For months, uncertainty swelled about the future of the TRAC shelter as the contract with the current operator and service provider inched closer and closer to a December 31 expiration date. At a special City Council session today — with the rest of the Council meetings for the year canceled and no time to spare — council members unanimously approved a $3.7 million contract extension with the Salvation Army, the current service provider, and a $200,000 contract with Revive Counseling to guarantee operations and wraparound services at least through the end of April.
While council closed the book on this saga for now, ensuring that the 350-400 unhoused people who use the shelter on a nightly basis aren’t forced out into the cold come January 1, the approved contract extension had a stipulation written in that would allow the city to cancel the contract at any time.
This could mean the city council circles back around to the question of who should operate TRAC early next year under a new administration, after the current administration canceled a Request for Proposals the council hoped would find a cheaper alternative to the Salvation Army.
“This is still complicated, it has not been solved,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said in the meeting. “This is a bandaid until we get more data and how we move forward and how we fund it. But we do not want anyone on the streets.”
Beyond issues with the increasingly large cost of keeping the Salvation Army on as the operator (if the city stays with them through the end of April, they will have paid the organization over $12.8 million since they took over shelter operations in Nov. 2022), there have also been complaints about a lack of oversight, inhospitable living conditions and widespread communicable diseases, including most recently, an outbreak of Shigella.
