11/19/2022
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RangeMedia
The Spokesman-Review
The Center Square
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RangeMedia
Valerie Osier
CIVICS | It may be a holiday week, but the Spokane City Council still has budget hearings to hold and ARPA money to disburse.
Next week is a short one for public institutions because of turkey day, but the city council is still working the first part, so we still have a civics round up for you, PLUS details on closures, trash pickup and street parking.
Spokane City Council
Delinquent utilities: According to the agenda packet, there are more than 8,600 homes in Spokane that are behind on their city utility bills, totaling nearly $8 million in outstanding balances. The council is set to accept grant funds from the Washington State Department of Commerce of more than $1.8 million to support utility bill customers who have delinquent accounts because of the pandemic.
The grant says the debt accrued must have been between March 2020 and Dec. 31, 2022 by customers who have been pre-qualified because they participate in other programs, including LIHWAP, LIHEAP and U Help. The funding will help about 2,100 households with some or all of their past due bills.
Childcare money incoming: The city council is set to approve a $3.5 million ARPA grant to Community Minded Enterprises to distribute ARPA grants to childcare providers for specific programs and staffing. There is also money set aside for childcare vouchers for middle-income earners.
Budget, Baby (again again): The city council is still in budget hearings and will be every Monday until Dec. 5. See the budget here and read more about it in depth from The Inlander’s Daniel Walters here.
Homeless funding: The council is set to vote on a resolution that commits the city to funding current homeless shelters and service providers before funding new shelter beds. This comes out of the threat that Hope House would shutter without more funding while the city was funding Trent Shelter. This item was discussed in the Urban Experience Committee this week and is set to be voted on Monday.
Agenda here.
Monday, Nov. 21 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 live streamed here.
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Finance and Administration Committee
Overtime: The police department is asking for $2.5 million in police overtime one-time costs, which they say was caused by short staffing, “activities related to homelessness” and bar patrols. (Is it smarter to spend $2.5 million on police to surveil homeless people or $2.5 million to house those same people?) Next year, SPD is reassigning non-patrol officers to patrol to reduce overtime costs.
The Fire Department is asking for $3.7 million to cover overtime costs, which they say was caused by unfilled vacant positions. They scheduled a second firefighter recruit class for 2022 and hired 40 new firefighters to help mitigate the overtime issues for next year.
Parking changes: The committee is discussing an ordinance that would combine Code Enforcement & Parking Services into one department since they are both enforce civil regulations like land and property use, public health and safety laws, and municipal codes. Back in 2021, the Development Services Center, Code Enforcement, & Parking Department were all in one, but the city council removed parking to create its own department. It’s not exactly clear why the quick change back, but a new director of the department was hired in September on condition of this change.
Top tier priorities: The committee will also be discussing their priorities for legislation in the next year. This list will be a guide for the city’s lobbyists at the state level during the next legislative session. Among the priorities:
Passing insurance and construction reforms to lower the cost of development of condominiums while still protecting consumers
Expanding funding for Law Enforcement Training Facilities in Spokane
Passing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation that holds producers responsible for their waste management costs at end of life
Creating a permanent home for Spokane’s American Indian Community Center.
See the full list in the agenda link.
ARPA notice: The city will be issuing a Notice of Funding Availability for non-profit organizations and small businesses impacted by the pandemic. There is $5 million total to be disbursed and the deadline to apply is Dec. 20. See all the details at the agenda link.
Agenda here.
Monday, Nov. 21 at 1:15 p.m.
Council Chambers in the Lower Level of City Hall.
808 W Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
The meeting is also live streamed here.
Everyone’s canceled: OK maybe not everyone, but all sessions of the Board of County Commissioners, Spokane Regional Health District Board, and the Plan Commission meetings are canceled for next week.
Holiday closures
Closed Thursday and Friday:
Spokane City
Spokane City Hall
All Spokane Public Library locations
Spokane Municipal Court
My Spokane 311 won’t respond to customer service inquiries those days either, but you can access the 311 online app and messages will be responded to on Monday.
All Spokane County offices, including
Spokane County Courthouse (District and Superior Courts)
Public Safety Building
Public Works Building
Veterans Services
Community Services
Parks and Recreation
SCRAPS.
If you’re planning on doing some fall cleaning, all three waste Transfer Stations (North County, Spokane Valley and the Waste-to-Energy Facility) will be closed on Thursday, but will reopen on Friday.
Garbage pickup and curbside recycling will be a day later for those whose garbage is normally picked up on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday, on-street parking meters and kiosks will not need payment, but don’t forget to feed your meter regularly the rest of the week.
Happy holidays, enjoy your tryptophan, everyone!
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The Spokesman-Review
Money to pay for beds, showers
By Colin Tiernan
Spokane County is spending half a million dollars on beds, showers and office space for the city’s Trent Avenue homeless shelter.
The county commissioners on Nov. 8 voted unanimously to commit $500,000 to pay for improvements at the Trent Resource and Assistance Center, a 33,000-square-foot former warehouse. The decision was not included on the commissioners’ agenda.
Spokane’s Trent Avenue shelter has 250 beds. City spokesman Brian Coddington said between 225 and 275 people have been staying there nightly, but the facility could become even busier in the coming weeks.
Mayor Nadine Woodward has said she hopes many residents at Camp Hope, the large homeless encampment in east Spokane, will move to the shelter. More than 400 people live in the tent city, which sits along Interstate 90 on Washington State Department of Transportation property.
The largest chunk of Spokane County’s investment, roughly $250,000 will pay for 350 beds and bed mats, 800 sets of linens and privacy partitions.
Coddington said those beds will replace the shelter’s existing beds, not add to them. Spokane hasn’t defined the maximum capacity of the Trent Avenue shelter, but Woodward has said the facility could house more than 400 people if necessary, between beds and floor mats.
In addition to paying for beds, Spokane County is covering the cost of an eight-stall, $95,000 shower trailer, adding to the shower trailer already on site. Another $30,000 will cover the cost of two portable office trailers.
Spokane County Commissioner Al French said the $500,000 will help the beleaguered East Central neighborhood.
“This camp is a nightmare for the citizens and for the residents (and) the businesses in this area that are being impacted on a daily basis in a negative fashion,” he said.
Commissioner Josh Kerns agreed that the investment is a necessity.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re having to spend local dollars to fix the state’s completely bungled operation,” he said. “We’ll be the adults in the room. We’ll put up the money and the resources to fix the problem.”
The state Department of Commerce has committed $21 million to housing Camp Hope’s residents.
In a Wednesday news release, the Department of Transportation said it’s working to close the encampment.
“The timeline is contingent on the availability of multiple safe, secure housing options for hundreds of people,” the department wrote. “There are not enough of these options available in the city or county at this time.”
The Department of Transportation also said many campers are afraid to go to the Trent Avenue shelter.
“Camp Hope residents are regularly offered the city’s Trent Resource and Assistance Center, and some have moved there,” the department said. “But the majority have issues or concerns about that setting, including some who say local law enforcement’s discussions of arresting people is a concern.”
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said in September he’d forcibly clear Camp Hope if it wasn’t gone by mid-October, arresting people if necessary. The retiring sheriff has since pushed back his deadline multiple times. Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman.com.
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The Center Square
Camp Hope formed in Spokane on Washington State Department of Transportation land near Interstate 90 last December and has grown to include 400-600 people. Local officials now trying to relocate people out of the camp and into local homeless shelters.
Photo courtesy of Spokane County Sheriff's Office
(The Center Square) – A recent performance audit conducted by the Office of the Washington State Auditor found that the city of Spokane in the eastern part of the state was among local government lacking data-driven solutions in addressing homelessness.
The audit, carried out over a five-year period between 2017 and 2021, also reviewed homelessness services in Seattle, Snohomish County, and Yakima County. The review generally found that efforts to address homelessness were affected by limited staffing, high turnover and administrative changes, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.
A sprawling camp of tents and broken down RVs along Interstate 90 – known as Camp Hope – has become the symbol of homelessness in Spokane. Efforts are under way to clear out the camp.
“The Director of Spokane’s homeless department said that while they are working to make improvements that will allow them to identify and quantify unmet needs, progress has been slow due to high staff turnover,” the audit said. “Managers said the department has had four directors over the last five years, and most staff are new. The city recently hired the fourth director to oversee the homeless program. We agree that high turnover at the director and staff level has likely contributed to slow progress in program development, because both hinder a program’s ability to complete critical work.”
Earlier this month, Mayor Nadine Woodward appointed Kim McCollim as Spokane’s new director of the Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services division to replace John E. Hall III, who left at the end of September after less than three months on the job.
It wasn’t all bad news regarding Spokane’s efforts to provide services intended to move people out of homelessness.
“The City of Spokane invested in most services outlined in its strategic plan priorities,” according to the audit. “Over the five-year audit period, the homeless department spent more than $36 million on contracted services. These services included emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, coordinated assessments, rapid rehousing and outreach.”
The Auditor’s Office qualified those remarks.
“Even though outreach was a priority, the department only invested in this service in 2019,” the audit stated. “Department staff said that the city’s ability to spend money on certain services, such as outreach, was restricted by the funding sources they receive.”
The audit noted Spokane chose to invest more in long-term solutions to the homeless problem.
“Spokane’s investment in permanent housing has been significantly greater than its investment on temporary solutions,” the audit said. It also pointed out that “homeless department spending in permanent supportive housing increased by 18 percent since 2019, while spending on temporary solutions such as emergency shelter decreased by 6 percent.”
Spokane-specific recommendations from the state auditor include building out data collections and analysis capacity in the homeless department, developing a data-driven process to identify which unmet needs are the highest priority for funding, amending the city’s five-year homeless strategic plan to ensure it includes components required by the state Department of Commerce, and investigating and taking steps to address the causes of high staff turnover.
Per the audit, local governments in the Evergreen State spent $357 million on homeless services last year.
Spencer Pauley contributed to this story.