Moses Lake council approves homeless plan

Key points: 

Council members approved a plan to address homelessness after closure of the Open Doors Sleep Center this coming Monday.  

City will keep buildings for at least 60 days to see if local organizations can use them.  

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake city officials will delay getting rid of buildings used at, or destined for, the now-closing Open Doors Sleep Center. Moses Lake City Council member David Skaug suggested looking for a local recipient first during a discussion on closing the sleep center at the regular council meeting Tuesday. 

“I don’t have a problem with the sleep center as we know it closing. When that closes, that will create a situation. I have talked to a number of people with different thoughts and ideas on how to deal with that,” Skaug said. “I think there are a number of people I’ve talked to who have some great ideas about what could be done on another facility. I don’t think the city should run the facility. But I would not want to see some assets that we have right now gotten rid of without some more discussions about (the) possibilities of having other entities manage and run some sort of facility where people can get their feet on the ground.”  

Skaug said he wanted to delay any decision on declaring those buildings surplus while city officials looked for possible in-town recipients. Council members agreed to delay any action for at least 60 days. 

Council member Deanna Martinez said she would prefer to take a little more time, given the decision to close the sleep center was made in mid-April. 

“All of this has been moving very quickly, and I think there are parts that we can slow down on, and this would be one of them. Council is asking the community to help with this issue of homelessness,” she said. 

Martinez said some services, inpatient rehabilitation and mental health being examples, aren’t available in Grant County. Some people, however, have difficulty finding permanent housing, she said, and it’s essential to help them to the extent possible. 

“Those are the people I’m trying to make sure don’t fall through the cracks,” she said. 

Skaug said he was concerned that immediate surplus would limit the chance of local organizations acquiring the buildings. 

“Somebody is going to have to deal with it — the whole housing (issue),” he said. “I don’t think it should be the city, but just because we don’t do it doesn’t mean it goes away.” 

Moses Lake Mayor Dustin Swartz said he wasn’t opposed to a delay, but it would take time for someone else to set up a facility.  

“Based on what I’m seeing thus far, I don’t hold out much hope that there’s an entity that can get everything together in a reasonable amount of time to actually take them and use them in our community,” he said. 

Related to the issue of homelessness, council members will consider updates to city ordinances governing camping and public rights of way at the July 14 meeting. City officials will also be looking for a contractor to provide people with information about and help them get access to treatment on a 24/7 basis.  

The grant that funded the sleep center didn’t match what Moses Lake residents were looking for, Swartz said, and, in his opinion, a private agency is better suited to the job. 

“You do need a private entity to do this, but which one is it?” he said. “There hasn’t been one identified in our community yet that’s willing to take this on or has the resources to do it.”