(The Center Square) – After multiple bailouts, the city of Spokane’s women-only homeless shelter, Hope House, plans to close its doors on June 30; however, it may reopen the next day under a new model.
Over the past few years, the city has habitually saved the shelter operated by Volunteers of America Eastern Washington. That trend continued last August when Mayor Lisa Brown proposed giving VOA a one-time $1.2 million grant to keep the doors open for another year.
While VOA made it through 2023 without announcing the shelter’s imminent demise, according to The Spokesman-Review, the provider told the city it would have to close in 2021 and 2022. This time, the bailout came with a stipulation: transitioning into the scattered-site model.
Bridget Cannon, senior vice president of shelter services for VOA Eastern Washington, said Monday that Hope House couldn’t afford to operate under a 30-bed format. Instead, she told the Spokane City Council that it would close in June and expand into a referral-based respite facility.
“Hope House will expand a respite from 20 to 44 beds and run 24/7 as of July 1,” Cannon told the council. “This will be referral-based from medical and hospital providers that will be determined by the healthcare authority over the next few months.”
As VOA prepares to close its shelter operations, which serve dozens of women, it scheduled a Feb. 28 meeting to update community stakeholders and other providers. In May and June, VOA plans to reduce the number of women served through attrition, focusing on the “long stayers.”
Cannon defined the group as those who have stayed at Hope House for three years or more.
While four have already transitioned, she said they hope to have 80% of the long-term residents out by the end of February, with the rest moving in March. Cannon added that VOA plans to transition 50% of its “regular participants” by the end of April, with the rest out at the end of May.
She said the goal is for Hope House to stop accepting new women by early May. Looking ahead to the potential impact, Councilmember Jonathan Bingle asked what it meant for that population.
“It will greatly reduce the number of beds for women,” Cannon said of VOA’s Hope House shelter services. “They just don’t feel safe and comfortable going to mixed-gender shelters.”
Spokane opened another respite facility last month as part of Brown’s new scattered-site shelter model. Cannon said it fills a huge gap in the system while remaining cost-effective. The facilities also prevent people from taking up hospital beds when they have nowhere else to go.
The closure of Hope House will take beds offline, but VOA plans to keep its other shelters open.
Zeke Smith, president of Empire Health Foundation, which essentially controls the scattered-site shelter model, followed Cannon on Monday. While Spokane announced one respite facility and a few other expansions to the model last month, he told the council that more was on the way.
“I would by no means say that this is intended to replace the role of Hope House,” Smith told the council, “but it is a recognition that that’s a population that we continue to see significant need.”
According to his presentation, Spokane’s scattered-site model currently supports 178 beds, and there are plans to add 83 more. Those new beds include a recent proposal with Compassionate Addiction Treatment in East Central and three others listed as “tentative” shelters.
Jewels Helping Hands plans to open one on Northside for 30 women. A “new shelter provider” is tied to another on Southside for up to 12 women and children affected by domestic violence. Smith listed the last as a “new provider” on Northside for 16 men seeking treatment services.
“If they’re coming into our district, I would love to get a heads up,” Bingle told Smith, “so that we can chat about [the] effects into our district.”