‘Not enough’: Spokane’s budget for sheltering homeless people in unsafe winter weather will cover 100 beds for 38 nights

When temperatures drop this winter or spike next summer, the city of Spokane only has the money to pay existing shelters to house an additional 100 homeless people up to 38 nights.

Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration announced Monday the city’s plan for sheltering the homeless in inclement weather, which includes contracting with four local housing organizations and paying those organizations for beds in the midst of unsafe weather. The contracts will last until the end of next year, according to a city news release. The plan maintains Brown’s goal of closing the Trent Resource and Assistance Center, a shelter opened in the administration of her predecessor, Mayor Nadine Woodward. Brown has criticized that Trent shelter has been too costly.

During a now-estimated $10.9 million budget crisis, the move is more cost-effective than opening up a new shelter and finding new employees to staff it, the news release said.

The city probed housing agencies through a survey, which required shelters to have more than 10 beds, day and night services, transportation support and prior shelter experience. It came to identify a total of 357 “surge beds” or beds that could be made quickly available in the midst of a cold snap.

But the flat $250,000 the city has worked with under the former Woodward administration, and is working with again this year, will fund 100 beds for 38 nights. It’s all the city can afford.

“Frankly, it’s not enough,” city spokesperson Erin Hut said.

Some city officials are hopeful services can be boosted starting in January through a new city budget that will be approved by the end of the year.

Spokane code requires the city to provide warming shelters once temperatures drop below 32 degrees. During the summer, cooling shelters are required for temperatures above 95 degrees, the code says.

Shelter beds this year will cost Spokane an average $70 a night, according to a city weather plan overview document. Housing agencies the city plans to pay for the surge beds include Family Promise of Spokane, The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and others.

“It’s become very clear we need more emergency resource funding,” Councilman Paul Dillon said. “Having $250,000, which has been status quo for years in Spokane, is completely inadequate. And quite frankly, inexcusable.”

It’s largely why Brown is asking for an increase in the 2025-26 budget, although how the city will fund the increase and how much the increase is unclear. Hut said more information on the increase is “forthcoming” when Brown puts up her final proposed budget in front of City Council next month. Dillon indicated Monday he will be advocating for the extra funding.

The 100-bed limit doesn’t mean the county or nonprofits won’t be able to shelter more homeless people, however. There are more than 1,100 beds in existence county-wide, Hut said. The city-run Trent Resource and Assistance Center Trent Avenue, which has regularly served more than 300 people the last two winters, is closing Oct. 31. There’s no money to fund that, either .

Councilman Jonathan Bingle said Monday he would be advocate for more funding for homeless resources, he said, if the city wasn’t in a budget crisis.

“But I’ve voted against homelessness funding in the last few months,” Bingle said. “When you’re allocating money when you have a hole, it doesn’t make sense. We have to take care of the business of the city.”

Bingle added he was only notified of the city’s weather plan when he received the news release, so he declined to comment further.

Councilman Michael Cathcart said in a text message Monday he is still waiting to see a plan for future funding. The city has only been presented with a few options, he said. Cathcart added if the city plans well with a cost-effectiveness in mind, the $250,000 allocation “could be enough.”

Dillon disagrees.

“We find commonality in that we don’t want people to die and we don’t want people to live on the streets,” Dillon said. “We have to stay centered in that to find a solution.”