SPOKANE, Wash. — Mayor Lisa Brown has declared a state of emergency for the City of Spokane due to frigid temperatures forecasted over the weekend. The weather is expected to dip below 0 degrees this weekend, with the coldest expected to be Saturday morning.
"Over the past few days, my administration has been working with our service provider network to assess our current capacity for emergency warming," Mayor Brown said in a press conference Thursday.
More space is being made at warming shelters in the city. Mayor Brown said an additional 183 beds will be made available over the next week.
"This includes existing providers but also new facilities, including members of faith-based communities, churches that are stepping forward," Brown said.
A list of open warming centers in Spokane can be found by following this link.
The Cannon Street Shelter will reopen again to serve as a warming shelter after closing last year. It's scheduled to be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. once a contract is finalized with Compassionate Addiction Services.
"We're going to be building this out over time, some of that's getting contracts in place and some of its related to staffing," Brown said.
The mayor added Cannon will be able to provide an extra 20 beds to begin with, but could double or triple that over two months once funding and operations are figured out. The city is still working to determine how to handle sheltering, especially in a surge capacity as needed, through the rest of the winter.
"Which is why we're relying on existing providers who can do surge capacity during this initial seven-day cold blast," said Dawn Kinder, director for Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services.
When asked about flaws in the current system of emergency shelters in Spokane, Mayor Brown mentioned that her team is working to bolster the coordination and communication between the city and homeless service providers.
Brown and Kinder say one "flaw" being addressed is the accuracy of the Shelter Me Spokane site, which shows available beds at the city's different providers. Kinder told council she believed the Trent Resource Assistance Center (TRAC) had surged to allow 400 people to stay, but couldn't be sure.
TRAC is expected to surge to a 450-person capacity, which Kinder says still doesn't max out the space in terms of code enforcement if more room is needed.
She also said her team will work to identify issues with Spokane's homeless management information system in an effort to streamline connecting an unhoused person with a service provider.
Spokane Transit and additional service providers for those who are unhoused will provide transportation to the warming shelters free of charge.
Brown briefed city council before her public announcement Thursday, which yielded several questions.
Kinder told council the emergency response of providing nearly 200 extra beds will cost $29,000 for a week. Council member Jonathan Bingle said that's lower than the average $100/day it normally costs to house someone.
Council members Bingle and Michael Cathcart focused especially on the costs of sheltering people and how the city was managing the 7-day emergency surge at a relatively low cost.
"The primary driver for this seven-day plan is the level of volunteer engagement, which is not creating a ton of staff cost," Kinder said.
Brown said a budget allowance of $250,000 for emergency sheltering in extreme weather, including heat or wildfire smoke, will be used to cover the costs.
"I can tell you right now that pot of funds is not going to be enough. We will do our best to make it stretch," she told council.
Though she cautioned that the city will need to dive into deeper conversations about funding homeless services, as she said funding is not there for the rest of the year.
"We have a gap. And it's large," Brown said. "Just to maintain the capacity of the system that was there last year and that system was supplemented by federal funds we don't necessarily believe will be there this year. We've got a big job ahead of us."
You can watch Thursday's full press conference below.
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