spokane City Hall Building sign entrance.
Shutterstock/cascade creatives
(The Center Square) – Spokane City Councilor Jonathan Bingle is gratified that the local ethics complaint he filed against Ben Stuckart was found to have merit, but he is still awaiting word on the same complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“I haven’t heard anything on that one yet,” he told The Center Square on Monday.
Stuckart, who served as city council president from 2012-19, stepped down as chair of the Continuum of Care board after that body investigated Bingle’s complaint. The board determined that Stuckart had violated the organization's conflict-of interest-policy during the selection process for a homeless shelter operator.
“It was the right thing for him to do,” said Bingle of Stuckart’s resignation. “What he did was clearly wrong – he was leading discussions about who would run a new shelter while working himself into a position with a $151,000 annual salary.”
He was referencing Stuckart’s connection to Jewels Helping Hands, one of last spring's contenders for shelter operator. Stuckart realizing a six-figure salary if Jewels was selected was clearly a financial interest that should have led him to recuse himself from the entire selection process, said Bingle.
It wasn't enough, he said, for Stuckart to have refrained from voting on the proposals submitted by Jewels and two other organizations. He said the COC’s charter states that members must fully disclose the nature of a conflict and “recuse themselves from discussing, lobbying or voting” whenever they or any immediate family members have a financial or personal interest in a matter before the board.
The COC board partners with the city to develop policies to help the homeless and distribute federal Housing and Urban Development funding.
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward tasked that board with recommending a potential operator for a 33,000-square-foot shelter at 4320 E. Trent Avenue that the city ended up leasing.
Stuckart was unable to be immediately reached for comment.
This is not the first time that he has faced an investigation for wrongdoing.
A state auditor’s report found in 2021 that Stuckart, in his capacity as council president, may have violated city conflict of interest law when he allegedly helped steer a contract for a warming center to Jewels in 2019. In several media reports, Stuckart denied this claim.
In another instance in 2014, Stuckart was at the center of an ethics complaint and was later fined $250 by the city’s Ethics Commission. In that matter, he admitted to forwarding confidential information to the Spokane Firefighters Union amid a pending legal matter between the city and a union official.
The most recent complaint against Stuckart followed the city initiating a call for shelter provider proposals in early March through the Community Health and Human Services Department, which is at the forefront of the city’s efforts to address issues of housing and homelessness.
Woodward announced in April that she had to restart the selection process for applicants. She said that was necessary to avoid any appearance of unfairness.
In addition to Stuckart’s actions, she said confidential information about the three applicants had been publicly shared. City Council President Breean Beggs said he obtained the applications from the COC board and then forwarded that information via email to city staff and council members for review before an upcoming meeting.
“To the best of my knowledge, the proposals were not confidential when I received them or when I forwarded them to council,” Beggs told The Center Square. “City council is the final decisionmaker for approving an operator contract, and if anyone has access to the actual proposals, it should be us.”
A complaint was filed against Beggs with the Spokane Ethics Commission in May by retired pathologist Tom Bassler of Spokane. The commission determined in June that the complaint should move forward.
Assistant City Attorney Sam Faggiano was out of the office Monday and unable to be reached about the status of that complain.
The commission is the arm of the city charged with holding public employees and government leaders accountable for improprieties.
Bassler said he filed the complaint because city law requires that council members be held to a strict code of ethics, uphold the highest standards of responsibility, and be above even the appearance of unethical conduct.”
Bassler said he was “inspired” to take action after Bingle filed the ethics complaint against Stuckart.