City Gate offers food, shelter, clothing

A teenage girl stops outside a downtown building on Madison Street. She has brought a man in a wheelchair.

“He has nowhere to stay tonight,” she says to Dennis O’Brien, who works in the building.

“I’ll freeze to death if I stay out,” the man in the wheelchair says.

O’Brien has an answer.

He works at City Gate, a church and mission at 170 S. Madison St.

Since it was created in 1987 by a group of pastors who wanted to have a place to serve and minister to the inner city, City Gate has grown to include three emergency shelters, 24 low-cost apartment units, a food bank for the downtown area, a clothing bank, and a dining room, along with a Bible study group and Sunday service.

“City gate” is a term from biblical times, according to O’Brien, the apartment manager, answer man and 13-year volunteer.

“When you went into a city the first thing you would enter would be kind of a big courtyard where the public market would be, and so transactions of daily life would happen there,” he said.

Spokane’s City Gate continues this tradition with the motto, “A gathering place.” Above the reception area hangs a verse: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

The apartments that O’Brien manages belong to the church and are rented out to people who have had poor rental histories due to drugs, alcohol, jail time or low incomes.

“We believe God is a god of second chances,” he said.

The core of City Gate is the dining room, which seats more than 50 people at round tables with blue tablecloths and glass centerpieces. There is an industrial kitchen, a stage with a lecturn, and, right now, a Christmas tree and poinsettias.

“It kind of gives that homey touch,” O’Brien said. “We try to build an atmosphere of love.”

Anywhere from three to five meals are served each week, with donated food cooked by volunteers from 15 churches. Almost 1,000 people have come through the doors for meals since Christmas Eve, according to O’Brien.

Each meal generally serves between 150 and 250 people.

Some meals start with volunteers giving a quick talk on how God has changed their lives.

But they never go too long.

“You can’t force-feed the gospel,” he said.

City Gate is led by a board of directors and is fueled by donations and hundreds of volunteers from across the region.