12/10/2022
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KXLY
Posted: December 9, 2022 6:36 PM Updated: December 9, 2022 7:18 PM byBrontë Sorotsky
SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s been a year since protesters, led by Jewels Helping Hands, filled the sidewalks at Spokane’s City Hall. A small group gathered to protest city homeless policies and push for more funding for low-barrier options. Then almost a week later, those protesters moved onto the Washington State Department of Transportation property now known as “Camp Hope.”
Walking through Camp Hope now is an almost completely different experience than just a few months ago.
“You’ll see a dramatic change in the month of December, the inside of the camp is becoming more spacious, and we’re able to clean up a lot of those areas,” said Julie Garcia with Jewel’s Helping Hands. “WSDOT will be down here Monday to help us remove some of the people who have left the property to different situations, they’re gonna come in and help us remove some of that, there’s room to spread out.”
Tents are now tagged, campers are badged, and people are leaving.
“We’re mapping the site so we know exactly who’s in which tent”, Garcia said.
Changes really started happening in July. The camp had grown to over six hundred people, and Jewels Helping Hands put up a cooling tent, without a permit from the city.
Then in September, Sherriff Ozzie Knezovich said he was going to clear the camp by mid-October, but that guideline was extended to mid-November.
The encampment got a new look at the end of September, WSDOT put up a fence around the perimeter, a curfew was put into place, badges and good neighbor agreements became mandatory, and people at the encampment started to move to the newly opened TRAC shelter.
In October, state agencies started visiting the camp to get people IDs, and birth certificates, and connect them with other services.
“The identification connection program is a game changer in homeless services for everyone, and we’re offering that service to everybody, come again in January we’ll start again,” Garcia said.
Just days ago, another new shelter, the Catalyst Project opened, and people from Camp Hope are starting to move there too.
Law enforcement also entered the camp two days in a row, telling people the camp is going to close.
There is still no set date for the camp to close from either the state, city, or camp officials.
Posted: December 8, 2022 6:53 PM Updated: December 8, 2022 7:19 PM byBrontë Sorotsky
SPOKANE, Wash. — On Thursday afternoon, the Spokane City Council held an executive session in response to the last two days of law enforcement at Camp Hope.
Councilmembers met with their legal team to get advice about the recent visits, and what officers are legally allowed to do without a judge’s order.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office says deputies had permission from the Washington State Department of Transportation to go into the camp as long as camp managers accompanied them.
Ryan Overton with WSDOT confirmed this, but says once officers entered the camp they broke away from camp managers and spread out.
Now, the city council is trying to understand if any of this is even legal.
“It looked to some people a bit like a dress rehearsal for them coming in and removing people which in my opinion would be very illegal,” said Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs.
Recent visits into Camp Hope from law enforcement are raising questions and concerns from some council members.
“I do find it disturbing that the Spokane Police Department was present at that, and that was not cleared with the council and we were left out of the loop completely,” said Councilmember Zach Zappone.
Council members say they were unaware any of this was going to happen this week, but some say they saw no harm from these visits.
“I think our law enforcement provides materials, gives people access to resources in case they didn’t know about them, and just continue to point people to services to help them out of their situation,” said Councilmember Jonathan Bingle.
This action from officers led council President Beggs to hold an executive session Thursday afternoon and meet with City Legal.
“We can’t give you what they told us today in session because that’s the purpose of the executive session…generally the state constitutions and state and city law protect all of our residents, including the people living nearby Camp Hope and who live in Camp Hope,” Beggs said.
Council members say the next steps following Thursday’s meeting will take place at Monday’s City Council meeting.
Beggs says the Salvation Army, the city’s fire chief, and the city administrator will be present to clarify what capacity the Trent Resource and Assistance Center can be at over these upcoming cold months.
“The contract council approved was only for 250 actual beds or less. We have talked about a flex capacity, not just for a cold night or a hot day, those things are a little up in the air and gray, so we’re gonna ask for more clarification about that,” Beggs said.
4 News Now has reached out to the city for the third day in a row for comment and were told they would not comment ahead of the court action regarding Camp Hope.
Thursday night there will be a closed-door hearing between Jewel’s Helping Hands, Spokane County Sherriff Ozzie Knezovich, and Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl regarding recent law enforcement at Camp Hope.
Posted: December 8, 2022 8:57 AM by Melissa Luck
Copyright: 4 News Now
SPOKANE, Wash – Citing “imminent harm” to the people living in Spokane’s large homeless camp, providers and residents will ask a federal judge Thursday night to step in and prevent a law enforcement sweep.
Attorneys for Jewel’s Helping Hands and several Camp Hope residents filed a motion Wednesday for a temporary restraining order.
The order asks a judge to prevent law enforcement from “arresting and/or removing residents of Camp Hope… or seizing their property, without specific and individualized probable cause to arrest a person for a criminal offense unrelated to an order… to disband, move, or otherwise leave Camp Hope.”
The order would also restrain the defendants, which include the City of Spokane, Spokane County, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, from conducting helicopter flights over the camp or other ways of conducting surveillance of the camp without a search warrant.
The request, which will be heard by a federal judge Thursday night, is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed in October.
A judge has not yet ruled in that case.
The motion comes after two days of law enforcement presence in the camp.
Spokane Police called it an “engagement and education” outreach.
Officers handed out fliers at the camp, saying it was going to close. The fliers included information about other resources for the homeless in Spokane County.
The city and county gave no date for any closure or imminent sweep.
In the filing, attorneys call the presence “active and vigorous steps to initiate an immediate sweep of all residents of Camp Hope.”
It says defendants have not provided a date on which they intend to sweep “meaning that it could occur at any time prior to any judicial review of the constitutionality of the sweep.”
Plaintiffs say they have no remedy other than a restraining order “to prevent the violation of constitutional rights, loss of personal property, and significant harm to residents, especially those with disabilities.”
Spokane City Council Breann Beggs also expressed concern about the city’s recent action at the camp.
He’s calling the council into executive session Thursday to discuss whether or not the police department’s actions are legal.
“The City of Spokane’s understanding of the law has consistently been that our employees cannot participate in a forcible entry into the fenced campground without the consent of the owners or operators of the property or a signed judicial order,” Beggs said in a news release Wednesday. “I want to protect our officers from the personal legal risk of being dragged into lawsuits, preserve the Constitution for all community members, and focus our efforts on solving this housing crisis with permanent affordable housing and services so that Camp Hope quickly becomes a distant memory.”
Camp Hope is located on Washington Department of Transportation land.
WSDOT is working with the Washington Department of Commerce and Empire Health to find sustainable housing for the unsheltered.
While nearby business owners are upset and point to the camp as a cause for an increase in crime, the state favors a more methodical approach to clearing the camp.
WSDOT called this week’s law enforcement presence at the camp “disappointing and harmful.”