Church opens medical respite center; Sacred space reimagined to help the unhoused in need of healing

On any given day in downtown Spokane, Washington, it is not unusual to see a person sleeping on a sidewalk or erecting a makeshift tarp home in an alley between buildings.

Like many cities across the country, Spokane is experiencing a homelessness crisis, fueled over the years by a shortage of affordable housing and available shelters. Recent studies show that in 2024 there were about 2,000 homeless in Spokane.

The promising news is that number reveals a 15% decrease from 2023, but there is still more work to be done for the unhoused population, which is the topic of growing frustration among business owners as well as growing compassion from congregations like Westminster United Church of Christ.

“You can’t avoid seeing those who are unhoused as you come to the church,” said the Rev. Bob Feeny, a New Hampshire native who thought he understood the homeless crisis until he arrived 3,000 miles to pastor the Washington state church. “I’ve never really seen such visible homelessness before,” he said.

Respite for the sick

It was time for the congregation to do something. But what? The church had participated in overnight emergency shelter programs in the past, especially on those brutally cold winter nights, but that was the extent of its interaction with those who were unhoused.

After a year of exploring how Westminster could embrace the Matthew 25 call to serve the least of these among them, Feeny was introduced to Jewels Helping Hands, a local sheltering organization which wanted to launch a pilot medical respite program. The program would be in partnership with Providence Community Clinic and Empire Health Foundation.

Over the last decade, medical respite care has been providing unhoused people a place to recover from injuries or illnesses that no longer require a hospital stay.  Since 2012, medical respite programs have more than tripled in the U.S., from 43 to more than 145 as of May 2023.

It was a moment when the light bulb went off for the pastor. “After exploring and wondering what we could do, we realized that we didn’t have help the homeless on our own,” said Feeny.

Reimagining church rooms

Westminster UCC, the oldest church in Spokane which once boasted 1,000 in worship now welcomes 60-80 on any given Sunday, had the space.

“The space we have was created at a time of great surplus and resources,” said Feeny.

Now was the time to return the surplus favor to help its unhoused neighbors.

At the start of 2025, Westminster UCC opened its doors to the medical respite center, featuring 30 beds for people referred to Westminster UCC by Providence Community Clinic. They are then cared for by Jewels Helping Hands staff who have received training from Providence Community Health Education.

“Our church has become a place for those who are well enough to leave the hospital, but not well enough to be back on the streets,” said Feeny.

Like many who have seen the homelessness crisis close, as Feeny and his congregation has, the need for creative solutions to the burgeoning homeless crisis is paramount.

“Churches providing shelter for those in need is not new. It’s an old model. But offering a place of medical respite is something different — and needed,” he said.

A few hiccups, but no real pushback

When the idea of becoming a medical respite center was brought to the Westminster congregation, Feeny was prepared for pushback from both within the sanctuary walls and without. While there was some discontent about the center from local groups, Westminster UCC was all in.

“The congregation was on board,” said Feeny.

The only hiccup for the church was that the space to be used for medical respite was not completely vacant. A community youth choir was its tenant occupying the space slotted for the medical respite program.

“We did lose them in the process and had to part ways,” said the pastor, adding that the benefit of the medical respite center, though, far outweighed the loss of a tenant.

“These respite centers not only help the unhoused, but they are helping hospitals with follow up appointments being met as there is now place to get in touch with patients for continued care,” said Feeny.

As for the loss income from the tenant that left, that has not been a hardship for the church as the medical respite center is its new lessee.

Congregation gets more involved

While only a few months into the medical respite program, the Westminster congregation is seeking ways to engage with the patients they prefer to call “guests.”

“We are currently providing a meal a month and hope to do more,” said Feeny, adding that meals are now catered and brought into the medical respite center.

As for safety protocols, they were put into place to prevent wandering around the building, said Feeny. These protocols, he stressed, were not just for the congregation but for “our guests as well.”

“Some guests have joined us for worship or coffee hour,” said Feeny.

While still a pilot program, Westminster hasn’t stopped its plans to expand the medical respite space.

“We are in the process of converting one room into showers. Right now, we have portable showers in place. And a large closet has been turned into a medical exam room,” said Feeny.

The church choir, displaced by the medical respite center, how shares space with Westminster’s Sunday school.

Changing the narrative

For Feeny, welcoming the medical respite center, which is called “Healing Hearts,” was a way for Westminster UCC to “flip the church building narrative.”

“We all must start thinking about what it means to be land stewards and what ‘just’ redevelopment of our properties can look like,” he said.

And for someone who has property maintenance experience, it makes sense to Feeny for churches with vacant space to find ways to use in a just way that can help those in need.

“There’s nothing scarier than an empty building that is not being used. There’s always a risk of something happening, like pipes breaking without anyone realizing it,” he said.

And in God’s kingdom there will be no pipes breaking, no space sitting empty, and no one out on the streets.

“We need to find ways to share the space we have for the common good of a community — and do so even if those we welcome are never converted into members on a church roll,” said Feeny.

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