9/30/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
Former housing official says Spokane may be leaving millions in federal grant dollars on table
Sue Lani Madsen: Connecting to resources isn’t total answer to homelessness
KREM
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The Spokesman-Review
Former housing official says Spokane may be leaving millions in federal grant dollars on table
Hall, who resigned in September, criticizes city’s ‘lack of urgency’
By Colin Tiernan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Spokane’s former director of housing and homelessness says the city isn’t developing affordable housing quickly enough and may be leaving millions of dollars in federal grant funding on the table.
In a Sept. 30 memo to Mayor Nadine Woodward and City Administrator Johnnie Perkins, John E. Hall III offered seven pages of advice for how the city could better address its housing and homelessness crisis.
Hall, who has more than 20 years of experience working on affordable housing at the federal, state and local level, resigned at the end of September after spending just three months as Spokane’s director of Neighborhood, Housing and Human Services. His predecessor, Cupid Alexander, led the new division for less than a year.
“The following unsolicited observations are aimed to be non-partisan, honest and respectful,” Hall wrote in his memo.
Some of Hall’s recommendations were fairly minor. For instance, he says the mayor should hold weekly news conferences and notes that the name of Spokane’s Neighborhood, Housing and Human Services Division is confusingly similar to its Community Housing and Human Services Department.
Other observations within the memo are more significant.
For instance, Hall criticizes city staff for acting without “a lack of urgency to be results driven during this homelessness crisis” and adds that they “seem to be focused on a life-work balance which is paradoxical as their career is aimed to help vulnerable populations with urgent situations.”
Hall notes that the Spokane City Council in August awarded $10 million in affordable housing for 11 projects that will create more than 200 housing units. The city has 26 affordable housing projects planned that haven’t been built, Hall said.
City spokesman Brian Coddington strongly defended city staff. He said that many employees within Neighborhood, Housing and Human Services are new and still “getting up to speed.”
“The staff and mayor’s office share the frustration that things can’t move even faster,” Coddington said.
Coddington also noted that in the last three years, the city has expanded its network of homeless shelters and seen a wealth of new housing development.
“There’s been a lot of work done,” he said, “and it’s all been lost in the unfortunate criticism that the city staff continues to take.”
Hall also said the line between the City Council and the mayor’s office has become blurred. In Spokane, the mayor’s office serves as the executive branch while the CityCouncil has legislative authority.
“The City’s Charter for a strong mayor form of government is being chipped away,” Hall wrote. “The mayor within any party affiliation should be empowered to devise programs, budgets and initiatives subject to the Legislative adoption.”
Hall didn’t provide any specific examples of how the City Council is chipping away the mayor’s power.
“I’m not really sure what he’s talking about,” City Council President Breean Beggs said. “I think the blurring he’s talking about is a misunderstanding of our particular unique charter and he thinks maybe the mayor should be developing policies and council should be approving whatever the mayor proposes.”
Coddington said the mayor agrees with Hall and believes the council is seeking to weaken the power of her office. He pointed to the City Council’s decision to restrict how Spokane police Chief Craig Meidl can use asset forfeiture funds.
Hall’s most notable observations weren’t about city staff or the balance of power between Spokane’s legislative and executive branches.
His most significant critiques center around affordable housing, specifically Spokane’s efforts to secure grants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Spokane would be getting more money from the federal government if it took full advantage of affordable housing programs, Hall wrote.
“He’s identified millions and millions of dollars that we could be using to build housing that’s long overdue,” Beggs said. “Why we haven’t done it previously is kind of beyondme.” Hall said the city may be at risk of losing several million dollars through the Community Development Block Grant program if it fails to spend $3 million by May 1.
He wrote that Spokane this spring received a warning from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That warning said the city was failing to spend its grant money “in a timely manner and that continued noncompliance may result in sanctions, including the loss of funds and other corrective actions.”
Community Development Block Grant funds aren’t the only federal dollars at risk, Hall wrote. He said the city may be “leaving $8.5 million on the table” by allocating grant dollars inefficiently and putting Department of the Treasury dollars toward uses that could be covered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Coddington said that, to his knowledge, the city hasn’t missed out on any federal funding for affordable housing.
“The team is still moving forward with each of these to ensure they’re given the time and attention and resources needed,” he said. Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Connecting to resources isn’t total answer to homelessness
Just connect them to resources. It’s a goal common to stakeholders debating homelessness, whether they approach Camp Hope and the many smaller encampments a social justice warrior or a defender of community health and safety, or both.
Connect them to resources. If only it were that simple.
Revive Spokane is one of those connectors. Terrance Nelson, peer counselor and housing navigator with Revive, has been working with our tenuously housed nephew for more than six months to find permanent, safe housing. It’s been eye-opening to walk alongside the process, helping where possible and watching the frustration build as one option after another falls through. It’s hard to hold 1. Less than a 1% vacancy in Spokane. There is just not enough housing. And the housing that seems to be available has onto hope.
And it’s hard to picture “connecting to resources” as a solution.
It’s barely a start on the journey.
According to Revive Spokane, these are the top five barriers to housing people living houseless and homeless in Spokane: long waitlists, sometimes as long as two years.
2. Overcoming a person’s past history. Whether it’s criminal history, past evictions, debt or a poor credit score.
3. Time. The time it takes a person to rebuild their credit and any other rental criteria that are mandatory to be eligible for a place to live of their own.
4. Money. Most properties require monthly income of 2.5 to 3 times the rent, a challenge when people are living off minimum wage work, Social Security or other assistance programs.
5. Many people don’t have the help to navigate the housing process – filling out an application, scheduling a viewing, reading a lease, etc.
Nelson notes there are also people with behavioral health issues who struggle with building community and are in danger of slipping into isolation during the long wait. “It is a lot for someone to stay with the lengthy process to be housed,” Nelson said. “There are many barriers to being housed in Spokane, but at Revive Spokane we help people see those barriers and cross over them to get to their finish line. A safe place to call home.”
The most hopeful stories I know come from Spokane’s Adult and Teen Challenge Men’s Center in Spokane, Nelson being one of them. He completed the yearlong residential program and is now 12 years clean and sober, husband and father, encouraging others on that long walk.
Sonny Verastegui is outreach coordinator for the program, also a graduate and now four years clean and sober. He had a choice of more prison time or commitment to Adult and Teen Challenge, and he credits the judge and God’s grace with transforming his life. He recently spotted an inmate acquaintance on a street corner in Spokane and pulled over to chat. Verastegui said the man was impressed with the car he was driving and how healthy he looked, a sign of success. But it was a frustrating conversation, not because the man was homeless but because he had connected with resources that were merely keeping him housed out of sight and out of mind. “He called it getting paid to do drugs, living at Donna Haven with free rent and clean needles,” said Verastegui. “We can be handed all the resources and still need purpose and hope to live well, and you understand our hope is in Jesus Christ.” Yes, I do.
Homelessness is too complex to be turned into a political weapon. There is no one barrier nor one solution for moving people from houselessness to home.
There is a place for compassion.
There is also a place for accountability, for tough love. Some are better at providing one than the other, but we all hold a piece of the truth.
Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.
SUE LANI MADSEN
SPOKESMAN COLUMNIST
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KREM
KREM 2 sat down with Mike Shaw to talk through the events that led up to city council launching a criminal investigation into his non-profit.
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SPOKANE, Wash. — On Wednesday, KREM 2 sat down with Guardians Foundation CEO Mike Shaw for an hour-long conversation to review the events that led to an investigation regarding a former employee's alleged mishandling of funds.
Shaw said growth in the company prompted his team to hire additional bookkeeping resources to assist in this year’s audit. That's when anomalies around one employee's record transactions began to surface.
“The numbers were so low that, you know, allocation for gas or an allocation for staples or some ink,” Shaw explained.
But by the end of the audit, he said numbers weren’t adding up.
“Lo and behold, bam, that $38 ain't $38," Shaw said. "The $3,800 wire transfer was changed to 38 bucks.”
Shaw said over a series of purchases, $118,000 was found to be missing.
“At that point, we cautiously moved into a deep investigation, where we scanned every transaction that she had her fingers and pulse on," Shaw said. "We were able to compile a number of spreadsheets that are clear and concise, that clearly show what we know as up to date, what the dollar loss is from our accounts that were wired into this person's account.”
Shaw said if his team didn't catch the discrepancies when they did, the former employee probably would have continued their alleged actions.
“If she was given another week or two, she would have continued to do it," Shaw said. "The pattern was there.”
Shaw said the foundation receives money from its city contracts and private donations. At this point, it is unclear where the missing money initially came from.
Shaw said a four-page written confession from the ex-employee states the alleged fraud began as early as late 2019.
After the anomalies were identified and solid evidence was collected, May 2022, Shaw said his team had enough to notify authorities and bring in attorneys.
At the end of September, Shaw called Crime Check to report a theft, but never filed an official police report.
“I felt I did my part," Shaw said. "In the time and the little bit of time I had in my life. Right. I did my part. And if people wanted to take that what I did seriously, they would take it seriously and get back with me in a timely manner.”
KREM2 obtained the calls between Crime Check and Mike Shaw that happened on Sept. 29. Crime Check followed up with Shaw on Sept. 30, but were met with a full voice mailbox and no answer. At another date, Crime Check followed up again, and again, no answer.
Shaw claims he did not receive these follow up calls and waited until Crime Check assigned him a detective to explain his case. He did not call back to Crime Check after making the initial Sept. 29 call.
Now, with the city alerted and Spokane Police involved, city officials are conducting an audit and SPD is continuing its investigations.
Shaw said his team is working internally to determine how the alleged fraud is impacting operations. He said the goal is to have a summary of this information by Monday.
WSDOT says three security guards will patrol the area 24-7. They'll pay Security Service Northwest $30,000 a month. It is a six-month contract.
SPOKANE, Wash. — As local leaders hash out plans to clear out the homeless camp on state land near I-90, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is shelling out thousands of dollars to pay for security at the camp.
On Wednesday, KREM 2 learned the details of their 6-month contract with the security company.
On Wednesday, Don Barden spent the morning making a police report after a vehicle on his lot at A & L Transmission Service was broken into. Barden says this is becoming more common at his shop.
"Coming in here breaking windows,” said Barden. “Drilling gas tanks. We had a car stolen last week. We had a car stolen four months ago and found that vehicle over at the camp. I found it."
Barden says he has made several police reports, which SPD has confirmed. SPD confirms that the individual in the surveillance that Barden has of his lot has been linked back to the camp.
WSDOT says three security guards will patrol the area 24-7. They'll pay Security Service Northwest $30,000 a month. It is a six-month contract. The security guards will not be armed and will work with the Spokane Police already patrolling that area.
There is also now a fence surrounding the camp, a curfew, and new rules for who is allowed to go inside the camp. Barden does not feel like these changes benefit the surrounding area.
"No, they're wasting their time,” said Barden. “Put a fence up. So what they until get out, put the barrier round so you can't see in, NO, what is that going to do? it's not going to do anything.”
Neighbors share similar concerns. Stacey says since the fencing things have gotten worse. She doesn't believe adding security will help either.
"I do believe that it is going to protect them way more than it is going to protect me as a citizen on the outside,” said Stacey. “I can't go to a security guard and say, hey, they're destroying my property. They're not going to do anything to protect my property."