City funds 80 shelter beds for women, family and children

After two homeless shelters almost lost 100 beds for women and children, Spokane City Council approved $360,000 to restore most that were lost.

Open Doors, an emergency shelter for families, went from 80 beds to 30 Monday morning. House of Charity planned to cut beds for women in a few weeks, after the city gave them less money than it had in the past when it switched to a five-year funding cycle.

Joe Ader, director of Open Doors, said the money will restore the shelter to 60 beds instead of 80, which is just above the average number of people the shelter serves every day. He said half of the people in the shelter are usually children, and turning away families with children is extremely difficult.

He said it will be a few weeks before the shelter is back up to 60 because they’ve already cut staff, but he hopes the new funding will give them enough money to continue serving everyone who needs help.

“It’s a big relief,” he said.

Catholic Charities President Rob McCann said the 50 women’s shelter beds funded at House of Charity will give women a place to stay until the expanded Hope House Women’s shelter opens. He said Hope House is always full, and there needs to be a safe place for women to go.

“With homeless women and children potentially being on the street in a few days,” he said, “I’m glad they took action.”

The City Council also approved money to keep Women’s Hearth, a women’s dayshelter in downtown Spokane run by Transitions, open on weekends.

The funds the city approved Monday was money the city didn’t spend when it approved the five-year grants for homelessness and affordable housing, along with some money from the general fund.

Stuckart said he didn’t know the shelters would start turning people away until last week, and the council waited to spend the grant cycle money because the city was trying to find other solutions.

“We were looking at all other options to keep those shelters open,” he said.