The Moses Lake City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a proposal to expand homeless services in the name of a rapid re-housing and a hotel voucher program.

The federal Emergency Solutions Grant provided Moses Lake with $350,000, which had not yet been allocated to a specific homeless program for the current fiscal year. Discussions with the city’s ad hoc homeless committee and HopeSource, the primary service provider, resulted in the program recommendations.

Moses Lake released a request for the proposal early last month, said housing and grants coordinator Taylor Burton, and HopeSource was the only agency to respond and meet the criteria for these programs.

The rapid re-housing program will provide four months of case management and stabilization services, Burton said, to ensure clients will have a successful transition to permanent housing.

The grant will provide first and last month’s rent, a $1,800 security deposit, as well as management services, he said.

As written in the proposal, rapid re-housing is an intervention informed by a housing-first approach. It quickly connects families and individuals to permanent housing through a tailored package of assistance that may include financial assistance and supportive services.

The hotel voucher program is a crisis response resource for clients who have no other option, Burton said. Clients can be placed in a hotel for 14 days while a more permanent solution is found.

Twenty-seven thousand dollars will go to administrative fees, human resources, overhead, etc., said City Manager Allison Williams. Thirty-six thousand dollars will go to program expenses, such as staffing, training, computers, communication, outreach, educational materials and a reserve for motel cleaning and repair services.

The outlined funding could support 15 households through rapid re-housing and up to 50 clients through hotel vouchers. Both programs are included in the interlocal agreement with Grant County, Burton said.

The funding seems appropriate, said Mayor David Curnel.

“I don’t know about the rest of council, but I’ve been impressed with HopeSource in terms of what they do charge for the amount of work that they do,” he said. “I just don’t know how they do it.”

Deputy Mayor Daryl Jackson said he has heard good things around town about the city’s efforts to reduce homelessness.

“It took a while to get the road rolling a little bit, but look where we are today compared to where we sat here in October, a year ago, and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ I think the whole council needs to be commended that they actually stepped out and said, ‘Ok, we’re going to have to do something.’ And we did,” he said.