SPOKANE, Wash. — The City of Spokane's Trent Resource and Assistance Center (TRAC) will close on Thursday, October 31.
According to a press release from the city, it has partnered with the Salvation Army to ramp down operations at the congregate homeless shelter over the past several weeks and worked to navigate 136 people to alternative options.
Through individualized case management, people previously residing at the shelter have been connected to aging and long-term care providers, veteran services, youth shelters, transitional housing, family or other emergency shelters.
One individual who had been homeless for the past six years was provided support in finding full-time employment and permanent housing. This allowed this individual to reunite with their teenage son and get enrolled in school for a veterinary degree.
The city says another man who had been living at TRAC was given a Greyhound ticket to return to his hometown of Chicago.
He left his belongings at TRAC and put his dog in foster care, but returned a few weeks later in a semi-truck. In only a few weeks the man had earned a job as a long-haul truck driver and asked to get his first load in this direction so he could pick up his items and his dog. He is now employed full-time and has his own apartment.
"These success stories are why we do this work. Every time someone secures a safe place to call home, finds meaningful employment, or reconnects with their community, it reaffirms our belief that change is possible,” said Dawn Kinder, Director of Neighborhoods, Housing and Human Services.
The city says Mayor Lisa Brown's Administration’s move to close TRAC is the result of multiple factors, including inheriting a budget that provided only six months of operational funding for the facility.
The Brown Administration sought to renegotiate the shelter contract, cutting previously unchecked expenses that, at times, surpassed $1 million per month. These cost-saving measures allowed the City to extend operations for an additional four months while shifting to its new housing navigation center and scattered-site model.
“The City of Spokane has spent nearly $20 million of one-time funds to operate TRAC over the past two years, and yet, we have not seen enough positive outcomes for the people utilizing the facility. Of the hundreds of people that have stayed at TRAC, only 10 percent were transitioned into more permanent housing solutions,” Mayor Lisa Brown said. “We know that warehousing people is not the right way to help them break through the challenges of homelessness, so we are moving to a new model that we know provides better results and is also more cost-effective.”
The city says the new model is designed to provide more intensive case management and tailored services in more intimate settings while also reducing City spending.
The projected costs related to the navigation center and scattered site model will cost the City $5.7 million for two years of operations, according to a press release from the city.
With the new model, the city will provide 30 beds at the navigation center, up to 170 scattered site beds and 133 surge beds during inclement weather for a total of more than 300 beds available on top of the existing shelter capacity managed by the non-profit provider community.
The city says Mayor Brown has also moved to terminate the warehouse lease.
The current contract charges the city approximately $28,000 per month through July 31, 2027 for the vacant building, excluding utility costs. By terminating the lease, not having to pay for maintenance and utilities at the facility and ending operational costs, the City will save more than $21 million over the next few years.
