A hotel with free accommodation for refugees from Ukraine opened in Washington State

Local non-profit Slavic community in Spokane helps Ukrainian refugees with housing, reports spokesman.

Photo: Shutterstock

Blue and yellow balloons fluttering in the wind on June 8 afternoon were the first sign that the recently closed Spokane hotel was coming back to life.

Inside, the lobby is filled with massive bouquets of flowers. Between two bouquets, the smiling face of Albina Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova. She welcomed Ukrainians who have spent the past few months on the road after fleeing the war in their homeland.

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The Thrive Center opened last week in a former Quality Inn at 110 E. Fourth Ave. The center will provide much-needed housing for refugee families and offer assistance to a community of people who are struggling to adjust to their new home.

Oleg Antonov, 25, and his girlfriend Kazina Onishko, 21, arrived in Spokane two months ago and live with their family.

While Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova showed them their new temporary residence, the couple exchanged smiles. A few minutes later, they began unloading their belongings from a family friend's car.

“We are very grateful,” Antonov said.

The three women were whispering to each other when they arrived at the Thrive Center. As their registration progressed, the women opened up, sharing smiles and continuing their heated conversation.

Elizaveta Nikora fled Odessa, Ukraine, with her two pregnant sisters and their children. Thrive Center is a welcome haven for them.

Nikora said she felt "happy" in Spokane "because there's a war going on in Ukraine and it's very dangerous there."

According to Nikora, the amount of help and support the Spokane community has offered to the sisters has been an unexpected blessing.

On the afternoon of June 8, the women relaxed as they discussed who would occupy which room, where the children would sleep, and how the rooms would function once their husbands, they hope, joined them.

According to Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova, the hotel has a large number of connecting rooms, which are ideal for families with small children who need extra space.

Some of the rooms are connected by French doors with dark wood frames and are filled with light from large windows with tables underneath.

Community meets a pressing need

Thrive Center is the result of a collaboration between two recently created local organizations: Ukraine Relief Coalition and Thrive International.

Boris Borisov, founder of Coalition, is a former city planner turned pastor of Pacific Keep, a local church that serves primarily second-generation Slavic immigrants. When the war broke out in Ukraine, he realized that he had to help, so he turned to the pastors of 20 Slavic churches in the Spokane area.

There are approximately 50 Slavs in Spokane, many of whom fled religious persecution from the late 000s to the early 1980s.

These church communities came together to meet the needs of their Ukrainian friends and relatives, whose lives were devastated by the Russian invasion.

Emmaus Church pastor in Spokane's Perry County, Mark Finney, ran World Relief for several years until the organization's national office turned down a job offer for a gay man in the Spokane office earlier this year. He retired in January.

Finney had a strong desire to continue serving the refugee community in Spokane, and in February he founded Thrive International. The goal, Finney said, was to slowly and thoughtfully develop various programs to help refugees navigate their new home, but God had other things in mind.

Later that month, Russia attacked Ukraine and Thrive entered the fray. Working with the Coalition, the non-profit supported the grassroots efforts of the Slavic community in Spokane.

Then in April, President Joe Biden announced the Unity for Ukraine program, which allowed Ukrainians to come to the United States if they had a "sponsor" who agreed to provide for them financially upon arrival.

“This will be one of the centers for the arrival of Ukrainians in the United States, because all connections have already been established here,” Finney said.

Last month, the Spokane County Commission received a $1 million grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to meet the urgent needs of Ukrainian refugees. Thrive International has been selected to manage these funds.

“Spokane County recognizes the challenges these refugees face during this crisis,” County Commissioner Mary Cuney wrote in a press release about the announcement. “Through these funds, we hope that those who choose to seek refuge in our county will be one step closer to finding peace and experiencing the generosity and kindness for which Spokane County is known.”

Given Finney's experience in managing grants, it made sense that Thrive would take the lead on the administrative aspects of the grant, while Coalition would focus on outreach.

The group began accepting applications for assistance this month and has already received more than 500 responses from families in need of support.

"Safe place to stay"

According to Finney and Borisov, one of the biggest needs of refugees right now is housing.

Most Ukrainians have not received a work permit, making it difficult to find housing, especially in a tough market. Hoping to meet this need, Thrive began looking for a building to house the refugees. He stayed at the former Quality Inn.

The 153-room hotel, located near the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, was recently acquired by Fortify Holdings, which plans to convert the building into apartments.

"It's really incredible that a place like this could be available right now," Finney said.

As long as the community accepts incoming refugees, this is not a long-term solution, Finney said.

“You can’t let your relatives live with you forever,” Finney said. “People need personal space.”

Thrive Center will provide refugees with a free hotel room with a mini-fridge and stove for at least two months, then, depending on funding, the refugees will have to pay rent, but this cost will still be below market, Borisov said.

Thrive International signed the building's lease on June 6, and refugees began moving in on June 7. Finney expects the facility to be filled in the next few weeks. With meeting rooms, a large living room and a commercial kitchen, Finney says the building is the perfect place to expand other programs.

When Fortify starts converting some hotel rooms into apartments, the refugees will move into vacant rooms and then, when the renovation is complete, they will be allowed to move into new apartments. The company has converted four hotels in the Spokane area into apartments and is building at least one additional building.

Watching the first families move into the Thrive Center was emotional for Borisov, who came to the United States from Nikolaev, Ukraine, when he was 5 years old. In one family there were children of the same age as Borisov's children. And he might as well have fled the war if his parents hadn't left decades ago.

Similarly, Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova moved to Spokane from Mariupol in 1997. She heard about the Thrive Center and offered to help. Thrive hired her and she quit her job at the local lab.

It was Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova who greeted the first residents of Thrive with a smiling face.

“I’m very glad that I can do this,” she said of helping her fellow Ukrainians. “Because this is what God has called us to do.”

After the last new tenants arrived late on June 7, Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova volunteered to spend the night at a hotel, just to make sure everything went smoothly. The thought of why her countrymen are fleeing causes heavy emotions in Semivrazhnova-Shapovalova.

“It’s hard to even think about my hometown,” she said with tears in her eyes. “But to know that they have a safe place to live...”

As of noon on June 10, 72 people had checked into the hotel, occupying 41 rooms.

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On a sunny afternoon in the middle of the week, two boys Mila and Artem Rakailva ran into the lobby of the Thrive Center, followed by their parents and grandmother Galina.

The couple moved to Spokane two years ago from Sacramento, California to be closer to Mila's sister. When the war began, 61-year-old Galina fled Ukraine, leaving her husband and son behind.

Artem said that he was worried about friends and relatives in the Odessa region, where they were from, but focused on the fact that his mother was nearby.

However, he hopes that the war will end soon.

He sighed.

"We hope... We hope."

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