SANDPOINT — The Bonner County Homeless Task Force was established in 1991 by a group of food bank volunteers who saw need in the community.

“They saw family after family come in that were homeless, living in their cars or tents in the woods, and they thought, ‘We need to do something about this,’” said Tamie Martinsen, program manager for Bonner Homeless Transitions.

While the task force has since been rebranded as Bonner Homeless Transitions, the mission is the same — to help homeless families and victims of domestic violence develop self sufficiency and improve the quality of their lives.

In 1993, the group was gifted a house in Sandpoint. After moving the two-story house across town to the property it currently occupies, the home soon became known as Blue Haven. The first transitional housing program started in 1994.

“It served families with children, and now it serves families with children and single women,” Martinsen said. “We have served hundreds and hundreds of families throughout the years.”

With the help of BHT as transitional housing, 85 percent of those who go through the program move on to permanent housing, Martinsen said.

Martinsen spoke about the organization on Aug. 16 during an “end of summer fish-b-q,” for which the fresh king salmon was provided by BHT board president Mary Jo Ambrosiani and her husband Jack following a successful fishing trip. Several salads were provided by members of the organization as well.

The barbecue followed a full day of work at the Trestle Creek Friendship Center, with help from 26 Bike and Build riders, as the homes on the property will be rented out to low-income families.

Bonner Homeless Transitions opened the Trestle Creek Friendship Center in 2000. It housed a total of four families and four single women at any given time. The Trestle Creek program shut down a year ago after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would no longer provide funding in Idaho. For Bonner Homeless Transitions, this resulted in a loss of about $200,000 a year.

The organization has since partnered with Bonner Community Housing Agency to turn the homes at Trestle Creek into affordable rentals for low-income families. Not only will this help fund the transitional housing program, it adds to the rentals in a community where roughly half of the residents are faced with unaffordable housing.

“Every time there are rentals added to the market, it alleviates the crisis,” Martinsen said.

BCHA is taking over management of the four single-family houses at Trestle Creek. The fifth house on the property, which has four single units with a common area, will operate through BHT as a transitional home for individuals with disabilities.

A remodel of the Trestle Creek homes is nearly complete, save for one that was damaged by flooding from a broken pipe. While the house was insured, Martinsen said there are expenses for updating all of the homes on the property.

The Blue Haven home in Sandpoint continues to operate as a transitional home for homeless families and victims of domestic violence. Blue Haven, with the neighboring annex, has a total of nine units, with the capacity to hold 14 adults and 18 children.

BHT recently got the chance to purchase the annex next door to Blue Haven for $100,000. The group kicked off a campaign and received enough donations to make the $15,000 down payment, as well as an additional $5,000. Martinsen said BHT now owes $80,000 on the property.

Martinsen said it is a “struggle” with the loss of the federal funding, but the community continues to support the organization.

“The main funding source at this point is individual donation,” Martinsen said. “We also write some small grants.”

For information or to make a donation, visit BHT online at bonnerhomelesstransitions.org.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.