CdA considers warming shelters

Betty Jean Horlacher-Bainbridge spent four months sleeping in a tent at a Coeur d’Alene campground before she found a room recently through a local church.

“I’ve really not been out in the cold,” she said.

But Horlacher-Bainbridge knows others who have. They spend cold nights inside restaurants, if they can afford a cup of coffee. Or they sit in hospital waiting rooms or hotel lobbies, avoiding freezing weather.

When winter arrives in North Idaho, the few beds at homeless shelters fill up fast.

Now the city of Coeur d’Alene is considering a change to building and fire codes that would allow emergency warming shelters to open when temperatures are dangerously low. The city could waive capacity restrictions and building code requirements that restrict overnight stays at older facilities and churches in town, City Administrator Wendy Gabriel said.

“It may be the case that the building’s not up to code,” City Councilman Mike Kennedy added. “If they’re out in 5-degree weather, they’re going to freeze. What’s the greater good?”

The Fresh Start Drop-In Center in Coeur d’Alene could offer a warm place for homeless people to stay on cold nights if the City Council approves. The city could have a proposal drafted within the month, Gabriel said.

On the coldest nights, people with nowhere to go risk death, said Gary Edwards, president of Fresh Start’s board of directors.

“A couple years ago we had homeless people die,” Edwards said. “One died in a crushing bin, one of exposure off the side of the highway. That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Spokane already has a warming shelter program, with the city waiving building code requirements when the temperature dips below 10. When freezing weather hit in January, three nonprofit shelters in Spokane opened in the evening and allowed overnight crowds beyond normal capacity.

Those who work with the homeless say the need for emergency shelters is just as critical in North Idaho.

“We do have a large number of people that are out there,” said Lillian McSwain, outreach minister for St. Pius X Parish in Coeur d’Alene. “They’re living in storage lockers, in someone’s garage, unheated RVs, sleeping over in cars. They’re out there.”

McSwain said much of the challenge is getting people in the community to recognize there is a homeless problem. It’s not a problem that’s always visible, she said.

“Browse through hotel lobbies like The Coeur d’Alene Resort and sometimes you see them trying to meld in, sitting in the lobbies trying to have a cup of coffee,” she said. “Sometimes you see them in the emergency room lobby.”

There are a dozen beds at the St. Vincent de Paul men’s shelter in Coeur d’Alene, said social services director Kathy Reed. Most nights, especially in winter, those beds are full, Reed said.

“When the weather gets cold, we usually let people sleep on our porch,” she said. “We’ve only got room for three on our porch.”