Dinner service expands at Samaritan House

Starting Thursday, Samaritan House’s administrative center officially is open for dinner.

The homeless shelter will start serving meals at 6 p.m. nightly at the former U.S. Army Reserve Center, 1110 Second St. W. in Kalispell, across from Peterson School. The administrative center’s large dining area will allow Samaritan House to serve more suppers than ever before.

The cafeteria in the shelter at 124 Ninth Ave. W. comfortably fit 20 to 24 people; several more often crammed in. The newly opened dining hall can seat up to 150 people, said Chris Krager, Samaritan House’s executive director.

The hall has well-spaced tables and chairs and a cheerful paint job, all designed to create a comfortable dining experience.

“If I’m going to be the Good Samaritan and provide for people in need, I want to do it right. I don’t want to shove them in a place that’s way too small,” Krager said. “I want a place where you feel like you want to hang out and visit.”

Moving dinner to the administrative center is the latest step in the shelter’s expansion.

Since moving into the former Reserve center in July 2009, Samaritan House has sought to increase its ability to serve the Flathead Valley’s growing homeless population.

Samaritan House serves about 1,600 people annually, about 1,100 of those in its shelter on Ninth Avenue.

The number of shelter stays has remained fairly consistent since 2003, Krager said, but every year, more people are in need of a place to stay. In 2003, the shelter turned away 183 people. Last year, it turned away 803.

Even with the increased need, Samaritan House didn’t rush into opening the administrative center to homeless services.

The shelter went through two conditional-use permit processes, Krager said.

The first allowed Samaritan House to move its administrative offices to the former Army Reserve Center. The second, which the Kalispell City Council approved in May, opened up the administrative building to food services.

“We took it especially slow. We want to work with our neighbors,” Krager said.

Those neighbors have helped the nonprofit throughout its move into the administrative center, he said.

“They’ve been good, really good,” Krager said. “It’s not just Samaritan House doing it. It’s really the community.”

Churches and youth groups have pitched in with projects throughout the building. A $9,800 Roundup for Safety grant from Flathead Electric Cooperative paid for upgrades to the fire alarm and emergency lighting systems. Federal stimulus dollars helped pay for tables and chairs in the dining hall.

Samaritan House residents have chipped in, too.

One man is taking care of the administrative center’s lawn. Another, a painter, oversaw the project when a youth group volunteered to paint the center’s hallway last week. A resident who also is a chef was busy marinating lamb chops for dinner Tuesday.

“People in the shelter have been amazing,” Krager said.

Samaritan House also has been able to secure academic help for residents of all ages.

During the school year, a classroom in the center is set aside for children staying at Samaritan House who attend Peterson School. Barb Peterson, a retired Peterson teacher, tutors those students and helps them with their homework, providing some academic stability to children whose lives are chaotic.

Across the hall is a room set aside for adults to do homework. Samaritan House coordinates with Literacy Volunteers of Flathead County to offer an entire GED curriculum on video. Those who need extra help can work with a Literacy Volunteer in person.

Krager is hopeful that room soon also will contain a telemedical machine, a webcam that would allow Flathead veterans to connect face-to-face with doctors at the VA hospital in Helena via a secure Internet connection.

Typically such machines cost tens of thousands of dollars, but Krager says Cisco in Spokane will sell one to Samaritan House for $9,000 if the organization can come up with the money.

Ultimately, Krager hopes the administrative center will house its own dental and medical clinics.

One thing not in the center’s future is more beds — those will be at the main shelter.

“Parents in the school were worried about beds,” Krager said.

Even without allowing people to sleep in the administrative center, having the second building has allowed Samaritan House to add another 11 beds to its shelter, about a 20 percent increase, Krager said.

“That’s a pretty good bump for the shelter,” he said.

That bump hasn’t been enough to meet the need, however.

“They were full the day we made them,” Krager said of the new beds. “Every bed is full every night.”

Krager estimates the Flathead’s homeless population to be around 488 people every January, when the annual Montana Homeless Survey is taken. That number doubles or triples in the summer, he said.

“Samaritan House is about 15 to 18 percent of what is needed to address homelessness” in the valley, Krager said. “The homelessness issue got bigger than we are.”

His hope is that moving the kitchen to the administration center ultimately will open up even more beds in the shelter.

“As we get a routine established — it’s going to be a big, messy transition — we’ll add probably a dozen more” beds, Krager said.

That step is maybe a year away, he added. Adding those beds will involve closing the kitchen at the shelter entirely. “It’s like the point of no return,” he said.

But if they add beds, the shelter will be able to give more people a safe place to sleep and turn away fewer people in need.

“If I’m the guy working to address homelessness, we have to always be growing,” Krager said.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by email at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.