Solomon's Porch sinks Hospitality House plans

June 12--WENATCHEE -- Hospitality House Ministries won't hire a mental health counselor to work with the homeless or open an overnight shelter for teens in large part because of the unexpectedly high cost of operating Solomon's Porch.

The organization notified the city of Wenatchee that it will not accept a $60,000 grant to hire a mental health professional. The money came from about $1 million in state and federal funds handed out locally each year to reduce homelessness.

The city is expected to reallocate the money tonight.

The anticipated expense of operating an overnight shelter at Solomon's Porch was greater than organization expected, said Hospitality House Director Kurt Betancourt. The organization took over the teen program last year.

In addition to the teen center burden, Hospitality House was also worried about inviting more mentally ill homeless people into its shelters but only providing a mental health counselor eight hours a day. He said it that would have placed too much pressure on the house supervisors overseeing shelter residents the other 16 hours a day.

Plans to open an eight-bed overnight shelter in the lower level of Solomon's Porch for homeless teens have been scrapped, he said. Hospitality House is now leaning toward housing single women or single mothers there.

Solomon's Porch, 17 S. Mission St., will continue to operate as a drop-in center for teens from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and serve dinner five nights a week at the facility.

Hospitality House had applied for $250,000 from the homeless grant program to get the teen overnight shelter up and running. It estimated the annual cost of running it as $375,000.

Under the previous owners, Solomon's Porch received grants and community donations to renovate part of its building for the overnight shelter.

Betancourt said the rules and requirements for offering overnight accommodations to youth are far greater than for adults, and is proving to be too costly.

Hospitality House Ministries also operates Christian-based homeless shelters for men, women and families in Wenatchee.

The city's homeless committee is recommending that some of the money previously earmarked for the mental health counselor be redistributed to the Chelan County Regional Justice Center's transitional housing program, Community Action Council's rental assistance program, and the Bruce Housing and HomeSafe programs operated by Women's Resource Center.

Reach Michelle McNiel at 509-664-7152 or mcniel@wenatcheeworld.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MichelMcNielWW.

___

(c)2014 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.)

Visit The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.) at www.wenatcheeworld.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services