ISSUE 115
NEWSLETTER
MAY 2021
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WITH COLDWELL BANKER TOMLINSON
Family Promise of Spokane – A springboard to self-reliance Contributed by Craig Howard, Family Promise of Spokane
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magine showing up at the doorstep of a 24/7 emergency shelter with everything you owned stuffed into four suitcases. At your side are your kids, sad and bewildered. The secure world you once knew is gone. Everything now seems dark and desperate. Then picture the door opening and a warm, smiling face greeting you. The woman inside has gone through the same experience just a few years before. She knows the despair. She also knows hope is just around the corner. A hot meal is ready within minutes. Extra clothes are piled nearby. Words of encouragement and support surround you. It all feels strangely familiar, the layers of reassurance and compassion. People are listening when you talk. They seem to understand and care. “Don’t worry,” the woman says. “It’s going to be alright. You’re safe here.”
It feels like family. Since 1997, Family Promise of Spokane (FPS) has been supplying some of our community’s most vulnerable families with a proven pathway to stability. Only 6 percent of the families served by FPS return to homelessness. “We are focusing on the hidden homeless,” said FPS Executive Director Joe Ader. “It’s probably what most people don’t think about when they picture homelessness. These families are living out of their cars, in motels or staying temporarily with family or friends – but the impact of them not having a permanent home is real.” The Family Promise approach centers around three pillars – Prevent, Provide and Prepare. The organization works to prevent homelessness through rental assistance and financial coaching while working with corporate partners like Avista to identify families that may be at risk of homelessness. ...continued on next page
“Family Promise of Spokane,” continued... The Provide pillar involves two 24/7, low-barrier, walk-in emergency shelters – one at the corner of Mission and Napa in Spokane and the other in the Perry District on Hartson. Food, showers, laundry, kitchenettes and food storage are included at each site. Families are always kept together right down to the family dog or cat. Case management is also a key component, as families are connected to a variety of resources in areas like mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, employment, food security, education and more. “When they show up at our shelter, they’ve run out of community,” Ader said. “We’re trying to restore that.” Finally, FPS prepares families for life on their own through life skills training and two years of case management after exiting the shelter. Michael and Hailey came to the Open Doors shelter in 2019 with their three kids after a housing opportunity fell through. “I wasn’t sure about the shelter at first,” Michael said. “But after a while it felt like a giant family.” For Michael, being able to rely on FPS for temporary housing and count on something as basic as taking a shower to get ready for work were pivotal.
“It kept us off the street,” he said. “Family Promise gave us the opportunity to transition into something better but they also helped us connect us with programs like Rapid Rehousing and Section 8. We were able to get into permanent housing because it was clear that I was working hard and actually trying for my family. Being at Family Promise helped me for life.” For more information about Family Promise of Spokane, call Development Manager Craig Howard at 509-768-3083 or visit www.familypromiseofspokane.org.
Ingredients 2 small zucchini, cut in 1/8-inch slices 1 small onion, chopped 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 pound smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch slices 1 can (15-1/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
HOME RECIPES
Zucchini and Kielbasa For a skillet supper that's hearty enough to satisfy the biggest appetites in your house.
In a large skillet, saute the zucchini, onion and green pepper in oil until crisp-tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients; cook until heated through.
Spring Cleaning for Home Sellers
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et’s be honest. For many of us, Springtime is the only time of year we take the time to complete a lot of mundane cleaning tasks. Ordinarily, that may be limited to cleaning the top of your baseboards, or going through your kid’s clothes, or even organizing closets. But suppose this year is different. Suppose this year, you are selling your home! So, what should be on your list to better prepare your home for the showing process? The blog post below breaks this process down into a few simple areas: A. Outdated electronics B. Clothes that don’t fit C. Plastic-ware D. Expired food and medications E. Expired makeup and toiletries We all have a drawer somewhere full of old phones, cables, smart tablets, fit bits, etc. Why are we keeping those? If its expired, throw it away. Makeup, toiletries, medicine - all have expiration dates; so anything you used last summer, check it and toss it!
In preparing a home to show prospective buyers, here is a good rule of thumb: If you won’t need something in the next 3-6 months, pack it up and store it out of sight. Here are a few other steps in helping your home show as well as possible. First, disassociate from your house; this makes every succeeding step easier. Then, depersonalize your house; organize closets and cabinets; consider renting a storage unit; remove or replace favorite items; make minor repairs; make the house sparkle; enhance curb appeal. So now your spring cleaning just grew exponentially, right? Why not consider using a cleaning agency, so that you can spend time going through all that outdated makeup and packing up your precious family treasures? You can ask your neighborhood group or Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Real Estate Agent for recommendations of local businesses that can help. For more tips: cbspokane.com/blog thebalance.com/how-to-prepare-your-house-for-sale-1799018
Coldwell Banker Tomlinson 4102 S Regal St, Suite 201 Spokane, WA 99223
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ISSUE 115 | MAY 2021 ©2021 Coldwell Banker Tomlinson. All rights reserved. Each office is independently owned and operated. If you currently have an Agent assisting you with the purchase or sale of property, this is not a solicitation for business.
SPOKANE REAL ESTATE MARKET STATISTICS – Market update APRIL 2021 snapshot
The old cliché, “Statistics can be deceiving” has never been more true than now, as we look at the report of activity in the Spokane Multiple Listing Service that compares last month’s numbers with those from the same month of 2020. At first, it appears that today’s market is not merely hot, which we all know it is, but scorching, scalding, incendiary! Imagine: an increase of 20% in sales, and nearly 30% in the average sale price! Bear in mind that figures kept over the decades since World War I show an average yearly appreciation of 5%, not 30%!
Average Sales Price
Current Listing Inventory
Average Days On Market
$395,046
229
7
Up 30.1%
Down 71.1%
Down 53.3%
Median Sales Price
Closed Sales
Annual Residential Sales
$356,500
558
2,059
Up 23%
Up 9.2%
Up 1.6%
April 2021, as compared to April 2020. The information in this report is compiled from a report given by the Spokane Association of REALTORS® and to the best of our knowledge is accurate and current.
But hold on; let’s remember what happened last April: the real estate market ground to a halt as the region, and the country, froze in its tracks at the emergence of the Novel Coronavirus. From April to November, 2020, year-over-year sales were down from 2% to 27% per month. Finally, in November, sales increased enough to post a gain of 11.7% over the prior year. It is natural, then, that the lines in the accompanying chart shoot up in April, but let’s not ignore the fact that year-to-year appreciation has hovered around 20% since November, which is nothing more than a reflection of that pathetic little line hugging the floor of our graph. Yes, that’s right… the legend says WEEKS of inventory, rather than MONTHS, as it would have for the past hundred years. The failure of the market to provide sufficient inventory to meet demand is sending prices skyward, and leaving armies of highly qualified, highly motivated buyers feeling like refugees at our southern border.
CONTACT ME WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR FOR DETAILED MARKET INFORMATION.