(The Center Square) – The city of Spokane approved the final contract extension for its largest congregate homeless shelter last week, but now the Trent Shelter might not close for good on Halloween after all.
The Trent Resource and Assistance Center, or Trent Shelter, opened two years ago and could sleep roughly 450 people as recently as January, though not anymore. Mayor Lisa Brown prioritized closing the facility and transitioning away from that model when taking office this year.
Brown wants to limit the use of the congregate model and transition toward scattered site shelters. When the city council approved the final extension, operational costs surpassed $16.8 million, with the expectation that the shelter would close by Oct. 31, but now it might stay open.
Arielle Anderson, director of the Community, Housing and Human Services Department, said Thursday that the provider might ask to keep it open as needed for inclement weather.
“I can’t control who responds to an RFI,” Anderson said. “I do want to say that this is not establishing a contractual relationship at all; it was just trying to get a sense of what was out there.”
Last Thursday, Anderson reviewed several responses to a Request for Information on warming and cooling centers with the council. Local law requires Spokane to open these emergency shelters when temperatures dip below 32 or above 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
The RFI, which is different from a Request for Proposals, resulted in seven responses from five applicants, including The Salvation Army, which operates the Trent Shelter. While it was only one application among several others, Anderson said it could provide up to around 175 beds.
CHHS Operations Manager Melissa Morrison said the Trent Shelter currently sleeps around 119 people ahead of the anticipated closure on Halloween. Weather typically starts to dip around that time, with more individuals seeking shelter, which could pose an issue.
Data provided on Thursday showed Spokane’s emergency bed capacity was 1,276 as of Sept. 1 after peaking this past year at 1,630 in January and February. Anderson said if the city proceeded with a proposal from each applicant, it would add roughly 357 beds at an average cost of $70 daily per individual.
That would cost the taxpayers roughly $25,000 daily for operational costs or about $700,000 monthly for all the beds. However, it’s unclear if that amount includes rent. While the average cost per bed was $70 daily across each response, the Trent Shelter’s price was $75, or $367,500 each month, about 40% less than it cost to operate the Trent Shelter under Brown’s renegotiated monthly cap.
Council President Betsy Wilkerson voiced her confusion around the push to keep the Trent Shelter open despite just approving a contract with a deadline to close in a matter of weeks.
“We’ve got some proposals from The Salvation Army, their location would be TRAC,” Wilkerson said. “So, we’re confused about closing TRAC. Closing TRAC, that’s kind of the narrative we’ve heard, and then we’re maintaining TRAC for surge [capacity], which is what [this] would be?”
Anderson said it’s not unusual that The Salvation Army suggested one of its existing facilities as an option. Still, it was one among many as the council contemplates how to disperse the $250,000 historically devoted to the centers each year, which she said isn’t enough.
Councilmember Michael Cathcart asked Anderson for the rationale around paying to keep the Trent Shelter available for what’s only a few weeks out of the year. Outside of the $250,000 for operational costs, expenses could quickly add up when considering rent and other variables.
Anderson reminded the council that she’s only the messenger for the responses to the RFI and that the city would disseminate an RFP in the coming weeks; however, the deadline to release the city’s plan for the warming and cooling centers over this next year is Sept. 30.
Communications Director Erin Hut told The Center Square the plan was presented to the council by Anderson, despite only being an RFI that didn’t solicit actual proposals. She said the RFI “fully describes the plan.”
When asked for a copy of the plan and where it was published and disseminated, per local law, to verify that it included the several required details listed in the Spokane Municipal Code, Hut did not respond. Instead, she went into further detail about the RFI and city’s intentions without providing the formal plan.
According to an agenda for Wednesday, the CHHS Board is scheduled to hear a presentation on a draft of the plan this week. Cathcart asked Anderson about the status of the plan last Thursday, leading her to mention several steps taken but also replicated.
“But it’s all the exact same stuff that the previous administration had done that they were heavily criticized for not doing enough of,” he interjected, “and we replicated what they did … I didn’t say anything because it’s the mayor’s first year just getting up to speed, but it’s almost [the end of] September. I believe the plan is supposed to be due in September, so what’s the plan?”
