SNAP Needs Assistance After Builder Boiler Busts

SPOKANE — With temperatures below zero the boiler at the Spokane Neighborhood Action Program’s downtown building broke and now the agency that helps people stay warm during the winter needs help itself.

The building houses 39 low income apartments as well as is the location of many of SNAP’s energy assistance appointments so it’s important to keep the building up and running.  When the boiler went out Monday night SNAP had no choice but to buy a number of space heaters to help tenants inside take the edge off the freezing temperatures outside.

“It absolutely happened on the coldest night of the year,” SNAP development coordinator Ron Hardin said.

Hardin says it couldn’t have happened at a worse time and that the agency responded by purchasing as many space heaters it could find and got them up and running last night.  However workers who use the offices on the main floor were bundled up at their desks Wednesday with some of them typing with their gloves on to get through the day.

“We’ve ordered all of the parts and we think its just going to be a parts issue,” Hardin said about the boiler.

Hardin says the parts alone will cost thousands of dollars, adding that at a time when so many people need financial help the agency doesn’t want to pull from other programs, to pay for it.

“That’s our real concern, we don’t want our other services that are so important to the low income to be affected by this,” He said.

SNAP officials say they could certainly use the community’s financial assistance to help fix or replace the boiler. Their website is located at http://www.snapwa.org.

In the meantime, all of the energy assistant appointments that happen in the building will continue as normal.