Memorandum Recommending Immediate Priority Homeless Services Funding

(Ed. Note: below is a message followed by a memorandum sent out on 6/27/2022 from Zeke Smith, President of the Empire Health Foundation, to our local elected officials)

Local Spokane Elected Officials,

Earlier this year, the Empire Health Foundation was asked by local leaders to convene a group of diverse stakeholders in order to identify ways we might take action to improve services to the homeless community, increase safety in our community, and support homeless individuals in gaining more stable housing. Over the last 3 months, we have convened almost 40 diverse, multi-sector community members to consider this charge with a specific focus on how we might use the unique resources available at this moment while responding to the urgency of the problems we face.

On behalf of these participants, we are offering the attached recommendations for your consideration and deliberation. We share this with the spirit of collaboration and action which brought us together, and with an acknowledgement this same collaboration across jurisdictions will be necessary in your decision-making. We hope this additional expertise can and will inform funding decisions you will make with the resources currently at your discretion.

I am ready to meet with any of you who would like a more detailed understanding of the recommendations and the process we undertook to reach this set of recommendations.

Thank you for your service.

Zeke

Zeke Smith (he/him/his)

President

Empire Health Foundation

1020 West Riverside Avenue

Spokane, WA 99210

(509) 209-9998

Memorandum

To: Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley

Council President, Breean Beggs Councilmembers:

Councilmembers: Tim Hattenburg

Jonathan Bingle Rod Higgins

Lori Kinnear Laura Padden

Karen Stratton Brandi Peetz

Betsy Wilkerson Ben Wick

Zack Zappone Arne Woodard

County Commission Chair: Mary Kuney

Commissioners:

Al French

Josh Kerns

From: Zeke Smith, President, Empire Health Foundation

Katy Bruya, Chief HR Officer, Washington Trust Bank, Hello for Good representative

Fawn Schott, President & CEO, Volunteers of America

On behalf of all work session participants

Date: June 27, 2022

Re: Recommendations for immediate priority homeless services funding

I. Introduction

We share an urgency to reduce homelessness in our region. People are dying on our streets. The imminent summer heat increases the likelihood of more deaths. We agree we must do whatever it takes to support people off the streets, out of camps, into safe, stable places to live. We believe we can do it well and fast. We have a responsibility to do just that. We know we can be successful when everybody involved comes together around what works.

In this spirit of collaboration, we offer these recommendations for using existing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and new Department of Commerce-WSDOT Rights of Way resources to address homelessness in our communities.

We are not telling you how to do your job. We offer our collective, professional advice on taking action to use these once-in-a-generation resources to make the consequential, visible impacts on homelessness our entire region wants and deserves.

There are currently 523 people living at Camp Hope, and the population continues to grow. They are telling us through their actions they want something better, more sustainable, and safer than staying on the streets. Our recommendations are delivered with urgency for these 523 people and our best expertise about what’s needed to meet their multiple needs so as many as possible can move to stable housing.

II. How we got here

These spending recommendations result from three months of collaboration with Spokane experts that know first-hand what’s working and what’s not. Crossing function, sector and jurisdiction – housing and health providers, representatives of Hello for Good, local government experts and private philanthropy – we believe these ARPA and State dollars present a unique chance to improve our systems to address homelessness quickly and effectively.

Our recommendations are a product of doing this the Spokane way: people sharing facts, generating ideas, using their professional expertise, and engaging in honest dialogue about what’s necessary for tangible change. Throughout this effort we talked. We listened to one another. We didn’t argue. We didn’t compete. We didn’t protect turf. We used a respectful process to get to consensus about using these once-in-a-generation funds most effectively. This type of earnest collaboration is necessary to make the kind of change we all want to see.

III. Recommendations

Recommendations focus on the fundamentals our homeless neighbors need to transition to safe housing. They are designed to strengthen and stabilize our existing collection of services.

They are built on three essential criteria:

• Alleviating immediate danger.

• Fulfilling measurable outcomes.

• Ensuring people – unhoused and housed – can see and experience the change and improvement.

We insist that spending address multiple needs and strengthen our continuum of services. We also recognize these one-time funds are best used for one-time or catalytic investments and minimize the effect of creating a funding cliff in the future. The cities’ and county’s ARPA and the Dept. Of Commerce’s Rights of Way funding represent a unique opportunity to make a demonstrable difference. This moment and the urgency represent a mandate for action.

We take two central lessons from others’ success: San Diego’s intentional, consistent integration of homeless resources and expertise from service providers, local government and business; and Houston’s ability to move 25,000 off the street and into homes: “Housing people is a slow, extremely complicated, incremental process that requires all hands on deck, all the time. Everyone has to come together around the table.”

We set a table of seasoned, committed housing and health providers, business people, and government experts. We offer these spending recommendations to you, the region’s elected representatives, in the spirit of building an even bigger table to make this work possible.

We are recommending an integrated comprehensive approach to using these two funding sources:

• Prioritizing the current needs of people on the street and living in Camp Hope by meeting them where they are.

• Investing in a continuum of safety, mental health, addiction, and housing services.

• Fueling both transitional and permanent housing.

• Arming outreach, case management and service professionals with timely, accurate data to connect people to the services and housing they need.

The following table contains recommendations for spending $65 million of the more than $208 million local governments in Spokane County have available in ARPA funding. Additional detail is contained in section V of this document (page 5).

For the Department of Commerce-WSDOT rights of way initiative funding – projected to be $24.8 million in Spokane – the table below represents consensus recommendations to address the needs of the 523 people living in tents at Camp Hope:

IV. Fueling lasting change

This unique infusion of funds will be wasted if it also doesn’t improve how we do business going forward. We believe Spokane can create a new way of working together that ensures lasting impact in how this community addresses the needs of our homeless neighbors and the vitality of our region.

We suggest doing that requires:

• Ensuring mutual accountability for results with a multi-sector independent body providing insight, planning, and guidance on ongoing implementation to create a true system of care for the homeless community in Spokane County.

• Exploring a coordinated inter-governmental mechanism to implement common homelessness strategy and shared funds across Spokane County.

• Investing in communication to keep residents informed and share visible progress.

• Ensuring alignment of these one-time funds with long-term investments to address

• homelessness in the region – starting with revisiting the required Continuum of Care 5-year plan and the Hello for Good report.

• Additional collaborative discussions and planning to systematically address:

  • Behavioral health workforce and access challenges;

  • Investments in Black, Indigenous, and community of color-led services,

  • supports, and organizations given the disproportionate impact homelessness

  • has on these communities;

  • Public safety and law enforcement approaches in the homeless community; and,

  • Long-term transitional and permanent housing policy and development.

V. Detailed ARPA spending recommendations

List of individuals who participated in the discussions and development of these

recommendations

Name Organization

Chrystal Alderman Frontier Behavorial Health

Arrielle Anderson Spokane Housing Authority

Barry Barfield Spokane Homeless Coalition

Shannon Boniface Catholic Charities Eastern Washington

Dale Briese Continuum of Care Board, Lived Experience

Katy Bruya Hello for Good, Washington Trust Bank

Hallie Burchinal Compassionate Addiction Treatment

Bridgette Cannon Volunteers of America

Jenn Cerecedes Housing and Human Services Division, City of Spokane

Tim Crowley Housing & Community Development Division, Spokane County

Brian Davenport Eastern Washington University

Eric Finch Housing and Human Services Division, City of Spokane

Julie Garcia Jewels Helping Hands

Breianna Gorder Consistent Care

Julius Hendrickson Spokane County United Way

Tom Hormel Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee

Adriane Leithauser Community, Housing & Human Services Board

Robert Lippman Spokane Homeless Coalition

Mary Logan Spokane Municipal Court, City of Spokane

Bob Lutz State Board of Health

Kim McCollim HUD

Jamie McIntyre Spokane City Fire Department

Jonathan Mallahan Catholic Charities Eastern Washington

Melissa Morrison Better Health Together

Chris Patterson Hello for Good

Bob Peeler SNAP

Daniel Ramos Housing and Human Services Division, City of Spokane

Jeri Rathbun Community, Housing & Human Services Board

Aaron Riley SNAP

Eric Robison Housing & Homeless Coordinator, Spokane Valley

David Sackman Catholic Charities Eastern Washington

Fawn Schott Volunteers of America

Alex Scott WA State Department of Commerce

Ben Small Innovia, Launch NW

Morgan Smith Spokane County United Way

Gage Spicer Volunteers of America

Ben Stuckart Continuum of Care Board, SLIHC

Jeff Thomas Frontier Behavioral Health

Meagan Vincello Community, Housing & Human Services, City of Spokane