City commissioners on Monday night agreed to a proposal to loan the struggling YWCA shelter $25,000 to help pay for a badly needed boiler.

City officials will negotiate the terms of the loan and bring it back to commissioners for final approval.

A YWCA board member said the money would help the organization’s efforts to provide temporary shelter for women in transition or crisis. The group also is working to develop programs to help get those women back on their feet.

“Allow us enough of a leg up to continue moving forward,” board member Amy Skordahl told commissioners. She said she doesn’t expect the organization to return to the city in the near future to ask for more capital funding. The comment was in response to a concern raised by Mayor Jim Smith in a meeting last week.

The commission’s decision Monday was unanimous.

The YWCA has raised $27,000 for the cost of the boiler, but needed the city’s loan to bridge its funding gap before winter sets in.

The group had put its historic building on the market this summer, only to later pull the 90-year-old facility off the market.

The terms of the loan agreement will include a stipulation that the money must be repaid in full if the group sells the building or stops providing shelter for women at that location.

The city will shuffle $25,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding to the organization as a loan, taking money from two other projects: the Montana Youth Home’s new facility and a building for the Center for Mental Health. Commissioners will be asked to allocate cash reserves to the other projects.

Officials explored methods of loaning tax funds to the organization, but they couldn’t come up with a viable option.

Reporter Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com