11/13/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
Camp Hope won’t be cleared Tuesday, mayor says
KXLY
RangeMedia
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The Spokesman-Review
Camp Hope won’t be cleared Tuesday, mayor says
By Colin Tiernan
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward says the city will not clear Camp Hope this week, despite previously saying she expected the encampment to close by Nov. 15.
Woodward said that deadline imposed on the Washington State Department of Transportation by Spokane police Chief Craig Meidl was always aspirational, not an ultimatum. WSDOT owns the land on which Camp Hope sits along Interstate 90.
“It’s always been the goal for us to work around that date to clear it out,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that everyone’s going to be gone on that date.”
Woodward said she still wants to move Camp Hope’s 465 residents to city homeless shelters as quickly as possible.
The mayor and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich in the last two months have repeatedly changed their Camp Hope closure deadlines.
In early September, Woodward threatened to sue the Department of Transportation if the east Spokane encampment wasn’t cleared by Oct. 14. The state has committed $21 million to housing the encampment’s residents.
Knezovich in late September said he’d clear Camp Hope by mid-October. At Woodward’s request, the sheriff pushed his deadline back by a month.
Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, would not say whether Knezovich still planned to clear Camp Hope by Tuesday.
“We don’t want to have to go down there,” Gregory said. “We would rather everybody work together and get this problem handled.”
Gregory noted that Catholic Charities Eastern Washington plans to open an emergency supportive housing facility at the start of December on Sunset Boulevard.
That former Quality Inn will house between 100 and 120 Camp Hope residents, and Gregory said Knezovich is willing to hold off on clearing the encampment until it opens.
“The ultimate goal: get them into housing,” Gregory said.
Removing campers by force may be legally risky for Spokane and Spokane County.
Late last month, three Camp Hope residents, Jewels Helping Hands and Disability Rights Washington filed a request for an injunction in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, seeking to prevent the city and county from forcibly relocating the campers.
The lawsuit argues that clearing the encampment would violate the campers’ constitutional rights. It cites a number of court rulings as evidence, including Martin v. Boise.
In that case, the U.S. District Court for the Ninth Circuit ruled that governments cannot remove homeless people living on public property without offering them a shelter bed.
Woodward has said the city has adequate shelter space available to house Camp Hope’s residents. She has said the city can fit more than 400 people inside its new shelter on Trent Avenue, which is expected to have at least 250 beds.
Nearly 230 people stayed in the Trent Avenue shelter on Monday night, according to city spokesman Brian Coddington. About 60 of those people came from Camp Hope.
Department of Transportation officials have questioned whether Spokane has sufficient shelter space.
“Timeline for closing the encampment is contingent on the availability of multiple safe, secure housing options for hundreds of people,” the department wrote in a Wednesday news release. “There are not enough of those options available in the city or county at this time.”
Woodward stressed that she wants to get Camp Hope’s residents out of the elements and into the Trent Avenue shelter.
“We have a safe place for people that’s warm, that’s a bed, that’s three meals a day and access to showers,” she said. “People don’t have to be freezing in tents.” Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
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KXLY
November 12, 2022 6:49 PM
Updated: November 12, 2022 7:18 PM
Copyright 4 News Now
SPOKANE, Wash. — People living in Spokane’s West Hills neighborhood have voiced their concerns over the Catalyst Project, Catholic Charities’ newest housing project coming to their neighborhood.
People living there say they have concerns about the project, especially because they say they don’t feel they have any say in it. They said they were stunned when they found out that the Catalyst Project was coming to their neighborhood.
They said they didn’t ask for this, but the shelter is coming to them anyway.
A group known as “Preserve West Hills” says they have been meeting with Catholic Charities to understand and share the changes coming to the neighborhood with neighbors.
Preserve West Hills held a meeting on Saturday to discuss these issues.
“I don’t feel any better about having a shelter near my neighborhood…I don’t feel safer, I don’t think my neighbors feel safer, I’d like to know what they’re gonna do for my safety,” said Sandy Nichols, a concerned resident.
Concerned West Hills neighbors gathered in Restoration Church Saturday to hear Catalyst Project updates presented by Preserve West Hills.
“It was an ad HOC group that formed in reaction to hearing the news,” said Annie Iishi, a member of “Preserve West Hills.”
Iishi says she, along with others, met with Catholic Charities multiple times to get answers.
“There were some things that were hard to accept,” Iishi said. “And that is that they did not notify or engage our community because they felt they had an obligation to the owner of the quality inn motel to keep it secret until the deal was done.”
Iishi says the shelter is set to start accepting people living at Camp Hope, Hope House and House of Charity on Dec. 1.
“They will be phasing them in,” Iishi said. “They won’t have all of their beds filled with the full 100. It will be done in phases.”
Other neighbors at the meeting said they’d like to have more of a say when it comes to the new shelter.
Catholic Charities and other officials weren’t at Saturday’s meeting. Instead, Dawn Kinder, the lead of the project, wrote a letter to neighbors, stating that they are taking steps to ensure the Catalyst Project will be safe for everyone.
This includes adding a fence around the perimeter, bag checks for visitors and a phone line for West Hill Neighbors to contact if they feel unsafe.
No Catholic Charity Officials nor City leaders were invited to attend the meeting because Preserve West Hills wanted to keep the meeting peaceful and productive.
4 News Now reached out to Catholic Charities and have not heard back from them.
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RangeMedia
Carl Segerstrom
Help us Urban Experience Committee, you’re our only hope (Photo illustration by Luke Baumgarten)
CIVICS | After news that Hope House would close its decades-old women’s shelter, the city council appears poised to prioritize funding for existing shelters.
The biggest news in our weekly deep dive into local government happenings is a proposed Spokane City Council resolution to prioritize funding for existing homeless shelters. Earlier this week, Volunteers Of America President and CEO Fawn Schott, said that the shelter portion of Hope House would likely close without additional city funding.
That sense of impending doom was likely based on the Mayor’s budget and a memo from Community, Housing, and Human Services (CHHS) Director Jenn Cerecedes, that made it seem like existing shelter operators were going to be left fighting over scraps as the city prioritized funding for the Trent and Cannon shelters.
Now, it looks like the city council is saying not so fast. A proposed resolution on the agenda for the Urban Experience Committee pledges that the city will prioritize funding existing shelter providers in city spending and make more funding available to shelter operators. This move should stave off the closure of existing shelters while also raising questions on how the cash strapped city government can continue to pay for the Trent Shelter.
Money for shelters and more (bike paths!) will be a major topic of discussion in the city this week. But, after taking an emergency action to approve money to help the city expand the Trent Shelter this week, the Spokane County Board of Commissioners is off this week. Without further adieu let’s get to this week’s city-centric rundown of public meetings.
Spokane City Council
(More) Budget, Baby: The public hearing portion of Monday’s city council meetings will be dominated by continued discussion of the city budget. As Daniel Walters wrote in the Inlander this week, money is tight in the city.
In addition to budget talks, the city will also be finalizing its annual update to the citywide Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The plan, developed by the city planning commission, includes investments in the Trent Shelter and other city infrastructure like streets and water utilities.
(Even) more money for Trent: On the consent agenda, Coeur d’Alene firm Architects West is set to receive nearly $120,000 to consult on projects at the shelter, including showers, laundry and individual pods inside the converted warehouse. This additional capital funding for the Trent Shelter comes as existing shelters, like Hope House, warn they may have to shut down without operating funding from the city. More on that later.
Life in the bike lane: In another consent agenda item, the city council is voting on whether to accept new changes to the city’s bike transportation network. These changes include a new trail connecting the Fish Lake Trail network to the downtown core via a pathway winding from Government Way down into Highbridge Park and many more additional bike routes in the city. You can check-out the staff report on the changes here.
Agenda here
Monday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m.
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also livestreamed here.
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Spokane City Urban Experience Committee
A Renewed Hope?: This meeting doesn’t include public comment, but it includes some significant actions regarding local homeless shelters. A resolution commits the city to prioritizing existing shelters by maintaining 2022 funding for existing shelters plus 8% to account for inflation. According to city officials, this funding prioritization and additional funding sources should cover the operating expenses for Hope House and other existing shelter operators. Those additional funding sources include the council prodding the city administration to move forward with a plan to spend $3.5 million in ARPA funding.
Read more of our reporting on the administration’s challenges utilizing ARPA Funding here.
Camp Hope Status Update: Empire Health Foundation (EHF) President Zeke Smith has been asked to address the committee on the current status of the encampment off of I-90. EHF is the primary contractor coordinating services like peer navigation at the camp.
Housing progress report: City staff is also updating council on progress on the city's Housing Action Plan. That plan guides the city’s efforts to create additional affordable housing units in the community. Even if we get the shelter funding figured out, the only path out of our homelessness crisis is building a lot of affordable housing.
Current events at the library: Shane Gronholz is presenting to the council about his new role as the Current Affairs Programming director at the library, which is an excellent chance to remind you that we’ll be at the library next Wednesday hosting a live podcast event on Ranked Choice Voting that Gronholz is organizing alongside RANGE.
Inching towards tenant protections: City council is getting closer to considering new tenant and landlord protections. Council will be briefed on a resolution during this meeting and could take a vote by November 28. Included in the resolution, which starts on page 59, are protections for renters and landlords including universal background check standards, tenant relocation fees and a program that would offer landlords financial assistance if a tenant supported by government or nonprofit programs trashed their place.
Agenda here
Monday, Nov. 14 at 1:15 p.m.
Council Briefing Center in the Lower Level of City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also livestreamed here.
Spokane City Bicycle Advisory Board
Pedaling priorities: Here’s your chance to bend the handlebars of city planners regarding new and improved bike routes. The main event at Tuesday evening’s bicycle advisory board meeting is a ranking of priority bike projects for the city, according to the agenda.
Agenda here
Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m.
Council Briefing Center, City Hall
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
To join virtually click here.
Housing Action Subcommittee
We don’t have an agenda yet for this Thursday meeting, but we figured it was worth calling out as this committee is where the proverbial sausage is made when it comes to ironing out new tenant and landlord ordinances.
If you’re interested in this meeting further details should be posted early next week on the committee’s city webpage here.