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Moses Lake residents, businesses press council to close Open Doors sleep center, dispute city spending and impacts
Summary
Several residents and business representatives urged the city to shut down the Open Doors Sleep Center, provided a petition with 413 signatures and questioned the cost and community impacts; council and staff clarified that some payments are grant-funded and that county and city contributions have been discussed.
Moses Lake — At a packed citizen-comment period, business leaders and residents urged the city to close the Open Doors Sleep Center, submitted a letter with hundreds of signatures and criticized perceived public-safety and economic impacts downtown.
Debbie Doran Martinez, speaking on behalf of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce board of directors, told the council the chamber had gathered 349 wet signatures and an additional 64 online signatures, for a total of 413 signers "predominantly business owners and managers" asking the council to close the temporary facility. "We feel the city is spending far too much money on the sleep center with no progress being made," Martinez said.
Multiple speakers echoed those concerns. Alan Heroux and Robin Foti described public-safety and sanitation problems they attributed to people camping and drug use downtown; Dean Martinez and others urged the council to stop funding sleep-center programs and suggested transporting individuals out of town if they would not participate in services. Business owners described customers and employees avoiding downtown in the evenings.
Council member Lombardi said he had spoken with a county commissioner who estimated county contributions near $800,000 and that city expenses provided to him were "close to $300,000, not including the labor of the employees that are involved in it," noting combined public spending could exceed $1 million annually. City staff later clarified that line items presented at the meeting were paid from pass-through grant funds from Grant County.
During the consent/claims discussion Deputy Mayor Madewell read the bills tied to the city's homeless services fund (Fund 110), which showed $46,506.36 for the fund on the agenda summary. Council reviewed invoice line items on the claims list: Groundworks 3 LLC, $5,041.67 for sleep-center rental; HopeSource, $30,747.74 for homeless‑services work; Parker Corporate Services, $19,276.67 for security at the sleep center; and Ziggy's, $3,620.28 for rental of sheds. City staff confirmed some or all of those invoices are paid from grant money that the city routes through for local services.
Speakers representing service and recovery efforts also addressed the council. Joseph Moriarty described partnerships and plans to help people seeking detox and recovery, including arrangements with Grace House (Wenatchee), Lighthouse Ministries, Teen Challenge (Spokane) and New Hearts Ministry (Edmonds), and said he hoped to expand options if the sleep center closes so people can leave town with support. Moriarty and others described a marked recent rise in overdoses in the region and urged coordinated services for people who want treatment.
Mayor Schwartz said the council and city are hearing a wide range of perspectives and announced a study session and a special meeting focused on homelessness: a study session on Tuesday, April (time listed) at 6 p.m. and a special meeting Friday, April (time listed) at 11:30 a.m. The mayor asked stakeholders and other elected officials in the county to continue coordination. No vote to close the sleep center occurred at the meeting.
