(The Center Square) – The Spokane City Council has approved a $3.73 million contract extension with The Salvation Army to continue operating the TRAC homeless shelter through winter while considering related services in the future.
Located in the 4000 block of East Trent Avenue, the Trent Resource and Assistance Center opened in September 2022. The converted warehouse is the city’s largest homeless shelter with a daily population averaging over 300 people. Counseling and other assistance are also provided by Revive Counseling Spokane.
The TRAC building is owned by local developer Larry Stone and The Stone Group and its ongoing lease by the city was an issue in this year’s election campaign between outgoing mayor Nadine Woodward and mayor-elect Lisa Brown, who takes office Jan. 1, 2024.
Early this year, the city and The Salvation Army entered into a $9.14 million operational agreement that council members last week unanimously voted to extend through next April. The additional one-time funding will come primarily from $2.3 million in federal pandemic relief dollars, plus additional monies from a city commerce fund.
“The purpose is to ensure uninterrupted emergency shelter services through winter and allow for a new transition plan to be created (in early 2024) that includes a wind-down and transition scope and costs,” according to a summary document from the city’s Community Housing and Human Services department. “New effort and administration priorities are required to transition to closure and movement of people and services from May through summer.”
“We believe deeply in the work happening at the TRAC Shelter,” Salvation Army Capt. David Cain told council members during a Dec. 14 special session. “Since we’ve taken over the contract, it has been our priority to provide a very safe environment that is low barrier in order to allow the folks that stay in our (facility) to allow the dust to settle in their lives.”
Calling homelessness a complex, multi-faceted issue, Cain said The Salvation Army needs to “link arms with others who care … to move toward solutions together.”
Joe Ader, who directs a local faith-based nonprofit, Understanding Poverty, reiterated his past concerns regarding city funding dedicated to TRAC that is “outside of the rest of the (Spokane) homeless system.”
“I hope we are taking more consideration of the whole system into the picture moving forward as well,” Ader told council members. “Just looking for outcomes and … digging into the data when making these big decisions like this.”
The council seemed to agree.
“We need to take a really good look at the entire system,” said councilman Jonathan Bingle. “That’s one of the reasons why when we first started the conversation with the regional homeless authority ten months ago, what we want to be able to do is increase the collaboration that’s already happening in Spokane … (to) make sure that we’re … getting the results that are needed.”
Councilman Zack Zappone felt the city was “ready to start a new chapter and start fresh for a new contract.”
“I think there’s a lot of frustrations and the (current) contract doesn’t resolve those frustrations,” he said. “So, looking forward to the next (one).”
Council president Betsy Wilkerson said she believes the city has a responsibility to assist the unhoused and homeless “as well as we can do with what we have.” But Wilkerson acknowledged the issue is “still complicated, it has not been solved, this is a band-aid until we get more data on how we move forward and how we fund it.”
The contract extension was also supported by fellow council members Michael Cathcart, Karen Stratton and Paul Dillon.
