12/13/2022

Officers from Spokane Police Department, Spokane County Sheriff’s Department and Spokane Valley Police Department issued notices of removal at Camp Hope on December 6, 2022. (Photo by Ben Tobin)

The resolution comes the same day a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing a sweep of the encampment.

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Just hours after a federal court judge in Eastern Washington granted a temporary restraining order preventing a law enforcement sweep of Camp Hope on Monday, the Spokane City Council is moving to prevent city resources from contributing to any sweep without a court order. A resolution introduced and debated by council members in the Urban Experience Committee meeting this afternoon, seeks to prevent city police or other staff from participating in a sweep barring changes in the legal case against the city and county.

The resolution will be voted on at tonight’s city council meeting, which begins at 6 pm.

Under the resolution, if city staff — say Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, for example — were to order police officers to support the Sheriff’s department in sweeping the camp without a court order or the permission of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which owns the land, the city would not provide them any legal defense. The resolution is part of an ongoing struggle between the liberal majority on the city council, who have broadly supported the state’s process of working with local organizations to close the encampment and move people into housing, and Mayor Nadine Woodward who has stood with outgoing Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich in calling for an expedited removal of the camp.

Council member Lori Kinnear said that instead of charting a path of action, this resolution was meant to limit the liability of the city if a sweep occurs by keeping Spokane police out of it. The city of Spokane was sued in 2019 for sweeping the original Camp Hope protest in 2018. For more on that case, the original encampment and the politics surrounding it, check out this Daniel Walters piece from 2019.

This afternoon’s debate over the resolution was driven by concerns from conservative council members Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart, who want to see the camp resolved faster than the ongoing state housing process and voiced the frustrations of residents and businesses in the surrounding area. Bingle and Cathcart represent the East Central neighborhood where the encampment is located.

“The impacts in that neighborhood are going to be felt for decades,” said Bingle. “We’ve basically sacrificed the health of that neighborhood for the health of the whole city.”

Bingle said the council should be asking the state for an additional $30-40 million of state investment and acknowledged the lack of affordable housing options for people at the encampment to move into. “It’s a years-long process because those units don’t exist and it’s going to take us some time to get permanent housing built,” he said.

Kinnear countered that this resolution wasn’t about the big picture of responding to the camp as much as a way to prevent city resources from being used in legally questionable ways. “We’re talking about legally what we can and cannot do,” she said. “This isn’t about what we want to do.”

Cathcart said the city isn’t addressing the needs of the community around the camp by letting the state’s ongoing rehousing process play out. “What I think is lacking here is any sort of urgency,” he said. “I think this maintains the status quo.”

At noon today, WSDOT sent out an update on Camp Hope stating that the population of Camp Hope is currently 377, down approximately 20% in the five weeks since the state’s first official census on Nov. 4 found 467 people living there. That decrease comes as the Catalyst project, run by Catholic Charities, is just beginning to accept residents and will eventually house between 100 and 120 people.

Even with the Trent shelter’s expanded capacity of 350 and those additional beds at the Catalyst project, there still isn’t enough capacity in the system to house everyone at the encampment.

In today’s meeting, Cathcart proposed the city look into other alternatives to move people out of the camp, including the Geiger Corrections Facility, which has struggled with staffing shortages in recent months.

“The county may shut down Geiger. Can we eliminate some of the negative optics of that, but use that as a facility that has all the indoor things that we need to help keep people safe and healthy?” Cathcart said. “Maybe that's an option, but it just doesn't feel like anybody has this urgent desire to fix this and fix it right away.”

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The Spokesman-Review

Federal judge prevents Camp Hope sweep

By Emry Dinman

A federal judge will not allow Spokane law enforcement to forcibly remove more than 400 homeless people from Camp Hope in East Central Spokane before Christmas.

U.S. District Judge Stanley A. Bastian on Monday granted a temporary restraining order against the city of Spokane and Spokane County, along with Police Chief Craig Meidl and outgoing Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

“The loss of plaintiff’s temporary shelter and the services provided at Camp Hope presents an immediate risk of irreparable injury,” Bastian wrote in the order signed Monday morning. “The public interest lies with keeping people in temporary shelter with services until the legal action is concluded.”

Jeffry Finer, one of the attorneys representing three Camp Hope residents and Jewels Helping Hands in the federal complaint, said in an interview that ongoing threats by the sheriff’s office to sweep the camp without a judicial order were hurting efforts to rehouse its residents.

“The sheriff’s threats were not just a distraction, they were causing terrible anxiety among the residents,” Finer said. “Now that we know there will not be a raid, we can focus all of our efforts on closing the camp safely, humanely and legally.”

Julie Garcia, founder of Jewels Helping Hands, which manages Camp Hope, said Monday that 377 people are living in the camp. That’s down from about 430 earlier this month and more than 600 in the summer. The camp formed more than a year ago on land along the north side of Interstate 90 west of Freya Street, which was cleared of homes more than a decade ago to make way for the future connection of the North Spokane Corridor to I-90.

Bastian will hold a hearing on Dec. 28 in his Yakima courtroom to further evaluate legal claims related to the camp. People working with residents of Camp Hope are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the removal of the camp.

Later on Monday, the Spokane City Council approved a resolution condemning the sheriff’s office’s threats to sweep the camp and warning that the city would not come to the legal defense of city staff or elected leaders who participated in the future.

“The City Council has grave concerns that participation in the Sheriff’s requests could imperil City of Spokane Police officers, placing them in the dangerous position of displacing homeless persons without clear legal authority,” the resolution states.

That resolution passed 5-2 Monday. Council members Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart, who represents northeastern Spokane and the East Central neighborhood where Camp Hope is located, voted in opposition. They expressed frustration with the council’s focus on the impacts on the homeless but not on the residents living nearby.

“We basically sacrificed one neighborhood for the health of the city,” Cathcart said.

Bastian also ordered law enforcement to stop using infrared imaging or similar technology as surveillance tools on Camp Hope without a search warrant.

The sheriff’s office had used helicopters equipped with infrared imaging to surveil residents of Camp Hope for three days in mid-November. In a Nov. 22 press conference, Knezovich acknowledged the use of the technology without a warrant, but said he believed it was legal to do so.

The restraining order granted Monday does not prevent law enforcement from entering the camp to arrest a suspect if they have probable cause.

The order also does not appear to prevent the sheriff’s office from continuing to build up law enforcement presence at the camp.

More than a dozen law enforcement officers entered Camp Hope last week to distribute fliers that declared “This camp is to be closed.”

The move was the latest episode of the struggle between city and county elected leaders who want the camp scrubbed from a vacant lot owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation and the people living there directed to shelters, including the Trent Avenue shelter building the city is leasing.

In an interview last week, Mark Gregory, public information officer for the sheriff’s office, said that deputies would become a regular sight around the camp.

Knezovich, who has led the effort for law enforcement to clear the camp, did not return a call seeking comment Monday. Emry Dinman can be reached at (509) 459-5472 or by email at emryd@spokesman.com.

City Council wipes low-income residents’ past-due utility bills

By Emry Dinman

In a matter of weeks, the Spokane City Council has wiped away most past-due city utility bills.

On Monday, the council voted 5-2 to approve the allocation of $7 million in additional American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief funds, including $4 millionto cover delinquent utility bills of economically challenged customers.

Council members Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle voted against the ordinance but did not explain their decision during the meeting.

This follows the council’s decision in November to accept nearly $1.9 million from the Washington state Department of Commerce to pay the overdue utility bills of low-income residents incurred between March 2020 and December 2022. Eligible residents must have pre-qualified for assistance through other low-income utility assistance programs.

“This will benefit our most economically challenged people,” said Council President Breean Beggs.

More than 8,600 city residents are behind on their utility bill payments, collectively owing nearly $8 million, according to a staff report.

Altogether, these funds could cover around three-fourths of all outstanding utility bills for city residents. The funds will be targeted towards the residents with greatest economic need, Beggs said. Emry Dinman can be reached at (509) 459-5472 or by email at emryd@spokesman.com.

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The Wall St Journal

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Declares Emergency Over Homelessness

Declaration—first act for new mayor—allows city to fast-track solutions

Christine Mai-DucDec. 12, 2022 3:54 pm ET

“It is the start of a new, urgent and sustained approach to our greatest challenge,” Ms. Bass told reporters. “It shows the people of Los Angeles that we are united and serious about the city’s crisis of homelessness.”

Ms. Bass said an emergency approach would allow the city to marshal resources and fast-track building and acquisition of badly needed interim and permanent housing. As she made the announcement, she was flanked by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors President Janice Hahn, Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian and a slate of newly elected citywide officials.

Roughly 40% of California’s homeless population lives in Los Angeles County, which saw a 12% growth in unsheltered homeless people between 2020 and 2022. The pandemic unlocked tens of millions of dollars in emergency funding that allowed city and county officials to house people more rapidly than ever. Those programs, however, are coming to an end even as more people become homeless as a result of the region’s high cost of living and dearth of affordable housing.

About 69,000 people in Los Angeles County are homeless, according to data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority collected in February 2022.

A woman used water from a fire hydrant to bathe in Los Angeles one day last summer.,Photo: Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Ms. Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman, also promised to unveil details of a new program to focus on cleaning up large encampments throughout the city by leasing entire motels and hotels to house those coming off the streets.

The emergency declaration itself matters less than the action Ms. Bass and others take afterward, said Tommy Newman, vice president of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, a group that advocates for permanent housing for the homeless and helped pass a new countywide tax to fund such programs.

He said he would be looking to Ms. Bass to begin identifying specific city-owned parcels that could become housing and setting concrete timelines for building it. Mr. Newman said Ms. Bass must also manage her relationships with a city council that has been roiled by scandal and historically held a tight but fractured grip on the city’s approach to homeless encampments.

“I think we’re all hopeful the emergency declaration will give Mayor Bass most of the tools and the political space to do exactly that,” Mr. Newman said.

While her term officially started Monday, Ms. Bass was sworn in as mayor in a star-studded ceremony Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles featuring musician Stevie Wonder, presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman and Vice President Kamala Harris, who administered the mayoral oath of office.

In a speech after taking the oath, Ms. Bass called on city, county, state and federal leaders to join her in “linking arms rather than pointing fingers” to put the city on a path to solving homelessness.

Her comments come weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, threatened to hold back funding for cities and counties to address homelessness and rejected plans they submitted to do so, calling them inadequate. He later reversed himself and disbursed the funds to jurisdictions that promised to submit more aggressive goals.

During the campaign, Ms. Bass pitched herself as a coalition builder with a record of brokering deals in the state legislature and in Congress and who could leverage relationships she has built over decades in office.

On Sunday, she promised to call for help officials in all levels of government, including several in the audience such as Ms. Harris, Mr. Newsom and her former congressional colleagues.

“Look for me on your caller ID,” she said.

Write to Christine Mai-Duc at christine.maiduc@wsj.com

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KREM

Federal judge: Closing I-90 homeless camp would do 'irreparable injury'

U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian granted the restraining order requested by Jewels Helping Hands, residents of the camp and Disability Rights Washington.

SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal judge granted a temporary emergency restrainingorder Monday against Spokane city and county, which could effectively stop the clearing of the homeless camp along I-90.

U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian granted the restraining order requested by Jewels Helping Hands, residents of the camp and Disability Rights Washington.

"In this case, the Court finds that Plaintiffs have a likelihood of success on one, several, or all their claims," Bastian wrote. "The loss of Plaintiffs’ temporary shelter and the services provided at Camp Hope presents an immediate risk of irreparable injury. It also demonstrates a balance of hardship tipping sharply for Plaintiffs. The public interest lies with keeping people in temporary shelter with services until the legal action is concluded."

According to federal court documents, City and county law enforcement may not take part in either of the following:

Arresting and/or removing residents of Camp Hope from their current location, or seizing their property, without specific and individualized probable cause to arrest a person for a criminal offense unrelated to an order given by Defendants to disband, move, or otherwise leave Camp Hope
Utilizing infrared imaging or similar technology to surveil or record the residents of Camp Hope, without first obtaining a judicial warrant for such a search

Court documents say the order will remain in effect until the court issues an order to resolve it following a preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for Dec. 28 at 1pm in Yakima.

Executive Director of Jewels Helping Hands Julia Garcia posted a screenshot of the decision on Facebook Monday morning saying, "Oh my goodness! Today is the best day ever! We can exhale, if only for the moment."

On Wednesday, a request for a temporary restraining order was filed on behalf of the campers, Jewels Helping Hands and Disability Rights Washington. The request seeks to "prevent irreparable harm to plaintiffs and the exceptionally vulnerable residents of Camp Hope."

The request states that despite the filing of the lawsuit to prevent the clearing of the camp, the defendants - Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, the city of Spokane and Spokane County - have already "taken active and vigorous steps to initiate an immediate sweep of all residents of Camp Hope."

This includes handing out flyers to camp residents telling them "a sweep is imminent," according to the request.

The original lawsuit was filed in October and asked a judge to pause efforts to clear the camp, commonly referred to as Camp Hope. The lawsuit stated doing so would allow the hundreds of people camping on the state-owned property to stay there.

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward issued the following statement regarding Monday's ruling:

The City remains focused on getting people out of the cold and into a warm bed, regular meals, and services. We want people to know they have options other than living outdoors in the snow and freezing temperatures. We have added considerable space to our night-by-night inventory over the past few years as a bridge strategy while more permanent housing options come online and become available. Although it is a necessary asset, night-by-night space is expensive to operate and maintain. Permanent housing is the long-term sustainable option. Our message to people is to come in out of the weather while you get connected to a more permanent housing option.

KREM 2 has reached out to Spokane Police and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office for comment but have not heard back.

Spokane city council to consider resolution to protect occupants of I-90 homeless camp

This action comes less than 24 hours after a federal judge granted the camp an emergency restraining order to protect the camp from being unlawfully cleared.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane City Council will consider a resolution Monday night to prevent city and county law enforcement from removing people experiencing homelessness from the homeless camp near I-90, commonly referred to as Camp Hope.

This action comes less than 24 hours after a federal judge granted the camp an emergency restraining order to protect the camp from being unlawfully cleared.

City council's new resolution supports a plan approved by Mayor Nadine Woodward and City Council President Breann Beggs on July 20. That plan aims to rehouse the residents of the camp and prevent the city "from leading or supporting unauthorized actions to remove unhoused individuals from Camp Hope."

“This resolution is in response to the recent actions of law enforcement at Camp Hope,” Council Member Lori Kinnear said in a statement. “Uniformed officers disrupted ongoing work by local providers to get people out of Camp Hope and into appropriate housing options. These disruptions continue to delay meaningful efforts to find better outcomes for the people living in the camp.”

The resolution states the following related to potential actions taken by City of Spokane employees:

The City of Spokane strongly supports the July 20th Plan to rehouse Camp Hope residents that was signed by Mayor Woodward and Council President Beggs and that all parties should join together to accomplish this plan.
The City of Spokane strongly condemns any action by, or directive to, City of Spokane employees that would force them to take action against a set of vulnerable individuals without judicial authorization and thereby place them in legal and/or physical jeopardy.

“We all agree that the people living in Camp Hope should be rehoused in appropriate long-term housing as soon as possible so that they, along with the neighborhood, can return to normal,” Beggs said in a statement. “The City of Spokane has endorsed dozens of initiatives to house people and decommission Camp Hope, and we need a recommitment to collaboration from all parties to finish the job.”

City council members will consider this new resolution during Monday night's meeting.

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KHQ

'They can't sweep': Judge signs restraining order against local authorities at Camp Hope

SPOKANE, Wash. - One year since Camp Hope was created, a temporary restraining order prohibiting police from “sweeping” the camp was signed by a judge Monday morning.

And once again, Julie Garcia with Jewels Helping Hands, stood inside the encampment, speaking on behalf of her team and those living inside Camp Hope.

“It’s not necessarily that we don’t want the city or the police or anybody in here, we just want it to be done in a collaborative way so it can be explained to the folks on this lot,” Garcia said.

After months of struggle, months of finding resources for those living inside tents and RVs, aiming to transition them into shelters or permanent housing, a new critical change has entered the gates of Camp Hope.

A temporary restraining order, initiated by Jewels Helping Hands along with single plaintiffs, against the City of Spokane, Spokane County, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, and Spokane Police Chief Craig Miedel, makes for two key developments in the legality of what can be done inside, or above, the camp.

All defendants are enjoined from the following:

Arresting and/or removing residents of Camp Hope from their current location, or seizing their property, without specific and individualized probable cause to arrest a person for a criminal offense unrelated to an order given by Defendants to disband, move, or otherwise leave Camp Hope.

Utilizing infrared imaging or similar technology to surveil or record the residents of Camp Hope, without first obtaining a judicial warrant for such a search.

“They can’t sweep,” Attorney Jeffry Finer said.

Finer plays a key role over at Camp Hope – acting in the role as Jewels Helping Hands’ attorney, essentially the camp’s attorney.

“I’m not a housing guy, I’m a lawyer guy,” Finer said. “My job is to protect my client, to complete the work they’re doing and complete it in peace.”

In recent weeks, controversy has grown surrounding the current state of Camp Hope– as more shelters open, the city claims shelter space is available for the folks living inside the encampment, so the camp should shrink.

Mayor Woodward releasing this statement:

"The city remains focused on getting people out of the cold and into a warm bed, regular meals, and services. We want people to know they have options other than living outdoors in the snow and freezing temperatures.”

Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Corporal Mark Gregory said the police are committed to restoring peace, and will continue to respond to emergencies and crime as needed at the camp.

Today, past the fence surrounding the camp, it was clear the population has started to decline. Open space throughout the camp, less tents, less campers.

Garcia says for those who were able to go into a shelter, have gone into a shelter.

As for the morale inside the camp, Garcia and Finer agree with the police restrained from sweeping the camp, whether that be walking throughout the camp or using helicopters to shine infrared lights down onto the camp, those inside will feel more safe and more willing to cooperate.

“This restraining order and the lawsuit, it does not mean that we’re trying to keep this camp here forever, we’re just trying to do our work not impeded,” Garcia said.

After Christmas, on December 28, there will be a hearing to decide if this temporary restraining order will become permanent.

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KXLY

Spokane's mayor speaks on federal judge ruling preventing Camp Hope clearing

December 12, 2022 2:22 PM

Updated: December 12, 2022 6:05 PM

SPOKANE, Wash. — On Monday, a federal judge signed a temporary restraining order to prevent Camp Hope from being cleared.

According to the restraining order, the City of Spokane, Spokane County, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl cannot arrest or remove people living at the camp. Law enforcement is also not allowed to use infrared imaging or similar technology to record people inside the camp without a search warrant.

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward released the following statement on the ruling:

“The City remains focused on getting people out of the cold and into a warm bed, regular meals, and services. We want people to know they have options other than living outdoors in the snow and freezing temperatures. We have added considerable space to our night-by-night inventory over the past few years as a bridge strategy while more permanent housing options come online and become available. Although it is a necessary asset, night-by-night space is expensive to operate and maintain. Permanent housing is the long-term sustainable option. Our message to people is to come in out of the weather while you get connected to a more permanent housing option.”

The motion comes after multiple visits from law enforcement to the camp.

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The Center Square

Judge halts plans to disband Spokane homeless camp

(The Center Square) – A federal judge has granted a temporary emergency restraining order that limits the way law enforcement officials can interact with residents of Camp Hope in Spokane.

Under Monday’s ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian, deputies and police officers cannot remove people from the camp unless there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.

Bastian also ruled that infrared imaging or like technology cannot be used to surveil camp activities without a warrant. The sheriff’s office has used both helicopters and drones to get a population measurement of the camp, which is the largest in the state.

The restraining order was sought by Jewels Helping Hands, Disability Rights Washington and several campers. They wanted to stop disbandment of the camp until the case for an injunction is adjudicated.

The same parties have initiated a federal case claiming a violation of civil rights will occur if the camp is closed against the will of residents. The plaintiffs argue that people at Camp Hope are not trespassing because the Washington Department of Transportation, as the landowner, has given them permission to be there.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich counters that the camp was founded a year ago as a protest over the lack of resources for the homeless, and it has become an “unlawful assembly” due to ongoing public health and safety violations.

Sheriff-Elect John Nowels told The Center Square that the crime rate around the camp has gone up 40% to 90%, depending upon the type of offense.

The hearing to decide whether an injunction should be put in place to stop the removal of campers is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 28, in Yakima.

Julie Garcia, executive director of Jewels, posted a screenshot of Bastian’s decision on Facebook with the comment: “Oh my goodness! Today is the best day ever! We can exhale, if only for a moment.”

Nowels said the Dec. 12 ruling is “disappointing but not unexpected” in light of the ongoing twists and turns in the situation.

“We can still do our regular law enforcement functions; we just can’t do anything about clearing the camp until the injunction has been decided,” he explained. “All this does is prevent us from solving the problem put upon this community; it seems even the federal court is not recognizing that suffering – the voice of the victims has been lost.”

Knezovich disputes the assertion by Jewels, WSDOT and the state Department of Commerce that there is not enough housing available for campers and they will end up on city streets if dispersed.

Nowels said body cam footage of a recent law enforcement visit to Camp Hope refutes the narrative by Jewels and others that deputies and officers have been “intimidating and harassing” residents.

“It’s so frustrating to have people putting false information out there,” he said. “The body cam footage shows just the opposite.

On the video feed from Deputy Joshua Pratt’s camera, about 15 city police officers, deputies and behavioral health counselors showed up at the camp in East Central about 1:40 p.m. on Dec. 6. They were holding flyers to pass out to residents informing them that the site will be closed in the near future and advising them about available shelter resources.

Pratt and others were stopped from entering the camp by Garcia, whose organization has received money from the Department of Commerce to provide services.

As body cam footage rolls, Garcia tells Pratt, a member of the homeless outreach team, that she cannot let his group through the gate without permission from WSDOT.

“We are strictly here to pass out flyers, that’s our sole intention, we’re not here for anything else,” explained Pratt.

Garcia returned from making a call to WSDOT to inform the law enforcement contingency that they had permission to go inside. She warned Pratt that his live camera was going to scare residents and they were unlikely to engage with him.

“Just be respectful of the fact that folks have been terrorized by law enforcement for the last three months,” she said. “They see the uniforms and they panic.”

She said that she and others would be accompanying the authorities to protect them.

In contrast to her words, several residents of the camp hugged Pratt when they saw him waiting outside the gate and engaged in conversation.

Inside the camp, Pratt noted that Garcia was telling people to stay inside tents and RVs and not talk with law enforcement officials.

“That’s fine,” he said, advising those around him to announce themselves when they approached a tent or RV and then, if the person stayed inside, to leave the flyer “on the porch.”

The footage shows deputies and officers walking on paths of packed snow to distribute information. Sometimes they have difficulty finding the entrance to a tent given the collection of materials piled around or stored behind makeshift pallet fences.

About 40 minutes later, the law enforcement officials completed their mission with incident and departed. Jewels and the other parties then filed for the restraining order to stop further visits.