Spokane moving to new shelter system

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Mayor Lisa Brown plans to close Spokane's largest homeless shelter by the fall.

The Trent Resource and Assistance Center (TRAC) shelter in East Spokane currently houses over 200 people experiencing homelessness.

Mayor Brown wants to decommission the current shelter in favor of a greater number of smaller shelters scattered across Spokane.

The plan is the result of the city's recent audit of its current shelter system that found a "warehouse" style shelter is not the best way to help transition people out of homelessness.

"In smaller models, the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods is much, much different than when you've got 200 plus people in one location," said Dawn Kinder of Spokane's Neighborhood, Housing and Human Services Division.

Each smaller "scattered-site" would house around 20-30 people.

Advocates for the homeless said the TRAC shelter never should have opened in the first place.

"The idea of eventually decommissioning the shelter and moving to a different small-scale model as opposed to this large congregate shelter model, that's always been our goal," said Maurice Smith of Spokane Homeless Coalition.

The hope is that smaller shelters would allow people experiencing homelessness greater accesses to resources and more individualized attention, while alleviating Spokane residents' concerns about the current homelessness crisis.

"They're building quality connections with the staff. They're not needing to engage in any kind of outdoor activity. We have scattered site shelters operating currently and don't don't have the same feedback from neighboring communities," said Kinder.

The city has not yet identified where the new shelters would be or who would run them, but is currently in talks with potential operators.

Advocates said keeping the community aware of the plan is crucial.

"We don't have any sites. You haven't brought the surrounding community around those sites up to speed on what's going on. Community relations is going to be key," said Smith.

The Mayor's Office is preparing to release a proposal in May and asking shelter providers and advocates if they would like to help.

The Office would like to submit any recommendations to City Council by the end of July so new sites could be operational by September.

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