06. Samaritan House Expansion RequestAgenda -March 3, 1997
Samaritan House has requested the City assistance in
expanding the homeless shelter on 2nd Street and 8th
Avenue. The total project will be accomplished in three
phases resulting in a total of 97 beds. In Phase One
Samaritan House proposes to construct a 32 x 100, two-
story, structure containing 21 rooms with 35 beds.
Samaritan House is in the process of drafting a CDBG
Block Grant Application for $400,000 and is requesting
City assistance in matching money of $100,000. Community
Development, Housing Division, has budgeted $100,000 for
this year in low income housing. The Grant application
requires a 2516 match and must be completed by May.
Housing Division staff time will be limited on the Phase
One application because of prior commitments. It is
anticipated that Samaritan House representatives will be
at the Council Meeting to answer any questions or explain
the project. A Motion authorizing City participation in
and pledging matching funds to the Samaritan House
expansion will be needed to allow the project to
continue.
interoff ice
to: Clarence Krepps, City Manager
from: Susan Moyer
Planning, Economic and Community Development
subject: Expansion of Samaritan House
date: January 23, 1997
Samaritan House, the only homeless shelter in Flathead Valley, is anxious to expand
their facilities, They intend to do so in a three-phase manner which will provide them
with a new shelter, new transitional rental units and remodeling of their existing
facility to provide permanent, very low income rentals to generate revenue to support
the shelter.
The Steering Committee wishes to make a presentation to City Council to request
assistance through grant applications, staff time and the initial match dollars need for
a May Public Facilities CDBG grant application. They would like to address the
Council at the February 24th workshop and receive Council approval at the regular
session on March 3, 1997.
c:\affdhsg\samarhse\1 council
INTRODUCTION
Following is a summary of the proposed Samaritan House remodeling and construction
project. The summary includes a description of a three phase construction project and the proposed
funding strategy. It also encompasses our mission statement, care philosophy and the benefits
Samaritan House brings to the entire community. Finally, it proposes a viable business plan that
addresses the increased maintenance and operations cost of a larger facility. It also addresses the
projected need for a paid staff at some future date.
CONSTRUCTION AND FUNDING STRATEGY
Phase One will be a brand new structure parallel to our existing building. The proposed two
story wood frame structure measures 32 x 100 for a total of 6400 square feet. The main floor and
second floor will give us 21 new rooms for a total of 35 new beds. Besides sleeping quarters the new
building will also house a new kitchen and a dining/classroom area and much needed storage.
In Phase Two we envision the construction of a two story connector building or concourse
which will connect the Phase One structure to our existing building. Phase Two will involve
retrofitting the existing building to accommodate the new concourse. The concourse will contain a
chapel/classroom area and office space, managers apartment, laundry facilities, lounge/classroom and
storage. The second floor of the concourse will be comprised of single room occupancy units, family
housing or transitional housing.
Paramount to both Phase One and Phase Two construction will be our design concept, which
we believe to be state of the art, in the design of homeless shelters. The majority of our shelter space
will facilitate housing single males or females, shelter family groups, or convert to transitional
housing. This will be accomplished by the use of accordion walls and lockable connecting doors.
We believe that this design flexibility will enable us to serve all the demographic groups of the
homeless and at the same time address the current demographic trend which is shifting away from
mostly single men toward women, women with children, and couples with children. The total
proposed beds in Phase Two will be 14.
In Phase Three we plan to rehabilitate our existing building into a structure that will also have
the design flexibility to function as both shelter and space and transitional housing, and acquire and
rehabilitate eight existing rental units that are immediately across the street from Samaritan House
that are now under the jurisdiction of Northwest Montana Human Resources.
Currently we have 32 beds in our existing building. The acquisition of these rentals would
give us 16 additional beds for a total of 97 beds when all three phases are complete.
I reiterate that the unique design concept is critical to maximize utilization of our building.
When complete, Samaritan House will house singles, singles with children, couples, couples with
children, and also provide low cost transitional housing. Our two classroom areas will double as a
dining room and chapel. This flexibility will enable us to serve Kalispell in the most efficient and
beneficial manner. No longer will be have to turn away homeless because our facility does not meet
their particular needs.
The facility will be modern and cost-effective but neither lavish nor wasteful. It will meet all
local, state and national codes and will meet current ADA requirements.
We will use the Critical Path Method of scheduling that will enable us to start any phase of
construction at any given time. In other words, Phase Two may start before Phase One or after Phase
Three. This will give us a "Plan B" or fall back position if any monies are not available on schedule.
The only contingency we see with this plan is that in Phase Three the building which we would like
to acquire must be vacant. At this time we are not aware of any funds that are available to offset
relocation costs.
FUNDING STRATEGY
In order to arrive at a viable funding strategy we first weighed the needs of the shelter and the
needs of the community. We also looked at different avenues of funding sources, and examined their
restrictions and requirements. The final result was a funding strategy that embraces funding from the
grant arena and also donations from the private sector.
Phase One will utilize mostly monies from the grant sector. Both CDBG and HOME grants
will reimburse funds for architectural services for the Community Development Block Grants
(CDBG) within a two year time frame prior to the grant application. Currently private and corporate
donations have been used and continue to be sought to cover the costs of architecture and
engineering. To date Ostein Boveng has donated his time and miscellaneous costs to produce several
preliminary drafts. A local construction management corporation has agreed to donate both its time
and miscellaneous costs over the next three years in putting the project together and supervising
construction. Everit Sliter of Jordahl and Sliter has agreed to provide accounting, including writing
checks to cover expenses, monitoring funds and writing expense reports. Rick Goacher of Goacher
and Associates has agreed to donate his surveying services. Bruce Measure of the Law Offices of
Ambrose G. Measure, who is also a member of our board continues to donate legal services. Steve
Van Heldon of Glacier Bank has opened two construction accounts for us at favorable rates.
Once we receive the city's blessing in the form of a promise of financial and staff support, we
will initiate a Request for Proposals advertising for architectural services, seeking to hire an
architectural firm that will take this project from the preliminary planning stage to final drawings. We
will hire an architectural firm and all services in a manner that satisfies all our funding sources. If the
city of Kalispell agrees to provide the matching dollars required for the CDBG application these funds
could be utilized to finance the cost of architectural services. A steering committee including, but not
limited to, Sister June Kenny, Ostein Boveng and Craig Kerzman of the city building department has
already formed to coordinate and conduct this phase.
Phase One will also require the services of a good grantsman to write the CDBG Public
Facilities Grant. Rand Kennedy has been contacted and initially engaged if we provide all the needed
local planning contacts, surveys, and general leg work. A well conducted public hearing process
would require two meetings in Kalispell and one each in Bigfork, Columbia Falls, and Whitefish
between now and April.
If the city of Kalispell agrees to come on board, we would ask that Susan Moyer, Kalispell's
Housing Manager, be available to write the HOME grant application. Additional public meetings
would need to be held this summer for that application. Until we have final drawings and determine
the actual number of units or beds has been determined, it is difficult to project the exact amount of
grant dollars that are necessary and available. However, below is a list of grant funds provided by
Susan Moyer as they might be applied to Phase One.
Phase I - Construction of the new shelter
AHP Grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank
CDBG Grant
City's Matching Contribution
$ 3,800.00 per bed created( $133,00.00)
$400,000.00
$100,000.00
Under CDBG regulations, the shelter can include the kitchen, common room Iaundry facility,
and bathroom facilities. The more beds created in the shelter the more dollars become available
through the Affordable Housing Program (AHP). At the same time that the grant process is taking
place we will begin soliciting monies via private donations. To date we have accrued over
$38,000.00 earmarked for the building fund. Our goal is to reach $250,000.00 before the conclusion
of Phase Two.
Phase Two is the construction of a two story concourse connecting the new structure and our
existing building. The main floor or any portion of the concourse which houses non-residential rooms
will have to be funded through Samaritan House resources. If the entire second floor is transitional,
SRO rental units and any portion of the first floor contains SRO transitional rental units, we would
seek HOME funds to cover construction costs of a pro rata share and retrofit and rehabilitation costs
to the current structure. The cost of retrofitting the connector building into the existing shelter can
also come from a HOME grant. This would require a 12 '/s% match which can be provided by AHP
grant funds and /or Samaritan House private funding sources. Possible funding sources then could
be:
HOME Grant Funds - up to $400,000.00
AHP Grant Funds $ 3,800.00 per transitional unit
Phase Three will be the acquisition and remodeling of the 8 units across the street. Phase
Three funding will also pay for the general remodeling of our existing building. Possible funding
sources would be:
CDBG Housing Grant - 8 units (Permanent rentals) $400,000.00
AHP Grant $ 30,000.00
AHP Grant - Existing Units (existing apartments) $ 3,500.00 per unit
HOME Grant for rehab needs - permanent/transitional mix $210,000.00 ($10,000.00 per unit
estimate)
Once again the possible grant dollar amounts have been provided by Susan Moyer. We would
respectfully request the city provide Susan's assistance to write the grants for Phases Two and Three.
In wading through the grant application process we will endeavor to take the long view and
look for long term solutions, while at the same time maintaining maximum flexibility in both our
funding and building strategy. With this philosophy we will solicit grants for all three phases
simultaneously, to demonstrate that this is not a Band-Aid fix but a well thought out, long term
solution to an on going problem. Once all three phases are complete, we will function as an
indepdent entity, serving the needs of the community. Lastly, we will be no longer dependent upon
private donations as a means of support but will be a viable self-sustaining shelter.
Care Philosophy
Our care philosophy is simple: to provide for those who have no place else to stay. The rules
are simple: no drinking, drugs, or weapons, and the client must not be able to afford to stay anyplace
else. However, helping people overcome their situation of homelessness requires more than
warehousing warm bodies. Samaritan House provides a place to feel safe, to regroup and start over,
to rebuild dignity and self esteem and to realize a dream of self sufficiency in main stream society.
Presently, Samaritan House assists in that transition by first providing shelter, then nudging people
in to the work place. Once they have gained employment we provide real low income housing
starting at $250.00 per month. Along the way we provide meals, basic necessities of hygiene,
personal, drug and alcohol counseling.
Our new facility will allow increased services and subsequently our ability to move people
back into the mainstream will skyrocket. We intend to utilize all the pertinent social services
presently in place. Where there are gaps in those services we intend to fill in with our own volunteer
staff. Currently, we either have relationships or commitments for future services from the following
people and organizations:
Human Resources Development Council
Meals on Wheels
Flathead Valley Community College
Northwest Montana Human Resources
Flathead Food Bank
Mental Health Center
United Way
Literacy Volunteers
Flathead Health Department
Nuturing Center
Summit Indepdent Living Center
Special Friends Advocacy Program
Alcoholics Anonymous
Salvation Army
Eagle Transit
Office of Human Services
IZ���atilj�
It is the policy of Samaritan House that it's services be rendered in as personal way as
possible; that respect for the individual person and his dignity be of primary concern; that every
person is considered to be worthy and valuable as a human being regardless of his race, religion,
beliefs, social status, physical appearance or arty handicap. Consequently every person should be met
with concern, a presumption of trustworthiness, and a respectful attitude by the staff.
To involve all parties in the community regardless of faith, in an effort to demonstrate that
people do care, and to recognize that the unfortunate are often powerless to help themselves.
To coordinate with all other social agencies. It is important when dealing with people's
problems to establish positive contacts with other programs established in the community.
To extend to our fellow man love and concern in his hour of need, so that each may know
what we truly are brothers and sisters regardless of race, color, or creed.
This example for Shelter Care Only
INITIAL INTERVIEW AND CHECK IN FORM
NAME
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (OPTIONAL)
DATE OF BIRTH
NAME OF SPOUSE
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (OPTIONAL)
DATE OF BIRTH
NUMBER OF CHILDREN
SOURCE OF INCOME `
CITY AND STATE OF LAST ADDRESS
DESTINATION
YEAR AND MAKE OF AUTO
LICENSE NO. COLOR
WAS YOUR LAST YEAR'S INCOME ABOVE OR UNDER $10,000.00
REFERRED BY
We are not responsible for loss ofpersonal items. Please keep money and medication on your person
Do not leave these things laying around the apartment.
SIGNED DATE
The Samaritan House offers several services and programs which are intended to help you improve
your situation in life, we expect you to take advantage of as many as possible.
Residents must be out of Samaritan House at 9:00 a.m. to look for employment.