Shelter For Teen Moms To Close Federal Grant Not Renewed For Voa’s Transitional Living Center

One of Spokane’s few havens for teenage mothers shuts down next week, forcing a half-dozen of them to look elsewhere for help.

Transitional Living Center, a tidy green apartment building on East Boone, has lost its $100,000 federal grant, said Marilee Roloff, executive director of Volunteers of America, which runs the center.

Advocates say the 6-year-old center’s closure couldn’t come at a worse time.

Under a new state law, more than 800 teen moms on welfare are being told to find “appropriate living conditions” - with relatives or at an approved shelter - or risk losing benefits.

The law is intended to send the girls and their children home.

But people helping the young moms say shelters like Transitional Living Center are often the best place they can go.

Returning home can throw young mothers and children into dangerous situations, say advocates for teen moms.

“That (law) puts children in danger that are in safe conditions now,” said Charlie Langdon, director of Advancing Solutions to Adolescent Pregnancy, a Seattle-based group of medical and social service professionals.

When the Spokane center closes, there will only be six beds for teen moms in one licensed Spokane shelter, and 50 beds statewide.

One teen mom living at the East Boone center, Ginny McElfresh, 17, dislikes her prospects: quitting community college to live with her mother in Arizona, or moving in with her son’s grandparents.

McElfresh’s boyfriend abandoned her when she refused an abortion. When she refused to move south with her mother, McElfresh turned to the shelter.

In her two-bedroom apartment, McElfresh watches her tow-headed 16-month-old son, Josh, play with a toy steering wheel that continuously blurts “Emergency!”

“I’ll find something,” she said. “I always do when the worst happens.”

Administrators at Volunteers of America say the funding cut is a sign of the times, as social service agencies increasingly scramble for dwindling government dollars. At least 50 agencies in Washington, Oregon and Idaho applied for the grant the Spokane VOA lost, Roloff said.

“I don’t really have a complaint, I just find it ironic,” said Roloff. “The timing of it is unbelievable.”

VOA has slowly drained the apartments by not replacing mothers who moved out.

The money runs out Sept. 30, but Roloff said McElfresh and two other teen moms won’t be “left on the streets.”

The center’s budget paid for round-the-clock supervision, weekly parenting classes and rent subsidies. No resident paid more than 30 percent of her income. McElfresh pays $130 a month.

VOA, which owns the apartment complex, is pondering the site’s future. Roloff welcomes suggestions.

Another Spokane agency hopes to fill the void created by the transitional center’s closure.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Spokane plans to open a teen mother shelter if it can obtain grant money. Crisis Pregnancy recently submitted an application to the state for a license.

The private, nonprofit organization known for its staunch opposition to abortion has a site in mind, said executive director Paula Cullen.

A survey of Crisis Pregnancy clients completed earlier this year showed at least five pregnant teens needed shelter, Cullen said.

“We’ve known there was a need for a long time,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo