Up-Close at House of Charity

A historical look at HOC's impact, by Mary Joan Hahn

Every evening, more than 100 individuals seek the safety and security of Catholic Charities Eastern Washington’s House of Charity (HOC) in downtown Spokane. Patrons are men experiencing homelessness and often suffer from co-occurring disorders. Issues such as childhood trauma, addiction, the loss of family or work, untreated medical conditions, or tough personal circumstances they cannot yet resolve prove as understandable barriers to successfully becoming housed. The low-barrier shelter supports the body, mind and spirit of these individuals.

It’s a far cry from when HOC began operations in 1958 at 526 North Washington, serving meals to indigent men. HOC was relocated for Expo ’74 to 35 West Trent, and then moved to 9 West Main Avenue the following year. In 2000, a newly built facility opened at 32 West Pacific, HOC’s current site. 

Today, three meals a day are served along with supports focused not only on basic needs – hot showers, laundry, personal care items, mail services, computer/telephone access – but also on the essential care coordination assistance that helps drive recovery and independence. 

Individualized case management and legal assistance, peer support, and behavioral health programs are in place to provide stabilizing services to clients. Patrons are not required to attend chapel services, but many participate in voluntary Bible studies and prayer groups offered on site by volunteers.

“The misconception is that we are serving and enabling a bunch of drug addicts and criminals,” explains Dena Carr, HOC Director. “The reality is we are supporting whole-person care for a very vulnerable population, and we offer vital supports to help people become independent, contributing members of our community.”

As a low-barrier shelter, no drugs or alcohol are allowed onsite. The safety and security of all – patrons, staff, visitors – is paramount, with a goal of providing trauma-informed, dignified, respectful services that encourage health and wholeness for everyone, Carr explains.

“We’ve always been a mission-driven program,” she says. “All of our efforts work to support the dignity of every person we serve.”

“The reality is that we are dealing with very complex social problems that we all – as a community – are trying understand, navigate and address,” she continues. “And the unfortunate reality is there is not a one-size-fits-all that will magically make the challenge of homelessness and all of its perceived trappings go away. You have to try options to find the right fit – people need freedom to choose, they need support, they need somebody to walk alongside them in a way that conveys ‘we are in this together.’”

Sharon Stadelman, Chief Operating Officer for CCEW underscores the importance of HOC’s work: “House of Charity isn’t just a hot meal and a place to sleep. It’s a person-centered approach to helping individuals experiencing homelessness, engaging them and tailoring services that can help them change paths. Folks living on the street are our most vulnerable, with significant, entrenched behavioral challenges and real traumas that have led to distrust with systems of care. Supporting our clients requires skillfulness, empathy and flexibility, and our staff do excellent work.”

“We opened as one thing in 1958, then morphed and transformed as needed,” Stadelman continues. “We are called to recognize trauma, connect people with coaches and the services that can help them, and so, for many individuals, House of Charity becomes a touchstone, a center for healing and recovery, a sacred place.”

Targeted Behavioral Health Supports and Partnerships

“Substance use and mental health concerns are at the top of many people’s list when they think of homelessness.” notes Carr. This perception of need makes sense as the vast majority of those we serve are managing co-occurring disorders—a combination of substance use and behavioral health challenges that can be tricky to support. Resources to treat co-occurring disorder are limited, so building trust and connection with patrons while providing on-site services are essential for folks who need support to find a path to health and wholeness. 

This is why HOC has partnered with CHAS Health for the past year, hosting a substance use disorder professional in the shelter, providing individualized care plans and ongoing supports for those working towards sobriety. Lessons learned from the pilot will help focus the work of a full-time behavioral health specialist to address the multitude a challenges people are navigating to achieve health and wholeness.

House of Charity also hosts White Bison, a 12-step ‘wellbriety’ program offered through a Native American lens that is open to anyone interested. Led by a Native American elder three times per week, participants work through a sobriety-focused curriculum while also taking time to talk through and support needs shared by individuals in the group.

Peer support staff (those who have worked through many of the same challenges our patrons face) play an essential role of accompaniment in HOC’s program, working directly with clients who are interested in recovery options as well as other life goals. These staff members receive enhanced training on substance abuse issues including how to offer support and encourage clients to develop the personal goals that will help focus them out of addiction.

Staff can also connect patrons with other vital services in the community – including medical support options such as suboxone treatment or other medically supported therapies. Located just across the street, Camas Health operates a mobile clinic that provides this treatment and support as well as transportation to other critical services.

More than anything, House of Charity is committed to developing trust and relationship. No one finds recovery alone. Patrons are invited – and encouraged – to join on-site, staff-led clubs that provide engagement activities such as gardening, music appreciation, ping pong, art, chess, and bingo. These shared activities support overall spiritual well-being – providing the opportunity for the engagement essential for folks to participate in healthy community.

“This approach allows us a chance to get to know people in organic ways. Through genuine connection, we can focus on the physical and emotional well-being of each person while building trust and developing an authentic relationship in order to walk through recovery together,” Carr shares.

Meals

Just as the kitchen is the heart of the home, HOC’s kitchen is a hive of activity, where three employees and several dedicated volunteers work together to prepare three meals a day.  

Carr explains: “Every day is like a version of (the TV show) ‘Chopped’. Our staff and volunteers seldom know what they’ll have to work with until the food arrives…then they come up with something delicious and nutritious to serve 150 people each day!”

Food Rescue is a collaborative effort by Northwest Harvest, Second Harvest, and volunteers, which starts early in the morning as vans visit bakeries, eateries and grocery stores across town to collect reuseable foods. [Not leftovers per se, but day-old bakery items, close-to-expiration-date goods and items inappropriate for a retail purchase.] Everything is brought to HOC, weighed, measured, and reorganized before the kitchen is replenished and the vans continue delivering the food to distribution sites and service kitchens throughout the community.

When leveraged with other community partners, it’s a system with impact. Not only does it reduce food waste, it supports fiscal responsibility as well. HOC served 140,000 nutritious, well-rounded meals in 2024 with a purchasing budget of only $15,000.

Residential Client (RC) Program

This volunteer workforce development program gives clients the opportunity to develop practical skills and experience. ‘In-the-building’ opportunities include assistance with cleaning, laundry, inventories and kitchen work. Participants who enroll in the RC program earn expanded privileges, such as a dedicated bed space, expanded curfew hours and access to laptops and other vital job search tools.  

The RC Program also includes case management services to help patrons work toward their specific goals, including resume building, educational classes (including anger management), GED completion and more. Participants get to enjoy trips to museums, baseball games and other activities. This creates a sense of shared responsibility, practicing what it means to be part of a community in a healthy way through engagement in normalized experiences and social inclusion activities.

“There’s lots of barriers to life, and shame (for our clients),” Stadelman explains. “To be given an opportunity to just be as they are and engage in work activities - that helps them feel valued. The RC Program has always been an incentive for folks to engage and help out in the facility, but now it’s doing a much more structured job- and skill-building, coaching-and-support program that really can lead to that next part-time or full-time employment outside of the House security.”

Health Care Partners

Those staying at House of Charity often have many underlying health issues that have not been addressed. The stability shelter provides allows these issues to be treated. HOC also partners with CHAS Health for medical services, including hosting regular Street Medicine visits for such things as wound care or minor physical therapy. CHAS co-locates both a community health worker and a Substance Use Disorder professional to meet the unique needs of those we serve. A long-standing collaboration with the Spokane Regional Health District focuses on vaccinations and lessening health threats through preventive measures.

WSU nursing students visit regularly as part of their practicum experience, providing support such as easy-to-understand health education, including customized posters on such topics as foot care, personal hygiene and healthy snacks that meet individual dietary concerns.

Transitional Respite Care

HOC launched a pilot respite program in 2008 with Providence, one of the first in Washington state, to provide those experiencing homelessness and suffering acute illness or injuries a safe, supportive environment for rest and recovery. Today, the partnerships have grown and the program expanded, offering 27 beds for respite care. Clients typically stay 2 weeks or longer depending on their illness.  

“Respite becomes an entry opportunity for many to tap HOC services,” Carr explains. “When the body relaxes, other needs surface and unique goals can emerge. For some, it brings back trauma experienced previously; for others, it provides time for reflection that helps individuals re-focus on goals and hope. It opens doors to create a plan to begin thinking about healthy choices and pathways forward.” The overall goal is to reduce recidivism, preventing additional hospital visits, and to help clients learn to care for themselves while working towards permanent housing.

With demand for respite care growing, from chronic conditions including dementia and related diseases, the HOC team continues to explore best options for partnering with appropriate resources and partners across the city.

Our respite program is nationally recognized, and is one of 14 programs nationwide certified by the National Institute for Medical Respite Care. This is a stringent certification process that aligns services with fidelity standards that guide respite care in the

Moving forward together

Stadelman sees promise and opportunity with greater awareness and understanding.

“For me, the most important thing is helping folks realize the complexity of what is happening,” she shares. “There is no ‘simple solution’ to homelessness; it is incredibly complicated. But coming together as a community will help us realize we are all a piece of this puzzle and we can share in the responsibility to address it together. Whether it’s empathy, or volunteering, or donating – there’s a role for everyone. And if we focus on understanding and a spirit of solution - versus blaming others - we can try new things and find out what works. When we do even a little bit to move the needle on the problem, we will see new opportunities and pathways to move forward, not with a band-aid, but as a long-term solution.”