12/1/2022
####################################################
The Spokesman-Review
Camper trailer destroyed in fire at Camp Hope
Sue Lani Madsen: When aspirations collide with affordability
RangeMedia
Shelter Space Available- 11/30/2022
####################################################
The Spokesman-Review
Camper trailer destroyed in fire at Camp Hope
Tuesday blaze displaces two
By Quinn Welsch
Firefighters extinguished a fire that destroyed a camper trailer and displaced two residents at Camp Hope on Tuesday afternoon, according to a release from the Spokane Fire Department.
A team of fire marshals was already at the homeless encampment for a regular walkthrough when the camp’s fire watch alerted them, said Julie Garcia, camp manager and director of Jewels Helping Hands. The fire marshals contacted dispatch about the fire, which was moving quickly from the trailer and extending to several tents and “large piles of combustibles and trash,” according to the department’s release.
The trailer, its contents and nearby possessions were completely destroyed, the department said. Two adults who lived in the trailer with a puppy were displaced and are being assisted by the Red Cross.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. However, Garcia said the camper’s residents were using a type of fire for warmth that isn’t allowed.
Fire hazards are a constant risk at the camp, Garcia said.
“We don’t allow regular burning in anything except a burn barrel,” she said. “That was outside of the rules.”
The fire marshals and camp security evacuated the camp after the fire was reported and attempted to extinguish the fire using more than 10 fire extinguishers, the department said. The extinguishers were ineffective due to the size of the blaze.
Fire crews forced entry through the camp’s exterior fencing with mechanical saws. They rescued a puppy that had hidden beneath bedding on the floor of the burning trailer.
The damaged fence was repaired as of Tuesday evening, and the trailer was scheduled to be removed on Wednesday, Garcia said.
Both residents were employed and “very close to housing,” she said.
“Everything they owned was in that trailer,” she said. “Anyone who loses their home (knows) it’s a traumatic experience. It’s not just a camper. It’s everything these folks own.”
No one was injured in the fire, although the puppy received first-aid, the fire department said.
The camp has increased its number of fire watches with the winter weather forecasted this week, Garcia said. Camp residents can use two warming tents that are staffed, she said. Additionally, 400 pounds of blankets and 100 personal heaters have been donated to help with the cold, she said.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure these folks can get through the next few days,” she said.
The camp shrank by 7% this month, according to Washington Department of Transportation, which owns the property. There are 433 people living at the camp, down from 467 people on Nov. 4, the department said. Quinn Welsch can be reached at (509) 4595469 or by email at quinnw@spokesman. com.
Sue Lani Madsen: When aspirations collide with affordability
All policy decisions involve trade-offs. The State Building Code Council backed off from an outright ban on natural gas in new construction in its recent adoption of residential building codes, but continues to prioritize decarbonization in new construction over housing affordability. It’s a misdirection of the SBCC’s role from establishing baseline data-backed public health and safety codes to an aspirational policy setting body, with unfortunate consequences.
When the SBCC voted to adopt the new residential building and energy codes by a 9-5 vote, it did so in spite of an independent cost-benefit analysis. The preliminary report from the respected Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, concluded “overall this proposal is not cost effective” for several of the scenarios modeled.
Jennifer Thomas of the Spokane Homebuilders Association attended the virtual meeting and observed that SBCC members who are well-known for their support of Gov. Jay Inslee’s all- electric agenda “were visibly disappointed when the reported results didn’t match their preferred conclusion.”
Having once been part of an independent consultant team on the receiving end of similar disappointment from elected officials, I hope PNNL doesn’t cave to pressure and proceeds to follow the data where it leads for the final report.
The primary heat source for most new residential projects starting July 1, 2023, will have to be a gas or electric heat pump.
The required backup fuel source can be electric or gas, but a simple 97% efficient natural gas furnace is no longer an option for primary heating. The challenge of building much needed new and affordable housing in Washington just got harder.
The challenge for heat pumps is cold weather. There’s a linear relationship between temperature and heat pump efficiency.
For every degree drop in temperature, heat pump capacity drops. Somewhere around 25 degrees F the heat pump capacity drops below the heat loss load from a typical house and continues to drop as demand continues to rise, according to a graph provided by Tom Lienhard, retired Avista engineer consulting for the homebuilders’ association.
Lienhard’s career focus for years has been helping customers reduce energy use, and he pointed out the impact of insulation and better windows in reducing heating load. “Homes built before 2006 would need a lot more insulation before a heat pump could work,” said Lienhard, referring to homes is eastern and central Washington’s colder climate zone.
Permits for new single-family and duplex housing in Spokane County represent about 6% of all existing housing units annually, according to Thomas, SHBA’s director of government affairs.
Raising standards for 6% of the housing stock will have little impact on what the all-electric proponents perceive as an existential threat to the fate of the world.
Squeezing a little more efficiency comes at a high cost to housing affordability.
Over 65% of homes in the Spokane- Spokane Valley metro area were built before 1990, before the focus on energy efficiency had really taken hold. More than half were built before President Jimmy Carter’s energy crisis put double pane windows and R-19 insulation on the must-have list for homebuilders and home buyers. “When you have thousands of homes in the Spokane area consuming a lot of energy and we’re driving up prices on new construction in the middle of a housing crisis, it’s exacerbating a problem instead of really solving a community issue,” Thomas said.
There’s irony in adopting codes requiring more sophisticated and expensive housing construction for the haves to reduce atmospheric carbon, while handing out propane heaters to the havenots. There’s injustice in discussing proposals to address homelessness with options outside of the building and life safety codes with “tiny homes” and old RVs.
Fires like the one at Camp Hope on Tuesday are not uncommon in homeless encampments in Washington. They are an unintended consequence of a state government not leaning in to the trade-offs between decarbonization and affordability.
The adoption of new building and energy codes by the State Building Code Council is a done deal after sitting through a single legislative session. It’s a “speak now or forever hold your peace” moment for the Washington Legislature. The final PNNL report on the cost to residential systems should be available before the session expires to provide hard data. No formal action is required, but trade-offs are the job of the Legislature. This would be a good year to speak up.
Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.
####################################################
RangeMedia
Luke Baumgarten
Mutual aid groups and neighbors are scrambling to fill the void
As with the heatwave that hit Spokane earlier this year, weather events like today’s massive snowfall affect our unsheltered neighbors more than any other group.
Spokane has laws in effect that codify the conditions under which the city must take extraordinary measures (such as opening cooling, warming and toxic air shelters) to keep its people safe.
We’ve reached those conditions. Shelters are near capacity. The temperature is below freezing. And while the city technically has an emergency cold weather plan, the totality of that plan, according to city staff, is send people to Trent. Based on eye witness accounts, this afternoon, Trent was nearly full, with staff saying people occupied every bed and all but two of the sleeping mats. The city and Spokane Fire have previously told us capacity in the building is 250, but could “flex” in situations of great need like this. Despite repeated requests, the city has never given a maximum capacity for those flex conditions.
Exacerbating the problem, the library system — where folks routinely go to get out of the elements — were closed due to the weather today. “It is our current procedure to follow Spokane Public Schools decisions to close or delay opening,” said Amanda Donovan, the library’s director of marketing and communication. “We have not been asked by the City to operate as a warming center at this time.”
So we’re coming to you with two stories today:
First, everything we know about shelter capacity and the city’s plan to rely exclusively on the Trent Shelter, which staff say is full and was still turning people away as of 8 p.m. tonight.
Spokane’s entire warming shelter plan is the Trent shelter — staff say the shelter is at capacity
And second, a listicle (remember those?) of the organizations, mutual aid groups, and neighbors who are stepping in, and how you can help. It’s a short list at the moment but we’ll update as we learn about more.
How to help during a snowstorm
It’s important to also acknowledge that this is an extraordinary storm and crews are struggling to keep up. Even the services that are running as usual are experiencing an overload. At about noon, the City tweeted that it can’t keep up with snow removal requests from people who need help:
So, take a second and check in with your neighbors, and see if anyone needs any help.
We’re all in this together.
— Luke
Carl Segerstrom
When shelters fill, the city’s emergency warming response kicks in. The response, though, relies entirely on availability at Trent, which has no available beds or mats and no set capacity limit.
In 2021, Spokane passed an ordinance detailing the specific situations when shelters are full or nearly full and the weather is especially dangerous — either for heat, cold or air quality reasons — under which the city must open additional shelter capacity to people experiencing homelessness.
Here’s the ordinance language:
Title 18 Human Rights
Chapter 18.05 Protections for Homeless People
Section 18.05.020 Activation Criteria
• The activation criteria for inclement weather centers beyond existing homeless shelter capacity and the homes of individuals that aren’t equipped to handle extreme weather changes in the City of Spokane are as follows:
•
• Warming centers sufficient to meet the shelter needs of currently unsheltered homeless individuals and other vulnerable individuals seeking shelter in Spokane will be activated on each day during which the temperature is predicted by the National Weather Service to be 32 degrees Fahrenheit or lower and designated low-barrier shelter space was at ninety percent (90%) capacity or greater during the previous night. The warming centers will operate at a minimum during the hours that temperatures are lower than thirty-two (32) degrees Fahrenheit. The City may, by contract with its center provider(s), raise the activation temperature for warming centers, but in no event will the activation temperature be lower than thirty-two (32) degrees Fahrenheit.
With temperatures projected to be below freezing into next week and limited shelter availability, the city has reached the thresholds for cold and shelter capacity listed in the ordinance, but the city doesn’t have any plans to open additional emergency space. Instead, city spokesperson Brian Coddington tells us the Trent shelter is the only emergency warming center and that no one will be turned away there. (These plans were outlined in a city council committee meeting on September 19). “The Trent Resource and Assistance Center was established to expand system capacity and introduce capability to flex based on demand,” Coddington wrote. “Individuals seeking shelter will not be turned away from the navigation center.”
According to shelter staff, though, the facility is at capacity as of this evening. “We will have to (turn people away) if we have more people show up,” one staff member said. Staff also told us they have not received the directive to not turn people away once the 275 person capacity is reached. Social media posts from previous nights and the Shelter Me Spokane dashboard have shown the shelter regularly reaching capacity.
As late as 8:02 p.m., staff responded to phone calls inquiring about capacity by telling us the shelter was full.
As of 3 p.m. this afternoon, Spokane had 75 low-barrier shelter beds available according to the Shelter Me Spokane dashboard, a regional government collaboration to track shelter capacity. That number, which does not include available mats at Trent shelter, puts the local shelter utilization rate at 91% — above the 90% threshold that triggers the city’s emergency warming shelter ordinance.
While staff say there’s no room at the shelter, city officials and The Salvation Army’s administration haven’t clarified what, if any limits exist to the shelter’s capacity. “A maximum flex amount hasn’t been established through the transition, but The Salvation Army will not turn anyone away,” said Coddington in a statement that is at odds with people currently working at the shelter.
The shelter availability tracker regularly lists the shelter as full with 275 of 275 beds taken. That number is higher than the initial occupancy according to communications with the city. “The building official issued an initial occupancy of 250 persons with the ability to flex to a higher number based on the available floor space and other building code requirements,” said city communications manager Kirstin Davis in response to previous questions from RANGE trying (unsuccessfully) to establish the maximum capacity of the facility.
Establishing a maximum safe capacity for occupancy is a primary purpose of building codes. Giving the Trent shelter a floating, undefined capacity is not only extremely uncommon, it seems to go against the spirit of those building codes entirely.
Confusion over the capacity at Trent isn’t limited to the building’s capacity, it’s also reflected in the Shelter Me Spokane website, which often lists the shelter as full when mats are available. The tracker is useful for unhoused people to know if they’re wasting their time taking a bus across town to any of the shelters if there are no beds available, said local organizer Hadley Morrow. But, she added, it doesn’t clarify if accommodations can be made for certain folks, like people with mobility issues who can’t use bunks or mats.
The dashboard also doesn’t make it immediately clear which beds are and aren’t low-barrier, said Morrow. Currently, the dashboard labels shelters that have a majority of high-barrier beds as low-barrier shelters. Traditionally high-barrier shelters, like UGM Men’s Shelter, require a breathalyzer test at check-in for everyone and a urinalysis test for previous clients. On the dashboard, the Men’s Shelter is labeled low-barrier because 12 of its 125 beds don’t have those requirements. “We know that the definition of how many shelter beds are available is fluid, depending on who you're talking to,” Morrow said. “The city’s tracker is helpful, but misleading.”
With a lack of clarity around if, how and when the city might extend extra emergency services to unhoused people in the community, organizers are working to provide aid on their own. In doing so they are building on the community response galvanized by this summer’s heat wave. That’s when volunteers, including Morrow, and Compassionate Addiction Treatment worked together to provide pop-up cooling tents across the city.
During the record-breaking heat waves, the city extended library hours and offered free bus rides to get to them. This library-centric solution was widely criticized by supporters of Camp Hope who said that the solutions were inadequate for that large group of unhoused community members. In the end, Camp Hope organizers constructed a cooling tent despite opposition from the city administration. That tent has since been repurposed to provide additional services and an area to warm up. After weeks of squabbling, the tent currently has operating permits from the city.
The street response from mutual aid groups last summer included a map of locations for each center where people could sit in the shade, drink cold water, eat fruit and cool down with fans. While those groups can’t provide similar pop-up shelters in a snowstorm — because providing warmth to people requires more infrastructure — CAT is operating a small, 16-bed warming shelter at their office on Division Street with donations and volunteers from Yoyot Sp'q'n'i, MAC Movement, Human Rights Activist Coterie of Spokane, SCAR Spokane, and Mutual Aid Survival Squad.
Organizers are also asking the city to do more. CAT and other mutual aid groups and volunteers are advocating for supplemental funding and comprehensive planning from the city as they provide what they can to unhoused people.
Taking on this huge community effort without support from the city administration creates a challenging balancing act that’s ripe for volunteer burnout, Morrow said. But, they believe the effort is necessary to keep people safe. “We will be the band aid because we don’t want people to die, but we want to advocate for more sustainable partnerships with the city,” Morrow said.
Valerie Osier
Here are the groups coordinating efforts to help unhoused people and how you can chip in.
There are hundreds of unhoused people across Spokane who are freezing because they don’t have access to shelter. While the city isn’t activating any additional warming shelters, has a debatable number of open shelter beds and has closed the libraries, there are groups who are stepping up to provide supplies to folks who are in need.
[We have plenty of ink to grow this list! If there are any groups we missed, please email valerie@rangemedia.co with information on how people can help.]
VOLUNTEER: A ton of volunteer efforts have been coordinated by CAT, which supports unhoused people who are in different stages of addiction and recovery. They’re operating a 16-bed low-barrier shelter at 168 S Division St. and need volunteers around the clock to keep it operating.
Volunteer tasks include: talking with guests, organizing donated items, making sandwiches or snacks and keeping spaces clean. Fill out their volunteer survey here.
DONATE: CAT is accepting donations at their shelter:
• Blankets
• Hand/boot warmers
• Socks
• Gloves
• Hats
• Coats
• Hoodies/sweats
• Long sleeve shirts
• Thermals
• Boots/tennis shoes
• Backpacks
• Cash donations for supplies can be made here
CAT also has a Google Doc that’s updated with donation needs, volunteer forms and ways to advocate here.
Mutual Aid Survival Squad
MASS is a group of volunteers that have been operating since November 2020. They distribute resources, homemade food and survival supplies to unsheltered people at least twice each week in a no-barrier, take-what-you-need style. In warmer seasons, they also organize park clean ups.
COOK: You can sign up for their Meal Train to help cook warm meals for unsheltered people in the downtown area. There are a lot more details at the link, but basically you cook a meal big enough to feed at least 15 people. This can be pretty much anything, but some examples they give are spaghetti, chili, stir fry and burritos. You sign up for a day, cook the food and put it in a large, warm insulated container and either drop it off or they pick it up. Read all the instructions here.
DONATE: They are taking survival supply donations and they have drop off locations around the city (Atticus Coffee, Golden Handle Brewing, and the porch at 1607 W Buckeye Ave).
Specific needs right now are:
• New, warm socks
• Gloves
• Hand warmers
• Sterno canned heat
• Blankets and sleeping bags
• Hats
• Jackets
• Winter boots (all adult sizes)
• Cash donations can be made at the MASS Venmo
Yoyot Sp’q’n’i
Yoyot Sp’q’n’i is a Spokane nonprofit focused on advocating for and uplifting the Indigenous community and bringing awareness to Missing Murdered Indigenous Peoples.
DONATE: They need winter gear and supplies to better help their clients. They need all sizes of clothing, including women’s, mens and children sizes. To donate, call them at 509-768-7248, email at info@yoyotspqni.org, or message their Facebook page.
• Hats
• Gloves
• Winter coats
• Tents
• Socks
• Boots
• Blankets
• Sleeping bags
• Cash donations can be made at their PayPal here.
And again, if there are any groups we missed, please email valerie@rangemedia.co with information on how people can help!
####################################################
KXLY
Posted: November 30, 2022 5:05 PM by Will Wixey
SPOKANE, Wash. — As the Washington State Department of Transportation looks to find housing for people at Camp Hope, they released statistics on the camp for the winter.
WSDOT says as of November 25, there are 433 people living at Camp Hope. There were 467 people living there according to a census on November 4, meaning the camp population has shrunk by seven percent in November.
Of the people living at the camp, 60 percent of them are male, 39 percent are female, 42 percent have a self-reported disability, and 389 were from the greater Spokane area, according to WSDOT.
The state says they are looking to transition those living at the camp into appropriate shelter and housing, but there isn’t enough housing in Spokane to meet the need at this time.
According to state comprehensive data, there are over 5,200 people experiencing homelessness in Spokane County, with most shelters at capacity.
WSDOT is currently in step three of its four-step plan to clear Camp Hope. After stabilizing and securing the site, WSDOT is now looking to house Camp Hope’s occupants before closing, cleaning, and restoring the area.
WSDOT also says East Central residents can call 509-666-9902 to report neighborhood concerns about the camp.
Shelter Space Available- 11/30/2022