March 16, 2006

By LAURA CRUIKSHANK
Contributing Writer

In a small room within the St. Martin de Porres shelter sits an altar. The walls are adorned with small wooden crosses. Carved into each cross is the name of a homeless man who has passed away.

“ This is how we show respect and dignity to each human life who stays here,” says Bob Goetschius, director of St. Martin’s, which provides beds nightly to 212 men over age 50. “We know that no matter how nice we are to the people who stay here, or how well we run our shelter, it is still just a shelter.”

Spare already, the warehouse space west of Safeco Field may be less able to provide for these men come April 1, if the city doesn’t restore a $72,000 cut to the program.

In addition to St. Martin’s, Noel House, a shelter for women, and the Downtown Emergency Services Center may lose funding due to redistribution to other services — mostly transitional housing.

With a $56,000 cut, Noel House will close a 30-bed women’s shelter for two nights a week, says director Gillian Parke. Having lost $153,000, DESC will shut a 50-bed men’s shelter entirely.

The city’s Human Services Department will make additional funds available at the end of the month, with the goal, says staffer Alan Painter, to ensure that there’s no net loss in shelter beds. Their decision might prevent the three shelters from curbing their operations, or it might expand others in their place.

“ What happened as a result of the first [funding decisions, in December] is that people would lose beds, and I don’t think anyone realized that,” says Bill Block, director of the Committee to End Homelessness.

Fewer hours at St. Martin’s is a bleak prospect for Daniel Davis, a sometime guest who has been homeless off and on for the past seven years.

“ My friends feel the same way as I do,” says Davis. “We are scared. We will have no place to go on those nights.”

Davis says he suffers from chronic respiratory pulmonary disease and bipolar disorder. And his checkered past disqualifies him at many charities. “I have a criminal record and a history of drug abuse, so no matter what kind of person I am today, for me, there is no transitional or permanent housing.”

While the city beefed up funding for temporary apartments for the homeless, following the “housing-first” paradigm of the countywide 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, Goetschius says most men at his shelter have histories like Davis’.

“ There is no transitional housing for these folks,” he says.

Some housing programs offer a resource coordinator on site to help the former homeless find ways to sustain themselves and their housing, says Goetschius. While successful, these are too scarce, he says: “If someone is lucky enough to get into the two available housing sites for men over 55, the return is only 1 percent. Unfortunately the waiting list for this type of service is years out.”

Davis’ monthly Social Security check is about $500. He stays in a motel at the beginning of the month, but when his money runs out he is back on the streets. In contrast to the housing programs, St. Martin’s is an easy place to get into, he says.

“ In order to get help what do I say: I am bipolar, have asthma and am homeless?” he asks. “At St. Martin’s it’s okay because I can talk with people who are supportive and treat me with kindness.” n