The city of Spokane opened the region’s last homeless shelter on Thursday, just hours before the lease of the Spokane Arena, which houses more than a hundred others, expires at midnight.
While STA buses transported sand citizens to the new shelter at 55 W. Mission Ave., city and Salvation Army personnel were running Thursday to nevertheless put the finishing touches to the new space, send materials, and leave the exterior of the construction blank to make it suitable for their new occupants.
The Salvation Army will operate in the new shelter and Spokane County is working to acquire the construction of $2 million from the Spokane Housing Authority.
Within weeks of local governments and nonprofits agreeing to purchase, renovate, and operate mission avenue construction as a shelter, contractors destroyed the walls and established an admission area and personal rooms to isolate and verify with COVID. 19 symptoms.
Rows of green cots were installed in the giant room, which until recently served as housing assistance offices.
City spokesman Brian Coddington said the shelter’s acquisition and opening on Thursday deserves to provide a solid position for the homeless during the pandemic and deserve to help end the cycle of others moving from one position to another when rents expire and structure occurs.
In the past, the city housed homeless people in a Shelter on Cannon Street and the Spokane Public Library, which was closed to consumers due to planned construction. The city then closed any of the shelters and moved them to the arena, even though it only had a 90-day contract to manage a shelter there.
Although the city controlled the shelter’s contracts and operations, Coddington said it was a collaborative assignment between Spokane County, the Spokane Regional Health District and the City of Spokane. The city of Spokane Valley is doing a similar task, a youth shelter located in Spokane Valley.
By Thursday afternoon, the maximum of the paintings needed to turn the old construction of the Housing Authority into a complete shelter, with the exception of the bathrooms.
Contractors have built a transitional wall to lock existing sinks so they can build new sinks and showers without disturbing others staying at the new facility. These baths will be completed later in the fall. In the meantime, those staying in the shelter should use a portable bathroom and a cellular shower.
Major Ken Perrine of the Spokane Salvation Army said there would be room for another 102 people to remain in the shelter when social distance is taken into account.
He said the Salvation Army workers’ corps will basically use the construction grounds and parking lot at the front for the next few months. But once the COVID-19 crisis subsides, he said, the Salvation Army will use the basement to provide long-term personal rooms for others to stay while accessing services, vocational education, and housing assistance.
Until the pandemic is resolved, the shelter will function as a matter of urgency and anyone who wishes to remain in a position and can comply with protection regulations is welcome. In the future, the shelter will serve as a “respite housing” program, where others who remain there will be referred through other agencies and shelters and will have to participate in systems that will help them remove barriers to locating or maintaining solid homes. .
“We settle for them as they are, ” he said. “If you want help, the door is open for you to be here. But we have rules.”
When the county voted to acquire the shelter, some neighbors were outraged by the resolution and expressed fear for more homeless people, crime and drug use, and relief in the value of assets in their neighborhoods.
Perrine said the Salvation Army has put in place a plan and regulation to combat punctual behavior. He also noted that the organization has operated and ordered shelters elsewhere.
“The Salvation Army has been here in Spokane for 130 years, and we have strived to be an intelligent neighbor to the people around us,” he said. “We will continue to do so.”
He added that those who stayed at the shelter were probably already in the neighborhood and that the shelter would provide them with a place to go.
“The homeless were already there. What this facility does is provide a position for everyone,” he said. “The Salvation Army will do everything possible to advance these other people in life.”
Although the long-term plan to provide housing and in-depth education is gone months, Perrine said the Salvation Army is working to recruit counselors and others who can provide employment and housing on the spot to those who stay in the shelter.
You can contact Rebecca White at (509) 459-5039 or [email protected].