Start of a hope renovation

A transformation is under way in West Central Spokane.

It’s not upscale condos or major retail centers. It’s just a house. From that house, however, members of a Spokane street ministry plan to help homeless women and their children.

Work has begun at 2008 W. Sharp Ave. to rescue a 100-year-old home that has fallen into disrepair. The vision of the Off-Broadway Family Outreach ministry is to help women and children who need a short-term emergency shelter.

The four-bedroom Women’s Lighthouse of Hope Home will be the permanent residence of four women, including “house mother” and Off-Broadway member Marcel Smith, who was homeless for a time in April. Those residents will serve as resources to women who stay for as long as 72 hours, until a spot opens in a shelter or they’re able to make other arrangements, said Larry Whiston, Off-Broadway pastor. They expect to house a couple of women at a time, whom they encounter in their work or who are referred to them by other churches, charities or agencies.

“You have no idea how hard we’ve prayed for this,” Whiston said.

Jan Foland, a retired teacher and the ministry’s executive director, hopes the model of temporary shelter provided on a small scale spreads around the city.

“My prayer is that this starts others,” she said. “We’ve seen it. All over the city there are houses like this one.”

First, the Lighthouse of Hope Home needs work. As run-down as the house is, it has solid bones. The bedrooms are large. There’s lots of storage. The main floor features arched entryways between rooms. The covered front porch is roomy.

“It’s a beautiful house, or could be,” Whiston said as he walked down a spiral staircase.

The house, owned by Alejandro and Christina Garcia, of Renton, Wash., had been trashed by previous tenants who had stopped paying rent, they said. The Garcias faced the prospect of selling the house because it needed extensive repairs they couldn’t afford.

It was heartbreaking to see what had become of the home where the couple spent 14 years raising their four children, Alejandro Garcia said. When he returned two weeks ago to help with repairs, he saw God’s hand at work in bringing Off-Broadway into the picture.

“I am not a crying person, but I did cry,” he said. “Not because of the condition of the house, but because of the love of God to bring all these people and their talents and time.”

Residents will help cover rent paid to the Garcias, who waived the first and last months’ rent in exchange for “sweat equity.” Area businesses have also done what they can to help, donating supplies – paint, carpet, flooring, paint brushes – and labor. Individuals have turned out to help as well.

“The community is here to renovate this house to provide safe harbor for women,” Foland said. “Everyone who is here is here because they’ve been moved (by what we’re doing).”

One volunteer drove up on a recent Sunday with a pickup full of furniture. A group of women from Solid Rock Christian Center pledged to decorate a room, Foland said.

Henry Silva heard about the project at Community Bible Chapel. He was soon at work on the main-floor bathroom.

The room had been gutted, and chunks of the rotten flooring had been pulled up. That’s Silva’s major job – to put in a new floor.

“I’m just trying to help out the community,” he said. “This is something that I’ve been wanting to get into but haven’t found the right project, until I met these people through church.”

Few places are equipped to take mothers and children in the short term, Smith said. Shelters often are full, and many facilities require extensive interviews and background checks before clients can be put on a waiting list.

Earlier this year, Smith and her family were kicked out of their home. They put everything they had into a deposit on a new place, but for a weekend, Smith, her daughter and three young grandchildren had no place to go. Off-Broadway helped get them into a hotel.

Scenarios like Smith’s are becoming more common, Whiston said. “Every year, we run into women all throughout the winter,” he said. “And these are the ones we’re unable to place somewhere else.”