Lots of news today, much of it about what got passed by the legislature. I edited the list to things I thought we should keep an eye on. Note the first article - "Liberal U.S. cities change course, now clearing homeless camps”. It was printed in the S-R, but it is an Associated Press article. Hmmm….

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Spokesman-Review

Liberal U.S. cities change course, now clearing homeless camps

Here’s a look at what the Washington Legislature did the past 60 days

RURAL AREAS FEELING REAL ESTATE BOOM

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Spokesman-Review

Liberal U.S. cities change course, now clearing homeless camps

By Sara Cline

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND – Makeshift shelters abut busy roadways, tent cities line sidewalks, tarps cover broken-down cars, and sleeping bags are tucked in storefront doorways. The reality of the homelessness crisis in Oregon’s largest city can’t be denied.

“I would be an idiot to sit here and tell you that things are better today than they were five years ago with regard to homelessness,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said recently. “People in this city aren’t stupid. They can open their eyes.”

As COVID-19 took root in the U.S., people on the street were largely left on their own – with many cities halting sweeps of homeless camps following guidance from federal health officials. The lack of remediation led to a situation that has spiraled out of control in many places, with frustrated residents calling for action as extreme forms of poverty play out on city streets.

Wheeler has now used emergency powers to ban camping along certain roadways and says homelessness is the “most important issue facing our community, bar none.”

Increasingly in liberal cities across the country – where people living in tents in public spaces have long been tolerated – leaders are removing encampments and pushing other strict measures to address homelessness that would have been unheard of a few years ago.

In Seattle, new Mayor Bruce Harrell ran on a platform that called for action on encampments, focusing on highly visible tent cities in his first few months in office. Across from City Hall, two blocks worth of tents and belongings were removed Wednesday. The clearing marked the end of a two and a half week standoff between the mayor and activists who occupied the camp, working in shifts to keep homeless people from being moved.

In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a pilot program over the summer to permanently clear several homeless camps. In December, the initiative faced a critical test as lawmakers voted on a bill that would ban clearings until April. It failed 5-7.

In California, home to more than 160,000 homeless people, cities are reshaping how they address the crisis. The Los Angeles City Council used new laws to ban camping in 54 locations. L.A. mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino has introduced plans for a ballot measure that would prohibit people from sleeping outdoors in public spaces if they have turned down offers of shelter.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in December in the crime-heavy Tenderloin neighborhood, which has been ground zero for drug dealing, overdose deaths and homelessness. She said it’s time to get aggressive and “less tolerant of all the (excrement) that has destroyed our city.”

In Sacramento voters may decide on multiple proposed homeless-related ballot measures in November – including prohibiting people from storing “hazardous waste,” such as needles and feces, on public and private property, and requiring the city to create thousands of shelter beds. City officials in the area are feeling increasing pressure to break liberal conventions, including from an conservation group that is demanding that 750 people camping along a 23-mile natural corridor of the American River Parkway be removed from the area.

Advocates for the homeless have denounced aggressive measures, saying the problem is being treated as a blight or a chance for cheap political gains, instead of a humanitarian crisis.

Donald H. Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said at least 65 U.S. cities are criminalizing or sweeping encampments. “Everywhere that there is a high population of homeless people, we started to see this as their response.”

Portland’s homeless crisis has grown increasingly visible in recent years. During the area’s 2019 point-in-time count – a yearly census of sorts – an estimated 4,015 people were experiencing homelessness, with half of them “unsheltered” or sleeping outside. Advocates say the numbers have likely significantly increased.

Last month Wheeler used his emergency powers to ban camping on the sides of “high-crash” roadways – which encompass about 8% of the total area of the city. The decision followed a report showing 19 of 27 pedestrians killed by cars in Portland last year were homeless. People in at least 10 encampments were given 72 hours to leave.

“It’s been made very clear people are dying,” Wheeler said. “So I approach this from a sense of urgency.”

Wheeler’s top adviser – Sam Adams, a former Portland mayor – has also outlined a controversial plan that would force up to 3,000 homeless people into massive temporary shelters staffed by Oregon National Guard members. Advocates say the move, which marks a major shift in tone and policy, would ultimately criminalize homelessness.

“I understand my suggestions are big ideas,” Adams wrote. “Our work so far, mine included, has … failed to produce the sought-after results.”

Oregon’s Democratic governor rejected the idea. But Adams says if liberal cities don’t take drastic action, ballot measures that crack down on homelessness may emerge instead.

That’s what happened in left-leaning Austin, Texas. Last year voters there reinstated a ban that penalizes those who camp downtown and near the University of Texas, in addition to making it a crime to ask for money in certain areas and times.

People who work with the homeless urge mayors to find long-term solutions – such as permanent housing and addressing root causes like addiction and affordability – instead of temporary ones they say will further traumatize and villainize a vulnerable population.

The pandemic has added complications, with home-less related complaints skyrocketing in places like Portland, where the number of campsites removed each week plummeted from 50 to five after COVID-19 hit.

The situation has affected businesses and events, with employers routinely asking officials to do more. Some are looking to move, while others already have – notably Oregon’s largest annual golf tournament, the LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic, relocated from Portland last year due to safety concerns related to a nearby homeless encampment.

James Darwin “Dar” Crammond, director at the Oregon Water Science Center building downtown, told the City Council about his experience working in an area populated with encampments.

Crammond said four years ago the biggest security concerns were vandalism and occasional car break-ins. Now employees often are confronted by “unhinged” people and forced to sidestep discarded needles, he said.

Despite spending $300,000 on security and implementing a buddy system for workers to safely be outdoors, the division of the U.S. Geological Survey is looking to move.

“I don’t blame the campers. There are a few other options for housing. There’s a plague of meth and opiates and a world that offers them no hope and little assistance,” Crammond said. “In my view, where the blame squarely lies is with the City of Portland.”

In New York City, where a homeless man is accused of pushing a woman to her death in front of a subway in January, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to start barring people from sleeping on trains or riding the same lines all night.

Adams has likened homelessness to a “cancerous sore,” lending to what advocates describe as a negative and inaccurate narrative that villainizes the population.

“Talk to someone on the street and literally just hear a little bit about their stories – I mean, honestly, homelessness can happen to any one of us,” said Laura Recko, associate director of external communications for Central City Concern in Portland.

And some question whether the tougher approach is legal – citing the 2018 federal court decision known as Martin v. City of Boise, Idaho, that said cities cannot make it illegal for people to sleep or rest outside without providing sufficient indoor alternatives.

Whitehead, of the National Coalition for the Homeless, thought the landmark ruling would force elected officials to start developing long-term fixes and creating enough shelter beds for emergency needs. Instead, some areas are ignoring the decision or finding ways around it, he said.

“If cities become as creative about solutions as they are about criminalization, then we could end homelessness tomorrow,” he said.

Frank sits in his tent in Portland next to the Willamette River on June 5, 2021.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS

Mark Bannister plays with his dog, Amelia, at a camp for people experiencing homelessness along the American River Parkway in Sacramento, Calif., on Feb. 24. Bannister said many people lacking housing do not want to go to shelters because pets are not allowed.

Here’s a look at what the Washington Legislature did the past 60 days

By Laurel Demkovich and Albert James

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

OLYMPIA – Spokane will get a boost for buses, selling gun magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds will be banned and pickleball likely will be the new official state sport, thanks to this year’s work by the Washington Legislature.

The Legislature adjourned for the year Thursday just before the midnight deadline, with more than half of its members – masked and mostly socially distant – in person on the floor after starting the session in January almost fully virtual.

Most election year sessions are quiet as lawmakers spend 60 days adjusting a budget passed the previous year. This year, as lawmakers came in with more state and federal money than they expected, was not quiet.

It was a session Democrats called “historic and transformational,” having passed the largest supplemental budget in state history, a 16-year transportation project focused on transit and preservation, and a number of other significant pieces of legislation.

Similar to last year, a focus for Democrats was helping the state recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re coming out of a very tough time with this pandemic and the recovery hasn’t been positive for everyone,” said Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane. “But we do have a lot of progress ahead of us.”

Lawmakers looked to tweak bills passed in previous sessions on police reform and a long-term care tax, ban large gun magazines, address climate change and fix the state’s housing crisis, among a host of others.

A number of other bills, including creating a safe staffing standard for hospitals, limiting the governor’s emergency powers and requiring all cities to remove single-family zoning in much of their limits did not make it this year.

Gov. Jay Inslee praised lawmakers for their work this session.

“Sixty days ago, I asked legislators to take big, bold action, and they delivered big, bold action 60 days later,” Inslee said in a news conference following the end of the session.

Republicans came into the session with priorities to address public safety concerns, make Washington more affordable and restore trust in government. Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said they had some wins and some losses on those areas, but overall Democrats missed the mark.

“We missed generational opportunities,” Braun said. “There was an unprecedented amount of money. That’s the sort the thing you can make really generational change on.”

Here’s a look at what happened the last 60 days.

Bigger-than-normal supplemental budget, transportation package

Lawmakers came into the session with $5 billion more in state revenue than anticipated and $1.2 billion more in COVID-19 relief federal funds that had not yet been spent. The $64 billion supplemental budget passed Thursday makes investments in K-12 education, behavioral health, COVID-19 pandemic recovery, housing and more.

The operating budget passed both chambers on party lines late Thursday.

The budget leaves $800 million in reserves for the next two years plus an additional $2.75 billion left in an account set aside to help Washington recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, or a similar emergency.

With the unusual amount of extra money this year, Republicans had called for significant tax relief statewide, but the Democratic budget does not include any broad tax cuts.

Some Democratic tax proposals, including a three-day sales tax holiday around Labor Day weekend and making state fairs and state parks free, did not make it in the final budget.

“People are generally aware that there was a ton of extra money out there and they didn’t get any of it,” House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, told reporters Thursday.

Lawmakers also used their extra cash to add projects into the transportation and capital budgets, which fund transportation, infrastructure and construction projects across the state.

The budget transfers $2 billion plus $56 million a year into the transportation package also passed Thursday.

The $17 billion, 16-year transportation package will fund maintenance, transit and other projects across the state, including a rapid bus route on Division Street in Spokane.

Republicans pushed against the package, criticizing the fee increases included in the proposal and claiming they did not have any say in the negotiation of the final package.

Large gun magazine ban

Making, distributing or selling gun magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds of ammunition passed the state Legislature and awaits Inslee’s signature.

The bill bans the manufacture, distribution and sale of magazines for rifles, as well as for a number of pistols that can hold more than 10 bullets.

Possession is not prohibited in the bill. Law enforcement and armed services members are exempt.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have enacted regulations on large capacity magazines, according to Giffords Law Center, a gun control organization started by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived being shot in the head. Those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. California’s ban was recently upheld in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Long-term care tax

Legislators worked quickly at the beginning of the session to pass a delay in the implementation of a longterm care payroll tax that started in January. The 0.58% payroll tax goes toward a program called WA Cares, which provides a benefit of up to $36,500 to those who qualify to use on professional care at home or in a facility, home safety evaluations, equipment and transportation.

The collection of the tax is now delayed until July 2023, giving legislators time to fix the program that many have said is insolvent.

Along with the delay, legislators made some changes, including allowing more exemptions to the tax for people who live outside of Washington but work in the state and some veterans with a service-connected disability of 70% or higher.

Police reform

The Legislature also worked quickly to debate some tweaks to police reform bills passed last session. Two proposals received broad support, including one to add more clarity to allow law enforcement officers to respond to mental health calls and one to allow agencies to purchase some nonlethal weapons.

One bill to redefine use of force passed the Legislature, giving law enforcement the ability to use physical force to stop a person from actively fleeing a scene. Many Democrats wanted the definition to include “intentionally and actively” fleeing a scene, but that was taken out in the final version.

Another bill that dealt with vehicular pursuits did not make it out of the Senate in time on the last day. It would have allowed officers to engage in vehicle pursuits when there is “reasonable suspicion” that a person has or is committing a violent offense, nonviolent sex offense, escape or driving under the influence offense and when not pursuing has serious risk of harm to others.

The bill was a priority for Republicans, who made fixing police reform bills top of mind this session.

…

Student loan program

A bill to create a state student loan program was debated late into the night Thursday, right up until the final deadline.

The proposal, sponsored by House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, establishes a program to issue student loans with 1% interest rates to resident students with financial need who are pursuing an undergraduate or high-demand graduate degree.

How they voted

The operating budget, Senate Bill 5693, passed the state House of Representatives 57-41.

Of Spokane-area lawmakers, Democrats Rep. Timm Ormsby and Marcus Riccelli voted in favor. Republicans Rep. Rob Chase, Mary Dye, Jenny Graham, Joel Kretz, Jacquelin Maycumber, Bob McCaslin, Joe Schmick and Mike Volz voted against it.

In the Senate, it passed 29-19. Of Spokane-area lawmakers, Democrat Sen. Andy Billig voted in favor. Republicans Jeff Holy, Mike Padden, Mark Schoesler and Shelly Short voted against it.

The loans will be awarded starting in 2024-25. The loans should have a 1% interest rate, no lending fees and be dischargeable in the event of the borrower’s total and permanent disability or death. For undergraduates, the loan amounts can range from $3,000 to $12,000. For graduate students, it ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.

…

Nursing and health care worker shortage

A bill that would have required hospitals to implement nurse-to-patient ratios failed to win approval, a win for hospitals and a blow to nursing unions, who said the bill would help prevent burnout in staff.

The bill also would have addressed issues surrounding meal and rest breaks, overtime and accountability for implementing hospitals’ staffing plans.

Hospitals argued there are not enough nurses to fill the ratios, meaning they would begin cutting care for patients because they did not have enough staff.

Unions said nurses need to be able to offer proper care for their patients, and one way to do that is by implementing staffing ratio requirements, such as only allowing eight patients to every one nurse in emergency departments.

Although the Legislature did not pass the ratio bill, they did include a number of other proposals and funding in their final budget to address the nurse and health care worker shortage.

Those include funding for more nursing slots statewide, a new nursing program at Eastern Washington University, new lab equipment at some colleges and universities and a loan forgiveness program for nurse educators.

Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman.com.

Sen. Andy Billig, clockwise from top, D-Spokane, talks Thursday with Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, and Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, on the floor of the Senate in Olympia.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RURAL AREAS FEELING REAL ESTATE BOOM

By Shawn Vestal

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Retiree Anthony Maggi put his Republic home on the market five years ago and got no takers.

Now, as the home-selling season of spring approaches, he’s trying again, with one big difference: The list price for his four-bedroom, 2,200-squarefoot home has more than doubled.

“When we put it on the market in 2017, we put it at $89,000,” Maggi said. “It’s now on the market at $199,900.”

Meanwhile, Realtor Cynda Bragg just closed a deal for a couple selling their home in the woods northwest of town for $224,000, almost three times what it sold for in April 2020.

Bragg said the sellers – who did not want to be interviewed – had initially listed the home at $195,000, before receiving some advice from someone from the West Side.

“This is too cheap,” Bragg said they were told. “You can get more for this.”

Anthony Maggi is selling his home in Republic. Like other homes in the rural county, his is listed at a much higher price than it would have been just a couple of years ago. Ferry County saw some of the steepest price hikes in the state last year at 33%.

COLIN MULVANY/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

As home prices soar in the cities, what’s happening in some of Eastern Washington’s rural counties is just as dramatic: The most affordable real estate markets in Washington are rapidly becoming a lot less affordable.

Nowhere is that more true than Ferry County, which is often ranked as the most affordable county in the state by the University of Washington’s Center for Real Estate Research. According to the center’s most recent report, the median sale price for a home in Ferry County leapt up by 33% in 2021 – the biggest increase last year on the dry side of the state.

Bragg has been selling homes in Ferry County for seven years, and she’s watched prices steadily go up. Since 2013, the median price of a home sold in Ferry County has risen by 71%.

“One problem is our housing shortage,” she said. “In Ferry County, as of this morning, there are 19 houses on the market. With low supply and high demand, it just pushes prices up.”

In some ways, the dynamics are similar to those in the cities: steep price increases, people from cities moving in for the good deals and investors looking to flip properties.

And first-time homebuyers – more and more – are left out of the picture.

“It’s been a bit crazy for the last couple of years,” said Rachel Siracuse, Ferry County assessor and member of the Republic City Council. “I’ve been here a long time, going on 22 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it.”

Stagnant incomes

Last year, prices rose by at least 10% in every Eastern Washington county but one – Lincoln County.

They were up 20.6% in Grant and Douglas counties, and more than 19% in Pend Oreille, Stevens and Columbia counties.

It’s not just happening in rural Washington. Nationwide, according to Redfin, rural home prices rose 16% in January, a steeper rise than either suburban or urban home prices, as scarcity of housing stock is met with a growing number of buyers looking for good deals away from cities.

James Young, director of the research center, said while the home prices and tight markets in the cities have drawn the lion’s share of the attention, smaller counties all over Washington are experiencing the same pattern.

“People are seeking value,” he said. “People who don’t have to live in Seattle or in a bigger city are going to the smaller towns. You’re also getting a lot of older people retiring.”

In Republic, the economy is still shadowed by the 2018 closure of the gold mine that was the county’s largest employer. The population shrunk by several hundred people between 2010 and 2020 to just more than 7,100. The median household income rose by just 17% between 2011 and 2019 – nowhere near the rise in home prices.

“The prices are hard to absorb because people’s incomes don’t go up that quickly,” Young said.

Prices up everywhere

Driven by urban counties in the West Side, the median home sale price statewide in 2021 was $560,400, an increase of 24%.

Spokane County saw another big leap in prices – a median of $390,200 that was 23% higher than last year. Since 2013, prices here have simply exploded, rising more than 120%.

The soaring home prices in Spokane – and other mid-sized cities – have completely reshaped our identity as a housing market. Not long ago, a chief element of our civic identity was our affordable home prices. But as housing crises in cities have rolled downhill to smaller cities like Spokane, some of that pressure is now rolling downhill to rural communities, Young said.

“Year over year, almost every county is in double digits,” Young said.

As prices rise in small towns, it becomes more and more difficult for firsttime buyers to find a home – even in the most affordable places. Many rural counties are losing population or growing very little, and economic opportunity is limited. Median incomes have been relatively flat – certainly not following the double-digit patterns of recent home price increases.

Bragg said sellers on the lower-priced end often can’t afford to fix up their homes to make them eligible for financing through programs aimed at firsttime home buyers.

Siracuse, the Ferry County assessor, said there have been recent positive signs in the local economy. In the not-too-distant past, businesses would close up on Main Street in Republic – and go onto the market for years at a stretch.

“For decades,” she said. “We couldn’t give ’em away.”

In recent years, though, businesses in the town have sold and opened with new ventures – a coffee shop, restaurants, a hardware store. At the same time, she said, her daughter and sonin- law can’t afford to break into the housing market.

‘Gone instantly’

Other counties in Eastern Washington have unique circumstances. Whitman County’s market – where prices rose 22% – is driven by the dominating presence of Washington State University. The forces influencing housing prices in the wine country of Walla Walla (up 23%) or recreation-oriented Okanogan (21%) are different than those in Garfield (16%) or Adams (19%).

It’s also true that in the smallest counties, there are few enough home sales that one should be wary of big percentage increases. Over the past decade, Ferry County has posted around 100 sales a year, for example.

Still, sticker shock is the common denominator. Even in Lincoln County, which had the lowest prices increases in the state at 6.7%, home prices tower above those of a few years back.

In August last year, the executive director of the Port of Columbia, JennieDickinson, was describing the housing market in Dayton in an interview. She sounded for all the world like she was talking about Seattle or Spokane.

“We are experiencing a housing shortage unlike any we’ve ever had,” Dickinson said. “You can’t find a rental, and if a house is for sale, it’s gone instantly.”

For Maggi, who is looking for another home after his current one sells, the rising prices are a double- edged sword.

“We want to buy,” he said. “We live here. Whatever the market’s doing here, it’s doing everywhere. We’re not going to make some huge profit.” Shawn Vestal can be reached at (509) 459-5431 or at shawnv@spokesman. com.