House of Charity

Staff insist my name isn't on the list after the navigation center referred to the house of charity and they even did my intake. I was able to stay there the last two nights instead of the streets. The girl name Rae told me this morning my bed number wasn't the number. I said my name and was not listed on roll call this morning after the wake up call to exit the building. They let everybody in for breakfast and excluded me. Thanks to the early morning start. I really needed it.

I was not informed until 14 hours after entering the shelter that I could not possess my pipe for medicating with cannabis. I have replaced several man-made mental health & physical pain medications with cannabis to avoid the numerous debilitating side affects of those meds. Si now since the staff forced me to throw away my only means of medicating myself to increase my appetite, decrease chronic pain from 3 disc herniatuons, & help with my chronic PTSD, Depression & Anxiety. It is an antiquated unreasonable policy especially if I was being respectful by smoking it off the property, and not inside the shelter. Unless they hadn't seen my pipe which I pulled from my pocket during g the performative search they do, they would have never known I had it. And the fact that the baggage search is a useless performative act, if I had brought in a broken down shotgun, or handgun they would have never known. If youre going to have policy, be consistent, respectful, compassionate, & empathetic. The volunteers have let this power and control go to their heads. We in America have let the inmates run the asylum, punishing the many for the acts of a few. What happened to majority rule? What happened to mutual respect? Now I have no means to medicate die to their indifference and lack of foresight a d compassion. I also never agreed or was made aware of the "drug" policy when I was going thru the intake with Bill. I am exhausted from paying for the mistakes, inhuman treatment, and indifference to my suffering, by others. Theors been no regard for my medical and mental health conditions, or my 12 pound Chihuahuas safety either from staff. I al8have a lengthy list of various organizations that have dished out the same unacceptable treatment, that I am currently in process of holding them accountable. Charity House just added themselves to that list. I cannot tolerate unacceptable treatment of others nor myself. I will speak up when I witness this treatment. Staff/ volunteers need to check their attitudes, and lighten up a lot.

I was robbed of my vehicle wallet and all monetary support and showed up at Union Gospel mission at 5:00 a.m. because I needed to desperately change my socks and shoes but they turned me away when I was in pain. I'm so thankful for the House of Charity for helping me when I needed it the most

The atmosphere seem to be charged with a lot of negative energy and the building has a gated area that you must request entrance to in order to get in which is OK but the problem I had was, there were no clear signs indicating that if the gate was opened by another person that you cannot come in unless you wait for the attendant to come outside and open the gate for you, and when they finally did come outside to let you in the gate, they were really snappy at me for violating their unwritten rule. I’m sure it’s for the safety of the employees however they need to put out better signs. I felt like a little child being admonished by the big parent/overlord. The building seems to be ran like Fort Knox with impenetrable effectiveness to the outside world. I’m sure the staff that are there. Are there too help the vulnerable out of love, however, it felt like a military camp. If you volunteer to work here, you should be volunteering because you care and not out of obligation alone. If you work at a place and don’t like it, you should at least try to find a job that you do like and only volunteer when your heart is in the game. Otherwise, your volunteer service is not needed volunteering is a heart job you must have a heart for the people you’re serving in order to be of volunteer, that should be the necessity and not the obligation. On a lighter note the Free attorney service is amazing! Thank you to those attorneys who helped us out with our paperwork. You guys did a great job.

Decent shelter, good staff. Residents, however, on their last leg. Personally, I would recommend the Union Gospel Mission (UGM). Well, if you can pass a breathilizer and don't mind doing chores. I was new to Spokane, so I went to all the shelters while waiting on my apartment. I would rate HOC as the best "low-barrier" shelter in Spokane. Though I do not like "low-barrier" shelters. Because a lot of them, like Trent, are infested with drug addicts looking to rob someone. So they are decidedly UNSAFE! HOC, however, is safe. Just...don't go outside the gate after dark!