SPOKANE, Wash. — The City of Spokane is moving forward with the plan to replace its largest shelter with multiple smaller shelters around the city.
The Trent Resource and Assistance Center near Trent Avenue and Havana Street, which has nearly 300 beds for those experiencing homelessness, is slated to close this fall.
In its absence, the city plans to establish five to eight scattered shelter sites that will each provide resources and care for 20-30 people.
Doug Trudeau, Neighborhood Council Chair for East Central, supports the plan. A few years ago, his neighborhood was the site of a large homeless encampment called Camp Hope.
“We have been home to a lot of that concentration and some of that has not done well in certain areas of our neighborhood, so we think having it not all concentrated to one area is a better approach for all neighborhoods in a city as a whole,” said Trudeau.
The new scattered shelter model includes a housing navigation center, which acts as an entry point to assess the needs of every individual before selecting the most appropriate placement option for them.