Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

The City Gate shuts down after Christmas schism, leaving the fate of the downtown foodbank and homes uncertain

The City Gate, a charitable ministry that has provided food and spiritual support for the homeless of downtown Spokane for nearly 40 years, closed its doors suddenly just days before Christmas after several leaders, including figurehead Pastor John Murinko, walked away without warning, according to a remaining board member.

It may be the end for the nonprofit, unless a like-minded organization is willing and able to take its place.

Board member Bob May believes that “God will make the best of this,” but acknowledged that, with no clear continuity plan and uncertain finances, those still with the organization “were left with the worst possible chance of continuing.”

The City Gate was created 36 years ago by Murinko and several local pastors hoping to found a ministry focused on ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the homeless in downtown Spokane. From a site on First Avenue to a location at the Otis Hotel to its recent home at Madison Street and Second Avenue , the church evolved into an enterprise offering a social drop-in center, hot meals, a food bank, clothing bank, life skills and social services, as well as low-cost housing above the foodbank and emergency shelter.

As the ministry grew, then-board member Ruth Pearson gave upwards of $1 million to purchase and renovate the building, 170 S. Madison St.

May said he and other board members discovered on Dec. 22 that the front door of the food bank was locked and the keys were left on the counter with no warning that Murinko and staff had abandoned the organization. The first public notice that the organization had shut its doors, with few other details, was published on the organization’s Facebook page on Dec. 26.

Calls and emails to The City Gate went unanswered. The Spokesman-Review tracked down a personal cell phone number for Murinko on Jan. 2 and reached him, but he said he was on vacation and unavailable for an interview, and requested to speak on Jan. 7. He then stopped responding to phone calls and texts.

May, first reached for an interview Saturday, asserted that the trouble started this year because of a renewed focus on financial oversight and managing negative spillover effects from the facility into the surrounding neighborhood that officials at City Hall had insisted needed to be better handled, such as people camping near their building.

Mayor Lisa Brown and officials in her administration confirmed the city had been discussing repeated nuisance and code enforcement complaints with The City Gate.

May described a leadership team accustomed to operating without external accountability, which quickly imploded under basic scrutiny

“When I joined the board over a year ago, we had conflict with neighbors, and the mayor had just come into office and we were having meetings with trying to resolve those issues,” May said.

During those meetings, May and other board members learned about incidents around the building that had not been disclosed by Murinko or his son, Eric, who worked as office manager for The City Gate. For example, May said someone had poured gasoline and lit a fire on a pile of stuff next to the building , which May learned from city officials, not City Gate leadership.

Rather than discuss incidents with the board, Murinko preferred to handle misbehavior himself, May said. In one case, Murinko reportedly closed The City Gate’s doors for two days in response to a conflict.

“Which none of us had any problems with,” May said. “One thing I liked about our method of doing business was that we held people to a standard and tried to instill some personal responsibility.

“But then, after closing for two days, he decided to close down for another two weeks, and I had an issue with that, because we’re punishing everyone for a couple bad folks,” May said.

These kinds of punishments were not new, however. In a 2022 profile of The City Gate, Murinko told The Spokesman-Review that he had only recently done exactly that.

“I’ve closed the dining room for two weeks when there’s been tussles and squabbles,” Murinko said two years ago.

He also noted in the same story that he was committed to The City Gate for the long haul.

“Why would I ever go anywhere else?” he asked. “I don’t get discouraged, but sometimes it breaks my heart.”

Jon Thomas and Rhett Zorn, two new residents of the upstairs apartments who have lived in the area for years, often on the street, confirmed that trash, drug use, fights and other issues around the block were rampant. They were split on whether Murinko had done enough to stop those problems, with Zorn questioning why Murinko hadn’t faced pressure earlier and Thomas saddened that a “good man at heart” had been pushed out after decades feeding the hungry.

May and other board members insisted on regular reports from leadership on issues in or around the facility, and also when May raised concerns about how the Murinkos were managing those issues, “Pastor John and Eric, they just flipped out,” May said.

“They said, ‘It’s none of your business, your job is just to raise money, I won’t be micromanaged,’ ” May said. “And literally, we’re standing in the middle of the dining area, which is also a church, I’m talking to the pastor and he’s screaming at me, and I had to tell him ‘You’re a pastor in a church, why are you behaving like this?’ ”

Board President William Davis also responded poorly to additional financial oversight, May said. He could not be reached for this story.

Davis helped to keep the organization solvent with thousands of dollars of his own money, but had health issues and plans to step down, raising concerns about next steps after he was no longer able to help support the ministry, May said. The board had tried to step up reliance on outside donations, but felt this would require better oversight on whether funds were being spent efficiently.

May said Davis resigned a few days before The City Gate was suddenly closed.

May and other board members said that reform was needed as the organization entered a new phase, but understanding that tensions were mounting, wanted to wait until after the holidays to push through those issues.

“And then, of course, we found out that the doors were closed and the keys were on the counter, and everybody decided that they were not going to come to work,” May said.

May said the lack of financial transparency ran so deep that he didn’t even know for sure how many employees were being paid by The City Gate, how much they were being paid or their workloads. He said that he has received three letters of resignation, including from John Murinko and two paid employees, but nothing from Eric or at least two other paid employees.

“Having talked to (those latter two people), it wasn’t really their choice to leave,” May said. “These are people who need these jobs, a couple of them live upstairs in the apartment building and they can’t pay their rents, right? They would never choose to stop doing this thing that’s been supporting them for 10 years.”

May and others remaining called Second Harvest, which helped supply their food bank, and canceled future deliveries, distributing whatever was already in their pantries to tenants upstairs and other organizations or people.

May said there are now only two other board members remaining, including John Kittel and Gail Stevers. They have formed an advisory board including former board members and will meet this week to discuss next steps.

It’s not clear what those steps entail. The only people who understood how the organization functioned are gone, according to May.

“There were no records, there was nothing,” May said.

Pearson required in her donation that the building be gifted to a similar Christian-based charity in the event that The City Gate dissolved, but initial attempts to find a successor have been unsuccessful, May said.

Shalom Ministries, the only other soup kitchen of its kind in downtown Spokane, had been considered but didn’t believe the space would work for the size of its operations, said Barbara Caviezel, Shalom’s operations director.

The loss of City Gate’s services poses a real blow to the city’s homeless, Caviezel added.

Shalom doesn’t serve food every day of the week, and many of their patrons also went to City Gate to supplement their food.

“There’s such a need in our city, and the doors keep slamming on the homeless, and they’re feeling it,” she added.

May’s top concern is what happens to the apartments above the ministry.

“We haven’t had any information as far as rent and all of that,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you if that building supports itself or not … as long as the building supports itself, then we don’t have to be as desperate to find a solution to this thing.”

Whatever happens, May said he’s determined to see that The City Gate’s mission continues and that the building isn’t sold to a developer.

“We had no notice and were left with the worst possible chance of continuing,” May said. “However, we are unashamed believers, and God will make the best of this.”

Thomas and his wife only moved into the upstairs apartments a few weeks ago, shortly before Murinko left, and before that had often slept outside and volunteered in the kitchens for more than two years. He hopes those staying in the units aren’t displaced, but if they are, Thomas mused that it wasn’t much different than having to move every morning before dawn.

“We’re always afraid of it, you know, it’s like anywhere else, you set up your camp and you need to be on your toes,” he said. “Expect the worst, pray for the best.”