11/23/2022
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The Spokesman-Review
County Sheriff, attorney clash over use of infrared imaging to survey Camp Hope
KREM
KHQ
The Center Square
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The Spokesman-Review
County Sheriff, attorney clash over use of infrared imaging to survey Camp Hope
By Emry Dinman
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has been surveilling residents of Camp Hope using infrared technology, triggering the latest legal dispute between the sheriff’s office and organizations that provide aid there.
“It is not lawful to use infrared to peer into private homes or living spaces,” said Jeffrey Finer, one of the attorneys representing three Camp Hope residents and Jewels Helping Hands in a federal complaint filed last month after local law enforcement threatened to sweep the camp.
Helicopters circled the camp during the night Thursday, Friday and Saturday, alternatively using spotlights and IR imaging, according to videos shared with The Spokesman-Review. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich acknowledged the use of the infrared flyovers at a news conference Tuesday.
Finer said he would be asking a federal judge to order the sheriff’s office to stop its use of the technology.
He cited a 1994 state precedent that ruled that the use of enhanced imaging to penetrate a person’s residence was not permitted by the state constitution without a warrant, arguing that a homeless person’s tent is their residence.
“You can use (IR imaging) if you’re chasing someone who’s running away, or a camper who’s stranded, but can’t use it to peer into someone’s home to figure out how many people there are,” he added.
In Tuesday’s news conference outlining the city and county’s perceived barriers to addressing the region’s homeless crisis, Knezovich said he did not have a warrant for the infrared flyovers, but his office believes it is legal to use those tools.
He said the flights were necessary to determine the layout of the camp and “what kind of crime” was taking place there. He added that this was at least partially in response to complaints by camp organizers that local law enforcement has not been responding to calls for violent crimes within the camp.
“You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” Knezovich said. “You can’t say, ‘Oh my gosh, you can’t use a helicopter,’ when you come to us and ask us to eliminate the crime in the area.”
Finer disagreed. “Asking for legitimate law enforcement protection is not an excuse for the sheriff to strip constitutional rights from the residents,” he said. “And no one, certainly not an elected sheriff, has the right to independently decide to suspend the Washington state constitution.”
Knezovich also said Tuesday that the flights were meant to tally the number of people staying there.
Jewels Helping Hands founder Julie Garcia said the organization has been transparent with local elected leaders and law enforcement about the camp’s census – 447 currently, she said.
Knezovich and Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, however, have expressed skepticism at the tally. During the news conference, Knezovich estimated that only between 200-300 people were staying at the camp.
The distinction is a meaningful one in the ongoing effort to clear Camp Hope.
The 2018 Martin v. Boise decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined cities can’t enforce anti-camping ordinances if there aren’t sufficient shelter beds or other temporary housing options for the local homeless population.
The city and county are working to bring new shelter beds online to house the homeless ahead of winter and in order to clear Camp Hope, especially through the new Trent Resource and Assistance Center.
That shelter has 250 wooden beds and 100 temporary mats, and is housing around 270 people, said Maj. Ken Perine, leader of the Spokane Salvation Army, which oversees the facility.
Those beds and mats are all being replaced with 350 metal beds paid for by a portion of a $500,000 commitment by Spokane County.
Perine said he expected the mats would no longer be used once the replacements arrive. Woodward, however, said she expected that the mats could still be used to flex capacity if absolutely necessary.
There are also more than 200 other permanent, temporary and transitional housing units ready to come online if proper funding can be secured, though Woodward said the Washington state Department of Commerce has been slow to respond to funding requests made four months ago.
How many of those beds are needed to satisfy the conditions of the Boise decision and allow local law enforcement to close Camp Hope depends on the number of unhoused people staying in the encampment and elsewhere in the city.
Woodward told The Spokesman-Review that her office has requested a list of names of those staying at Camp Hope in order to cross reference them with those staying at the Trent shelter, but has been denied them. Garcia said that she is legally barred from doing so.
“We can’t just give out people’s information who choose not to give their information,” she said. “We protect their private information. They have to sign for us to even discuss them with another service provider.”
Using helicopters to double-check the numbers reported by Jewels Helping Hands is unproductive, Garcia said.
“I don’t understand, why torment these folks?” Garcia said. “You’re flying a helicopter over the camp, putting spotlights over their homes. Why not just come and walk through if you want?
“People with PTSD, that sets them over the edge, especially our veterans.”
During Tuesday’s news conference, Woodward said she had heard that the sheriff used helicopters and IR imaging, but wasn’t briefed by the sheriff when he chose to do so to survey Camp Hope. Emry Dinman can be reached at (509) 459-5472 or by email at emryd@ spokesman. com.
During a Tuesday news conference outlining the status of resources available to transition people from Camp Hope into shelters, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich discussed frustrations with a perceived lack of cooperation from state agencies and some service providers.
EMRY DINMAN/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
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KREM
Spokane County is suing the Department of Transportation and asking a judge to declare the I-90 homeless encampment as a chronic nuisance property.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County is currently suing the state Department of Transportation and asking a judge to declare the I-90 homeless encampment as a chronic nuisance property.
That decision could come as soon as Dec. 2, 2022.
However, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says he doesn't need the court's blessing to go in and remove people.
"We're working to resolve this by any means other than sending law enforcement, but that is an active protest and sooner or later it becomes an unlawful assembly," Knezovich said.
The sheriff says notices will soon be posted, saying the camp is closing some time during the first part of December after Catholic Charities opens the former Quality Inn with room for up to 120 people. Mayor Woodward says more beds are being added to the Trent Shelter and the city's entire shelter network.
"We need to know how many people are in the encampment and since we can't get that number, we did a public records request," Woodward said.
Woodward added the state and the service providers it's contracted at the I-90 camp refuse to share information and work with the county's emergency operations center. During a recent press conference, Gov. Jay Inslee said the state can't be the only player in the game.
"To be successful we have to work with all levels of government and non-profits," Inslee said, which the sheriff played during Tuesday's press conference. "I agree with the Governor also," Knezovich remarked. "My question is why can't we get all levels of government and non-profits to work together in this county. They have been invited to the table, why won't they come."
The state claims those discussions can't happen due to the county's ongoing lawsuit. Knezovich says that's a false flag.
"Every legal matter I've ever been in, 90% are resolved before it ever goes to court," Knezovich said. "How does that happen? It's by people getting together and talking about the issue and resolving it before we ever have to go to court."
Jewels Helping Hands shared a photo showing Gov. Jay Inslee visiting the camp over the weekend.
"So, I'm asking Gov. Inslee to come back to Spokane, sit down with the mayor, the commissioners, myself and help us find a path forward," Knezovich said. "As he stated, winter is a huge motivator. Well guess what? Winter is here."
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KHQ
SPOKANE, Wash. - Spokane City and County officials provided an update on their joint response to Camp Hope at a press conference held at Spokane City Hall on Tuesday.
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, Spokane County Commission Board Chair Mary Kuney and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich touted investments and improvements at the Trent Resource and Assistance Center and the launch of a regional shelter availability dashboard website since the city and county launched an emergency operations center to address Camp Hope in late October.
"Our work is about bringing people in from the cold and giving them a warm space, a bed, meals, access to showers and also connections to services while they await permanent housing," Woodward said.
Woodward also expressed hope that their application to the Washington State Department of Commerce for more "Rights of Way Initiative" funds that was submitted in July will get another look.
"That has all kinds of housing options waiting to be funded, and we can activate those units and beds right away," Woodward said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Commerce said roughly $5 million in Rights of Way funds are still available and that the city recently updated their proposals. The spokesperson said those discussions remain ongoing.
Sheriff Knezovich restated his desire to get the situation resolved as soon as possible, and his frustration about what he describes as a lack of collaboration between the state and regional governments.
Knezovich played quotes from Governor Jay Inslee's November 2 media availability in Seattle–where the governor applauded the state's efforts to get people camping on state-owned land statewide housed quickly–to make his point
"Is King County that much different than Spokane County, that we as a local government and our providers can't come together?," Knezovich said. "[Inslee] says the longest they've had is eight weeks. Why is this [taking] months?"
The state has insisted they're not willing to work with the city and county while both entities have pending legal action against the state, a question NonStop Local posed to the sheriff at Tuesday's press conference.
"In every legal matter I've ever been in, 90% of them are resolved before they ever go to court," Knezovich answered. "How does that happen? It's by people getting together and talking about the issue and resolving it before we ever have to go to court."
Washington State Department of Transportation Communications Manager Ryan Overton said at the end of the day, the timeline to decommission Camp Hope comes down to housing.
"There needs to be enough housing and shelter bed availability for those at the camp in order to permanently close it," Overton said. "We are working towards that. The city and state we hope are working towards that as well. We wish it could be a collaborative effort, but with the pending lawsuit it continues to be a little bit of a stalemate."
Parties on all sides of the Camp Hope discussion remain focused on December 1–the date the Catalyst Project from Catholic Charities in the West Hills neighborhood of Spokane is scheduled to come online. The project, funded by the Department of Commerce through the Right of Way Initiative, will provide 87 transitional housing beds, with space for about 100 people.
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The Center Square
Cidney Oliver poses for a photo in 2021 by the bunk she sleeps on at a YWCA shelter for women lacking housing in Seattle. In Spokane, the Hope House will receive funding to keep its doors open and provide temporary housing and support services for women.
(The Center Square) – The Spokane Council has voted unanimously to prioritize funding in the 2023 budget to keep the doors of Hope House open and support other existing shelter providers.
Toward that end, the council intends to use $3.5 million of American Rescue Plan funds that were set aside in March for homeless capital and operational needs.
By a 6-0 vote – Councilor Betsy Wilkerson was absent from Monday’s meeting – the council supported funding for night-by-night shelters at the same levels as the 2022 budget.
“City council acted to reverse the mayor’s proposal to cut funding to existing homeless shelter operators by $1.5 million next year,” said Council President Breean Beggs in a written statement. “I believe that we should prioritize our existing limited funds towards keeping our trusted long-time partners like Hope House open before we consider adding new beds. The city will continue to work towards opening more permanently affordable beds and keeping warming space open during these challenging times.”
Volunteers of America, which has run Hope House since 2000, warned late last year that the shelter would close without more funding.
In 2022, $1 million was provided to Hope House, according to Brian Coddington, the city’s communication director.
Prior to the council taking action, the city’s Community, Housing and Human Services Department issued a notice that $2 million in funding for organizations offering shelter and services was available in 2023. The funds were to be awarded through a competitive public process, said Coddington.
VOA informed the council that without funding certainty, they would likely close their doors at the end of January, leaving 80 women without shelter, said Beggs.
“I believe that we should prioritize our existing limited funds towards keeping our trusted long-time partners like Hope House open before we consider adding new beds," he said. "The city will continue to work towards opening more permanently affordable beds and keeping warming space open during these challenging times.”
Hope House provides services to women aged 18 and older that includes not only shelter space but access to a community health worker to address housing, and connection to community-based primary care and behavioral health services.
According to the Hope House website, the space, originally known as the Downtown Women's Shelter was founded in response to the 1997 murders of women on the streets of Spokane.
Senior housing residents walk on a pathway before a news conference in their building announcing that Seattle will invest more than $75 million on affordable-housing units in the next year. Mayor Jenny Durkan says the investment puts the city on target to make available nearly 4,000 new homes by 2022.
(The Center Square) – The Seattle Budget Committee has finalized its amendments for the 2023-24 budget with historic funding for the Office of Housing.
In what the council considers the most pressing need for the city, the Seattle Office of Housing would receive $253 million next year in the committee’s final package, pending a full council vote. That is a 400% increase in funds for the department since 2016, according to Budget Committee Chair Teresa Mosqueda. For the entire biennium, affordable housing initiatives will see over $500 million with some of the revenue streams stemming from the JumpStart Payroll tax.
Out of half a billion allocated to affordable housing in the next two years, $228 million would be used for multifamily housing projects; $17 million for homeownership and sustainability; and $8 million for department administration, according to the budget.
$18 million would be distributed to the JumpStart Community Self-Determination Fund to support capacity building and land acquisition for affordable housing development.
The Budget Committee included $7 million in JumpStart homeownership funds to support affordable homeownership opportunities for communities that have been impacted by redlining, according to the city.
Rental assistance would be allocated $1 million to be administered with eviction protection support in 2023, as part of the final budget package.
The large allocation of funds to the Office of Housing matches Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s original plan to fund approximately $253 million in 2023 and 2024, showing a mutual understanding by the mayor and city council are on the same page on this issue.
The final budget package went through 195 amendments, three public hearings and the notice of an additional tax revenue shortfall. Mosqueda said the Budget Committee focused on looking at “haircuts instead of whole cuts” to the budget as to avoid layoffs through city departments.
“When we say this was a difficult budget to construct, I think you can see why... We were faced with a $141 million operating deficit and $152 million operating deficit in the years 2023 and 2024,” Mosqueda said at the committee meeting. “We then were hit with an additional $87 million shortfall combined over the biennium and we were having to look at serious reductions in projects and services.”
The final Budget Committee vote will take place next week on Nov. 28. The full City Council will vote the following day on Nov. 29.