SPOKANE, Wash. — You may start to see more people sleeping on the streets at night. Next week, the city is getting rid of 30 shelter beds.
The Navigation Shelter will become a daytime-only center. The city noticed a gap in homeless services.
“We don’t have a lot of places for people to go during the day,” said Erin Hut from the City of Spokane.
Right now, only people staying at the shelter can get services there. Julie Garcia from Jewels Helping Hands said they turn people away.
“They were turning away a lot of people during the day and at night,” Garcia said.
The shelter serves 30 people now. As a daytime center, Garcia estimates it will serve 70 people each day.
“It’s a space for them to come during the day where they can get ID, social security cards, case managers,” Garcia said.
“If that’s a housing voucher, if it’s access to applications for permanent supportive housing or transitional housing, they’ll be able to find that there,” Hut said.
Critics worry people will have nowhere to sleep at night.
“The whole goal was that you’re off the street in a situation where we can connect you with the services you need to keep you off the street,” said City Council Member Michael Cathcart. “And this seems to me to be going in exactly the opposite direction.”
The city says there are vacant beds in other shelters. The hope is this center will connect people with open beds.
“We have lost a significant amount of beds over the last 18 months to two years in homeless services,” Garcia said. “So, taking these 30 beds offline will be impactful.”
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