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COVID-19

Shelter search under way in COVID-19 response

Regional leaders are hurriedly searching for temporary shelter space as part of Spokane’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preparing for the expiration of the city of Spokane’s contracts with its winter warming centers May 1, the county Emergency Operations Center is touring potential shelters for homeless people this week.

The operations center expects to secure one or more shelter locations, and service providers to operate them, this week.

“We’re hoping to create as seamless a transition as possible,” said Tija Danzig, a program manager with the city of Spokane’s Community, Housing, and Human Services who is a part of the regional effort.

Officials will tour prospective sites on Tuesday. Operations center personnel will begin to review applicants to run the shelters and announce grant recipients this week.

Last month, in the early days of the pandemic and Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, local leaders established a temporary shelter at the downtown Spokane Public Library. The additional beds were necessary as new social distancing requirements implemented by the Spokane Regional Health District required guests to sleep at least six feet apart overnight, limiting capacity at existing shelters.

But the library contract expires on May 15, and the Spokane Public Library plans to carry on with renovating the building as planned before the pandemic. Already under an agreement with a contractor, the library is obligated to allow work to begin now that Gov. Jay Inslee has lifted some restrictions on construction to be lifted.

“We are trying to stand up, now, more capacity right away,” said Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward.

Through the city, the operations center issued a request for proposals earlier this month that sought to fund operators for additional shelter capacity to allow for social distancing at existing shelters; additional quarantine or isolation space; or increased hygiene and sanitation needs at shelters.

In order to be funded, the costs have to be related to COVID-19.

Funding priorities will ultimately be determined by the Spokane Regional Health District, which is leading the response effort.

The duration of the need for additional shelter remains unclear. Officials are tentatively planning into September, based on the timeline laid out by the Department of Commerce, but will operate on month-to-month contracts with providers and continue to assess the need as the pandemic response evolves.

“Everything is sort of in flux and we want to be able to be responsive to that,” Danzig said.

The shelter or shelters will be launched with funds released through the Department of Commerce as part of the state’s COVID-19 response.

Applicants to operate shelters may have expertise in serving different populations, such as families or single adults. The most acute need, currently, is shelter space for families, according to Danzig.

The second component of the request for proposals was quarantine and isolation space. In order for restrictions under the stay home order to be lifted, Inslee has stressed, adequate space is needed to isolate those who are sick or may be sick with COVID-19.

An isolation facility has already been established at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center on an emergency contract, but the request for proposals would further legitimize its operation, according to Danzig. The funding is also open to shelters which have had to increase their capacity to isolate guests in response to COVID-19.

The RFP offers funding for sanitation and hygiene services. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a need for increased cleaning regimens at shelters, but at times strained their ability to access supplies, which may cost more than they did before the pandemic struck.

There is no specific target for the number of beds officials in the region would like to add to the shelter system. The number of beds available at city shelters has fluctuated day-to-day and remains difficult to project, according to Danzig.

“It’s hard to project what that need looks like because our utilization changes so much around this time of year,” he said.

City officials noted that the expiration of its contracts with warming centers in the spring is routine.

Jewels Helping Hands was selected to operate the only city-owned warming center on Cannon Street, but the city also contracted with providers like Catholic Charities and Truth Ministries to add temporary beds during the cold season.

Jewels Helping Hands is still regularly at capacity and turning people away, founder Julie Garcia told The Spokesman-Review on Monday. It responded to the COVID-19 request for proposals and hopes to earn a month-to-month contract with the city.

When Jewels Helping Hands vacates the Cannon Street building next month, the city will begin renovations on the building, according to Tim Sigler, director of the CHHS department.

Woodward has long preached the need for a regional approach to homelessness and acknowledged on Monday that “COVID is kind of forcing that to happen a little bit earlier” than it would have otherwise.

“My belief has always been that the city tends to be a hub for so many different things, but when it comes to (homelessness), we’ve been taking that and providing those services, and it really needs to be done in a regional way,” Woodward said.