10/27/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
ID CARDS HELP CAMP HOPE RESIDENTS ‘BELONG AGAIN’
Despite increased crime rates, Thor Fred Meyer has no plans to close
City ends contract with shelter operator after embezzlement allegations
Officials say ‘false deadlines,’ threats only hinder efforts at Camp Hope
More behavioral health treatment needed as jails overcrowd
KREM
KXLY
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The Spokesman-Review
ID CARDS HELP CAMP HOPE RESIDENTS ‘BELONG AGAIN’
By Colin Tiernan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Joseph Vara sits in a folding chair, at a folding table, in a big, bustling tent.
This isn’t the type of place where official government transactions normally happen. Vara’s feet are resting on bare dirt. His voice is difficult to make out above the rumble of generators and overall hubbub. Some of the people waiting in line behind him are lying on military-style cots and eating sandwiches out of plastic baggies.
But across the table from Vara is a Washington state Department of Licensing employee with a laptop and portable printer, helping him get the first identification card he’s had in 15 years. The corner of this 2,000-squarefoot tent at Camp Hope has been turned into an impromptu Department of Licensing office.
“I’m going to frame it,” says Joseph Vara as he obtains his birth certificate and state identification card on Wednesday at Camp Hope. The Department of Licensing and Department of Health were on hand to help area homeless people secure IDs.
KATHY PLONKA/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Vara, who is homeless, said getting an identification card will change his life.
He’ll be able to cash checks, buy tobacco products, register a car and go to a doctor. Most importantly, his new ID will allow him to move into an apartment. He’s on a waiting list and hopes to move into a place within the next few months.
The 55-year-old, who was born in Spokane, said he tried to get a Washington ID multiple times over the years but couldn’t due to a handful of obstacles, including an unpaid speeding ticket that he couldn’t afford to pay.
Vara said getting an ID makes him feel like he’s “part of society.”
“Not a cast-out anymore,” he said. “It’s like you belong again.”
In the last two weeks, the Department of Licensing has issued 150 state IDs and driver’s licenses to people living at Camp Hope, the tent city along Interstate 90 in east Spokane. The state Department of Health has issued 45 birth certificates, which are often a prerequisite for getting a state ID card. The Washington State Department of Commerce is covering the cost of the IDs.
It’s a historic effort. “This is the first time that we’ve done anything like this, come on site to issue,” said Sandra Najera, the Department of Licensing’s community outreach manager.
Laura Martin, vice president of operations for the Empire Health Foundation, said a lack of identification documents is one of the biggest obstacles when trying to help homeless people find permanent housing. Landlords typically won’t accept tenants who lack an ID.
Department of Health State Registrar Katie Hutchinson, who has been commuting from Olympia to help people get birth certificates, said many Americans take having an ID for granted.
“Our society is based on having to have proof of who you are,” she said.
Homeless service providers working at Camp Hope say the IDs are one example of how people staying there are making progress.
In the last several months, the encampment’s population has fallen from about 600 residents to less than 450.
Maurice Smith, who works at Camp Hope as part of Jewels Helping Hands’ security team, said in an email this week to Spokane Homeless Coalition members that more than 100 of the camp’s residents have moved into “meaningful housing alternatives.”
“Some have left to enter drug treatment, some have gone to transitional housing, some have found permanent housing, and some have left to reconnect with family. But ALL are no longer homeless and living in a homeless camp,” Smith wrote. “We’re moving people out of the Camp and forward with their lives and we’re doing it in the right way.”
An additional 40 or so people have moved into Spokane’s new homeless shelter on Trent Avenue, Smith wrote.
The departments of licensing and health plan to recreate their jerry- rigged ID office one more time on Wednesday.
Najera said homeless people living outside of Camp Hope have heard of the licensing effort and taken advantage of it. Getting a license, state ID or birth certificate is often a difficult and cumbersome process, she said, and people don’t have to be living in Camp Hope to visit the temporary ID site.
“As long as they keep coming, we’ll serve them,” she said. Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Despite increased crime rates, Thor Fred Meyer has no plans to close
By Quinn Welsch
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
From missing and damaged shopping carts to drug use in the bathroom, to customers and employees being assaulted in the parking lot, the Fred Meyer in Spokane’s East Central neighborhood has seen a major uptick in criminal activity in 2022, according to store manager Jesse Smith.
Smith was joined by other business owners, residents and public officials at the East Central Business Association’s meeting at the Stone Group offices to support the East Central Neighborhood Association’s recent resolution to clear the nearby homeless encampment, known as Camp Hope, by Thanksgiving.
Smith shared a litany of alleged abuses to which his store at 400 S. Thor St. has been subjected.
“We continually have to close our restrooms for cleaning and maintenance due to people smoking drugs in them. These drugs have very toxic fumes that my customers and associates have to deal with multiple times a day,” Smith said. “We have people who come in daily to smear feces and to put graffiti on the walls and attempt to flush drug paraphernalia and dirty articles of clothing.”
See FRED MEYER, 11
The Fred Meyer at 400 S. Thor Ave. has reported a major uptick in crime.
GARRETT CABEZA/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Smith detailed numerous other complaints, including assault, rape, prostitution and theft.
“We have had multiple associates just up and quit because they don’t feel safe anymore, including an associate who has been with us for over 15 years,” he said.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who was present at the meeting, has previously vowed to clear the encampment in November – just before his term in office ends. He suggested on Tuesday that the supermarket could close as a result of the increased criminal activity.
A spokesperson for Fred Meyer, however, said there are no plans to close the store, according to an email provided by KPBX.
“The safety and biohazard issues around our Spokane Thor store have continued to escalate to an alarming degree, which is why we have bolstered our investments in safety,” the spokesperson said in the email. “We have increased our security and cleaning detail, consigned off-duty police officers to help with safety opportunities, and more. While we do not currently have plans to close the store, we will continue to monitor the situation and consider any increased measures needed to ensure a safe environment. We ask that state and local government leaders prioritize prompt solutions to help ensure the safety of the community.”
According to the Spokane Police Department, 271 incident reports have been filed within a quarter- mile of the Fred Meyer location in 2022. That is an increase of about 55% from the previous year’s 174 incident reports, the department said.
Assault incident reports for the area have increased from 37 in 2021 to 63 in 2022, and burglary incident reports increased from three in 2021 to 16 in 2022, the department said.
Other business owners in the neighborhood joined Smith at the meeting to share their own complaints and support the plan to remove the camp before Thanksgiving, while simultaneously calling for a compassionate approach to serving camp residents.
Knezovich continued to blame the media and state bureaucrats for enabling the encampment’s existence.
“We’re fighting Olympia,” the sheriff said. “If they would simply come to the table, in four weeks this is done.
“In three weeks, we can shrink that camp substantially.”
Camp Hope has added a number of security measures since late September in an effort to reduce crime, monitor and secure camp residents, and to keep unwanted guests out.
“We can’t be responsible for all of the crime in the neighborhood,” said Julie Garcia, director and founder of the leading service provider at the camp, Jewels Helping Hands. “That’s impossible.”
She has answered the East Central Neighborhood Council’s questions and walked through the camp with its members in recent weeks, she said.
“I don’t know what more to do to mitigate things for the neighborhood,” she said.
As of Tuesday, the camp opened a telephone line for community members to call if they’re experiencing an issue with someone they think might be staying at the camp at (509) 666-9902.
“If someone is experiencing a crisis or causing an issue on their property, we will respond,” Garcia said.
Her hope is to start moving more camp residents into housing and shelter after the opening of the Catalyst Project, an emergency housing community at the Quality Inn building on Sunset Boulevard.
She anticipates the location will provide 100200 beds between Dec. 1 and the end of the year.
“And then it’s just about the housing inventory for everybody else,” she said. “We have to have time to do this correctly. We can’t just make them homeless again.”Quinn Welsch can be reached at (509) 459-5469 or by email at quinnw@spokesman.com.
City ends contract with shelter operator after embezzlement allegations
By Colin Tiernan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Spokane is ending its contracts with the Guardians Foundation and hiring the Salvation Army to run its homeless shelters on Cannon Street and Trent Avenue.
The Spokane City Council at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday will hold a special meeting in order to sign two contracts with the Salvation Army, one for each shelter. The city is declaring an emergency in order to approve the contract more quickly and bypass competitive bidding requirements.
The rapid switch to a new shelter operator comes just weeks after City Council members Karen Stratton and Lori Kinnear disclosed that a Guardians Foundation employee may have embezzled as much as $1 million. Stratton said she learned of the possible fraud through two separate community members, not Mayor Nadine Woodward’s office.
The Spokane Police Department is investigating the incident and the city is conducting an internal audit. It’s not clear how much money may be missing or if any of it came from the city of Spokane. Guardians Foundation CEO Mike Shaw has said he believes far less than $1 million is missing.
Spokane has two multimillion dollar contracts with the Guardians Foundation. The City Council last September signed a $1.9 million agreement with the nonprofit to operate the 72-bed Cannon Street shelter through June. In August, the City Council approved a $6.6 million contract with the foundation to operate the Trent Resource and Assistance Center.
That facility, which opened in September, is expected to eventually have 250 beds. Woodward has said she hopes in the coming weeks to transition many of the 450 homeless people at Camp Hope to the Trent Avenue shelter. She has said the former warehouse could hold far more than 250 people if necessary.
According to a description attached to Thursday’s council agenda, the Salvation Army’s contracts will begin on Nov. 1 and run through 2023. Financially, the contracts will be identical to the ones Spokane had with the Guardians Foundation.
“The annual operations costs for TRAC (the Trent Resource and Assistance Center) and Cannon are proposed at NO CHANGE from the past contract and provider,” the summary attached to the agenda reads.
Spokane will pay the Salvation Army $2 million to operate the Cannon Street shelter and $4.5 million to operate the Trent Shelter through 2023.
Shaw did not respond to a request for comment. Salvation Army spokesman Brian Pickering provided a one-sentence statement saying the organization would make a presentation at Thursday’s City Council meeting.
City spokesman Brian Coddington said he couldn’t answer questions Wednesday but released a three-paragraph statement. The news release does not say why the city is ending its contract with the Guardians Foundation or mention the fraud allegations directly.
“The decision to make the change was difficult, but it was done in the best interest of everyone concerned,” the news release reads. “Review activities already underway remain open and are separate from this discussion.”
According to a summary attached to the City Council’s agenda, the change in shelter operators is needed because “current ability for existing provider to make ongoing payroll and operating requirements is at risk.”
Shaw said he learned of the possible embezzlement earlier this year as part of an annual audit but wanted to wait to alert the city until an investigation had been completed. He said the misuse of funds appears to have begun a year and a half ago.
The woman who managed the organization’s financial records had attempted to cover her tracks by manipulating the Guardians Foundation’s financial records in QuickBooks, Shaw said. He said once the audit uncovered her behavior she attempted to delete transaction records.
The bookkeeper has not been arrested nor charged in court for any wrongdoing.
The Guardians Foundation has lost its 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service after failing to file its tax forms. According to the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, the Guardians Foundation’s business license expired on July 31.
Spokane’s contract with the Guardians Foundation states that it may end the contract at any time.
“The CITY, in its sole discretion, may terminate this Contract for convenience at any time for any reason deemed appropriate by the CITY,” the contract states.Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs said he hopes changing operators won’t affect the people staying at the Trent Shelter.
Despite the turbulent start to the Trent facility’s existence, Beggs said he believes Spokane is on the right path toward solving homelessness.
“We have turned a corner,” he said. “We are so close to making actual progress.”Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Officials say ‘false deadlines,’ threats only hinder efforts at Camp Hope
By Garrett Cabeza
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Empire Health Foundation and state officials say significant progress has been made at Camp Hope, and “false deadlines” and threats to clear the camp create heightened risks for campers.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich announced last month he planned to clear the camp by mid-October, but that deadline was pushed back to later this year. This week, Spokane County proclaimed an emergency at the camp so regional entities can move residents indoors before snow falls.
“Personally, I think better planning always wins out over false deadlines,” said Zeke Smith, president of the Empire Health Foundation, at an informal news conference Wednesday at the camp.
The foundation is under contract with the state to coordinate engagement, outreach and services to campers so they can enter better housing situations and the camp can ultimately be cleared.
Mike Gribner, regional administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Eastern region, said the more than $20 million the state committed to housing camp residents must be used to provide improved housing options.
“We don’t know when we are going to actually accomplish that,” he said.
Smith said he has not set a deadline to clear the camp because service providers are in the process of assessing the 400-plus campers on state land along Interstate 90 in the East Central neighborhood to understand their needs. Those assessments can take a long time, but they are working as quickly as possible to get people into housing before winter.
“There’s a lot of mistrust from (campers) and there’s a lot of needs,” Smith said.
The relationship between the state and local governments has been bitter the last several weeks.
Earlier this month, the county filed a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation over Camp Hope, citing nuisance conditions. Then, the county proclaimed the emergency at the encampment this week.
Brian Schaeffer, Spokane’s interim emergency management director and fire chief, said allowing the county to open an emergency operations center under the emergency proclamation will help direct campers to shelter and physically clean the camp.
“There’s not a need for a new plan in terms of how we address what’s happening here,” Smith said. “We’ve got a plan in place.”
Gribner said clearing the camp will eliminate the progress that has been made at the tent city.
“They’re just getting started about talking about a plan and we’re in the middle of delivering a plan,” Gribner said.
Smith said the way the city and county have engaged created an environment that makes it hard to focus on getting residents into housing.
Gribner said the county needs to drop its lawsuit to bring the state to the discussion table. He said collaboration between the state and local jurisdictionsis “the quickest and best outcome.”
“I think we all still hope that there will be some way for us to get together on this,” Gribner said. “But the approach so far from the city and the county in these recent presentations has been fairly hostile toward (the Washington State Department of Transportation).” The department owns the land Camp Hope is on.
Gribner said each time local jurisdictions threaten to sweep the camp, it raises the risk of violence and of campers dispersing to other places where they don’t have services. The worst-case scenario is a camper dying after leaving and not receiving the services they need.
Smith and Gribner said they believe all campers want better housing. They said there is not enough housing, though.
Smith said a service provider is in the process of “shaking the housing tree” and figuring out how many housing slots are available, requirements around each of those slots and getting residents into them.
“We have not invested in the kind of housing that we need to really meet people’s needs,” Smith said.
Knezovich, Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward and county commissioner Mary Kuney said Tuesday that clearing the camp before snowfall is in the best interest of camp residents and the surrounding neighborhood, where law enforcement officials have said crime has increased since the camp formed.
The city plans to move many camp residents inside the new homeless shelter on Trent Avenue, but Gribner said many won’t go, at least in part because of the lack of space and privacy at the facility.
Smith and Gribner said campers have already endured a cold winter and hot summer, and that the hot temperatures are potentially more dangerous than the cold ones. Still, the goal is to move campers as soon as possible.
“We know winter’s coming and that’s a critical and significant issue, and we also know that this encampment has been a challenge for community members here,” Smith said.
Smith said the camp is “completely different” than what it was six months ago, saying it’s more organized and stable. Fencing, security and providing ID badges to residents are a big part, Smith said.
The camp is also smaller. It was once estimated roughly 600 people lived there.
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (509) 459-5135 or by email at garrettc@ spokesman. com.
Julie Garcia, right, of Jewels Helping Hand, greets a resident of Camp Hope on Sept. 30 after fencing was installed around the homeless encampment.
KATHY PLONKA/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
More behavioral health treatment needed as jails overcrowd
When a defense attorney raises a question of a client’s competence to stand trial, it kicks in a process set up to protect the rights of the accused as well as safety of the public. When the victim of an attempted rape in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood was told the man who assaulted her might be released into the community because he was incompetent to stand trial, the system showed its incompetence and she was victimized again.
The bar for competence is pretty low, according to a conversation with Deb Conklin, candidate for Spokane County prosecutor. “The assumption for a finding of incompetence is that they are completely unable to assist their attorney,” Conklin said. The accused may have a mental health diagnosis or be psychotic, but are competent as long as they have “a lucid moment to talk to their attorney.”
In the case of Qyreek Singletary, charged in the Capitol Hill assault, there is no dispute over the basic facts. The victim was on the phone with her father as she retrieved a package and Singletary pushed his way into her apartment. Dad called 911. Singletary was caught in the act of assault, prepared to bind and gag the victim. Planned and almost carried out. Open and shut criminal case.
And yet the system seems unable to handle it.
“You can have the best system in the world and if the people implementing itdon’t handle it responsibly, it doesn’t matter if you have the best system in the world,” Conklin said.
Current Spokane County Prosecutor and candidate Larry Haskell agreed the bar is low for competence, but “until the court-ordered evaluation is completed, the prosecution can’t do anything on the criminal side – not agree to a plea deal or anything else.” The Washington state Department of Social and Health Services is not competently keeping up with demand. “As the state population increases they are not opening any new facilities and existing facilities are understaffed. If we had more facilities we could get evaluations done quickly,” Haskell said.
Former Spokane County Prosecutor Don Brockett was blunt. “The grand experiment hasn’t worked,” said Brockett, referring to the deinstitutionalizing of mental health care. He referred to the impact of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” - a widely read novel made into an Academy Award-winning film - as part of the push to close awful institutions, but “instead of improving the institutions we closed them and dumped all the mentally ill people out on the streets in 1973. And lack of funding is not a partisan problem, there’s no will to act.”
Conklin agreed on the funding issue.
“The promise was we’d close down these large expensive institutions and then no one – not Republicans or Democrats or anyone has ever funded the community mental health system adequately, and now jails are the largest mental health institutions in the country.”
It’s not just initial evaluations that are affected. There’s a need for institutions both for therapeutic restoration to competence to stand trial and for long-term civil commitment. “The Legislature needs to take a look at this, even the defense is interested,” Haskell said. “Adjusting the statutory scheme and increasing facilities would go a long way to solving the problems.”
Brockett said there are 12 to 15 defendants currently in the Spokane County Jail and 105 in Yakima, Tri-Cities and elsewhere waiting for evaluation at Eastern State Hospital. “West Side prosecutors might be dismissing minor cases, not even bothering to get in line” for a spot at beleaguered Western State Hospital.
There must be ramifications for bad behavior, even for someone living with a mental illness. One might be arrest and being ordered to treatment. But that doesn’t work if there is no treatment space. Brockett described the dilemma of a father seeking advice about a mentally ill daughter arrested on a violent charge - in her father’s evaluation a threat to herself and others. She had been in jail for two months with a projected five to six month wait for a competency evaluation so the case could proceed. If she was released on bond, she would be lower priority for evaluation and treatment and it might be as long as two years. Meanwhile, jail limbo is not a therapeutic environment and her condition is likely to deteriorate.
DSHS’s website assurances that more behavioral treatment in the community will reduce the demand for inpatient facilities is a false hope. We do need more community- based treatment, but also need inpatient institutions that aren’t county jails.
Brockett hopes to make a push for Gov.
Jay Inslee to put mental health on the front burner. “There’s a lot of other causes out there but taking care of our own people when they’re mentally ill doesn’t count that much,” Brockett said. “It’s terrible to decide which is a priority but I would pick these people over global warming or anything else. Tap into emergency funds and put it into the budget to build more institutions.”
Meanwhile, the state of Washington could face more than $100 million in fines for inadequate facilities.
The state needs more space both for those who meet the high bar for civil commitment and those who seek it voluntarily.
As an EMT, it’s heartbreaking to respond to someone who is lucid enough to know they need to be hospitalized and realize all they may get out of their call for help is “catch and release” from the ER. And in the case of Singletary, his victim would like the assurance of knowing he isn’t going to hurt anyone else. Ever.
Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.
SUE LANI MADSEN
SPOKESMAN COLUMNIST
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KREM
People in the East Central neighborhood said the last year of having a growing homeless encampment in their backyards has been allowed for more than long enough.
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SPOKANE, Wash. — East Central businesses, homeowners, neighborhood council representatives and county officials each had different stories to tell about living and working near the I-90 homeless encampment at a press conference Wednesday.
While their stories were different, their hopes were the same.
The growing homeless encampment in their neighborhood needs to be gone sooner rather than later.
“The continued existence of camp hope has numerous, enormous, deleterious effects on the more than 20,000 citizens that reside in the East Central neighborhood.”
The East Spokane Business Association hosted a press conference for those affected in the neighborhood where different agencies were able to share their stories and call for action.
“Camp Hope," owner of Fresh Soul Michael Brown started. "It’s got to go.”
Businesses said the camp’s negative effects are spilling into all of East Central.
Fred Meyer Manager Jesse Smith said the illegal activity happening on his property has taken a toll on business.
“We deal with drug transactions in our parking lot on a daily basis," Smith said. "This is being done in plain sight with no regard to who’s around. Customers and associates have been assaulted both inside and outside our store."
People who have lived in the neighborhood for decades said East Central is not what it was when they first moved in.
"Camp Hope has really devalued our property in the area," East Central homeowner Doug Schroeder said. "It’s not safe for anyone to be out in the neighborhood anymore."
Michael Brown of Fresh Soul said this kind of camp wouldn't be allowed in other Spokane neighborhoods.
“If we don’t do something about it, I promise you, it’ll be right in your neighborhood," Brown said. "I've watched it happen. It’s a cancer. It keeps growing and keeps growing.”
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich also took the mic to share his support in removing the camp.
“This isn’t hope," Knezovich shared. "This is hopelessness.”
Knezovich said if the Washington State Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce are able to come to the table, he believes the camp could be gone in four weeks.
“We have a good plan," Knezovich said. "If they would simply come to the table, four weeks, folks, this is done. I have no doubt. Four weeks, this is done.”
And while East Central agencies said now is the time to break down the camp, most expressed sympathy for the people living there.
“We are all a passionate community, but at some point, compassion becomes enabling,” Spokane County Commissioner Al French said.
They said they’ll never fully know all the reasons that have put those people in the positions they’re in, but there are better ways to house them and get them connected to appropriate resources.
ESBA said it hopes to see action taken before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Julie Garcia, executive director of Jewels Helping Hands, shared that her organization is now operating a hotline for East Central businesses to report disturbances or crime in the neighborhood being caused by people experiencing homelessness.
At Wednesday's presser, the ESBA president said he was unaware this resource was available.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the hotline reported it had not received any calls of crime or disturbances.
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KXLY
Posted: October 26, 2022 5:40 PM Updated: October 27, 2022 3:50 AM byBrontë Sorotsky
SPOKANE, Wash. — State, city, and county leaders agree that Camp Hope needs to be gone before the winter. However, they can’t agree on a deadline.
While local leaders want the site cleared out by November 15, state agencies can’t agree to set a date because they don’t know where everyone will go.
“No, there is not a set date,” said Mike Gribner, regional administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “The difficulty of that question in our opinion is it’s tied to when we will secure proper housing to actually address moving them. We don’t have all the housing right now, we don’t know actually when we’re gonna get it all, and so it’s difficult for us to tell you exactly when that is.”
In the meantime, these agencies are working to find housing solutions for the people at Camp Hope.
“There are a number of folks here that will need housing that both is long term but also where they get the services they need to support them in their ability to stay there,” said Zeke Smith, president of Empire Health.
On Tuesday, county officials announced the opening of an Emergency Operation Shelter to start the process to clear the camp. State agencies say this won’t affect their process to stabilize and clear the camp.
“All the things that they are talking about doing or building into the ESC, were already doing them. That’s what this operation is about,” Gribner said.
They say their main focus is to find a variety of housing options instead of rushing to close the camp, like the city is trying to do.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says he wants to see state agencies come to the table to address Camp Hope. WSDOT says it will, but only if the county lifts its lawsuit against them.