ShelterSpokane2022

MacKenzie Scott, one of the richest women in the world, has donated $436 million to Habitat for Humanity, the organization said Tuesday, in one of the billionaire philanthropist’s largest publicly disclosed donations.

Ms. Scott, who was formerly married to Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.75% founderJeff Bezos, has a net worth of about $54.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking updated daily of the richest people in the world. She signed a pledge in 2019 to give away the majority of her wealth.

Jonathan Reckford, chief executive for Habitat for Humanity International, said the organization received $25 million from the gift from Ms. Scott and her husband, Dan Jewett, while the remaining $411 million will be shared among 84 local Habitat for Humanity affiliates.

Much of the $25 million will be used to increase the supply of affordable housing, particularly in communities of color, Habitat said.

Founded in 1976, the nonprofit organization partners with local communities in all 50 states and 70 countries around the world to address housing shortages.

Habitat’s local affiliates will also use the gift to contribute to the organization’s global ministry, which has already committed $200,000 to offer housing support to refugees fleeing Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 to address housing shortages around the world.

Photo: Jason Asteros/Associated Press

Ms. Scott, who divorced Mr. Bezos in 2019, signed the Giving Pledge later that year.

Started in 2010 by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, his now ex-wife Melinda French Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffett, the initiative encourages the world’s richest individuals and couples to give more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes, either during their lifetime or in their wills.

Ms. Scott, who was instrumental in helping Mr. Bezos create Amazon, received 4% of the company’s shares as part of their divorce settlement, although Mr. Bezos retained voting rights for those shares.

Ms. Scott said in June 2021 that she would donate $2.7 billion to 286 organizations. Ms. Scott and Mr. Jewett worked with researchers, administrators and advisers, to identify historically underfunded nonprofits that work in neglected areas, she wrote in a Medium post.

“We chose to make relatively large gifts to the organizations…both to enable their work, and as a signal of trust and encouragement, to them and to others,” said Ms. Scott.

In July 2020, Ms. Scott gave $1.7 billion to an array of causes and organizations, including historically Black colleges and universities as well as groups that support women’s rights, LGBT rights and efforts to fight climate change.

Later that same year, she announced on Medium that she had donated just over $4 billion over four months to 384 groups focusing on food insecurity and systemic inequality.

In December 2021, Ms. Scott said she would stop going public about her philanthropic gifts and let recipients decide if and when they want to announce the donations, as Habitat for Humanity did Tuesday.

Last week, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, one of the country’s largest youth-serving organizations, announced it received $281 million from Ms. Scott. On Monday, the Fortune Society, a New York-based group offering support to formerly incarcerated people, said Ms. Scott had donated $10 million to the organization.

Write to Ginger Adams Otis at Ginger.AdamsOtis@wsj.com

BuildStrong Academy Plans National Expansion to Train More Construction Workers

Industry-funded nonprofit expects to launch chapters in Charlotte, Phoenix, Houston by 2024

Nicole FriedmanMarch 22, 2022 8:00 am ET

BuildStrong Academy plans to open schools to train workers in the home-building industry in 20 cities in the next 15 years.

Photo: Andy Coy/BuildStrong Academy

A nonprofit organization called BuildStrong Academy that trains construction workers is expanding nationally, in response to a labor shortage that has prevented home builders from meeting demand.

Home-building activity has increased in the past two years as historically low mortgage-interest rates and a rise in remote work have fueled home-buying demand. Housing starts rose in February to the highest level since 2006, according to the Commerce Department.

But builders have struggled to produce homes fast enough because of a shortage of construction workers and tradespeople, supply-chain issues, volatile material costs and a limited supply of ready-to-build land. Many builders restricted sales last year to make sure they didn’t sell more homes than they could build.

About 90% of home builders surveyed by housing-market research firm Zonda in March said labor disruptions were limiting how much they could build, up from 42% in March 2021.

BuildStrong Academy, an industry-funded nonprofit, plans to open schools to train workers in the home-building industry in 20 cities in the next 15 years.

“In every major market, there’s far more demand than there is supply,” said Pat Hamill, chief executive of builder Oakwood Homes, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Mr. Hamill founded the Colorado Homebuilding Academy, which is now called BuildStrong Academy of Colorado, in 2017.

“The labor shortage is very, very impactful across the board,” he said.

BuildStrong Academy opened an Orlando school in September and plans to open a chapter in the New Orleans area next month. It expects to launch chapters in Charlotte, Phoenix and Houston by 2024.

The schools will all use the same curriculum developed by the Home Builders Institute, a nonprofit that trains veterans, at-risk youth and others to work in construction. BuildStrong Academy and HBI are working with Franchise for Good, the nonprofit arm of franchising company Franworth, to expand the schools to new locations.

New chapters will be funded by private donors, local builders and nonprofits such as HBI.

Each school will offer an initial course focused on safety, construction basics and workplace skills, which is free for students. Following that, students can get entry-level construction jobs, take more specialized courses or enter apprenticeship programs, said Ed Brady, chief executive of HBI.

“We have lost generations of skilled labor” because of workers leaving the field following the housing crash and schools providing less technical education, he said. “We were not supplying the training and the emphasis on this being a good career path.”

Three Reasons Why the Red-Hot Housing Market Could Cool in 2022

U.S. home prices hit an all-time high in 2021, but those increases are expected to slow in 2022 thanks to a number of economic factors. Here’s what’s driving the housing market and what that could mean for prospective buyers and sellers. Photo: George Frey/Bloomberg News

The construction industry needs 740,000 new workers a year for the next three years to account for coming retirements and demand growth, according to the National Association of Home Builders and HBI.

There were 380,000 job openings in the construction sector as of January, up from 299,000 a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Despite strong demand from home buyers, “we’re actually having to turn down some work,” said James McVay, chief operating officer at home builder Leary & Brown Inc. in Columbus, Ga. “There’s only so much that we can do with the amount of people we have.”

About 500 workers graduated from BuildStrong Academy of Colorado in 2021, and 114 have been placed in construction jobs, said Amy Schwartz, executive director of BuildStrong Education, which operates the Colorado academy. The school is focused on improving its job placement this year, she said.

The Colorado students were 34 years old on average last year, and 26% were women, she said.

“The most typical profile of a student is somebody who is underemployed,” she said. “They’re working, but they’ve reached that ceiling, and they’re like, ‘Where am I going?’ ”

Nikiyah McBean, who is 20, enrolled in the BuildStrong Academy of Orlando last year because she was bored working as a dietary aide at a nursing home. After a 12-week course, she was hired by a local construction company as an insulated concrete form installer. She earns $15 an hour, up from $10 an hour in her previous job, she said.

“It’s more engaging,” she said of her new job. “It has its moments where it surprises you.”

Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com

####################################################

Spokesman-Review

SPS EXAMINES WIDE-RANGING BUSING CHANGES AMID DRIVER SHORTAGES

By Jim Allen

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Spokane children may have to walk farther to catch the school bus next year, and high school students may have to ride STA buses to class. Those are among the proposals under consideration as Spokane Public Schools seeks to ease its transportation woes.

Driving the issue is a dearth of bus drivers at Durham School Services, which has been busing Spokane students to class and activities for the past 13 years. During the past year, the national company based in Illinois also has struggled with COVID safety violations while dealing with its chronic staff shortages, leaving school district personnel to fill the gaps.

The district and Durham are in the fourth year of a five-year contract – an opportune time, the district said, to look at possible alternatives. The contract costs the district between $10 million and $13 million every year.

During a special meeting on Wednesday, the district board will hear details on options developed by a district work group on short-term and long-term modifications to its current bussing model.

“It will be an important discussion,” Superintendent Adam Swinyard said Tuesday.

No decision will be made Wednesday. However, the district is hoping to narrow its choices with an eye toward making a final decision later this spring.

Short-term alternatives for the 2022-23 school year include the following:

•Reducing the number of bus stops, which would mean students walk further for a ride

• Extending the time between routes, which would lengthen waiting times at schools

• Increasing the district’s “walk boundary” from one miles to two miles for secondary students

•Partnering with Spokane Transit Authority for transporting high school students

•Exploring alternate transportation for Choice, Excelsior, Express and other programs The district work group, which includes teachers, students, administrators and others, also discussed long-term options, including acquiring its own bus fleet and drivers.

It’s also possible that the district could renew its contract with Durham and incorporate some of the short-term proposals into its long-term plan.

“We are looking at other models and what is going to provide the safest, most cost-effective solution,” said Shawn Jordan, the district’s chief operating officer.

Jordan, along with Rebecca Doughty, the district’s executive director of school support services, are expected to explain the pros and cons of each short- and long-term alternative.

At the top of the list is a proposal to increase route efficiency by reducing the number of neighborhood stops and creating larger, centrally located gathering locations “deemed safe and accessible.”

Currently, students served by buses walk an average of one-fifth of a mile from home to their bus stops. The proposal would increase that average to half a mile.

A second alternative would increase the gap between pickup and drop-off times for all students.

Currently, high school classes begin at 8 a.m., elementary school at 8:30 a.m. and middle school at 9 a.m. That timeline has been in place for several years, but Durham has struggled recently to meet those windows.

The district is considering starting routes sooner – 20 minutes earlier for high schoolers, 10 minutes for elementary students and 5 minutes for middle school.

The process would work in reverse in the afternoon, with middle-schoolers returning home up to 15 minutes later than they do now.

However, the plan might require more supervision at schools as some students will spend more time in buildings.

A third strategy would expand the current walk zone radius for middle and high school students. That’s how it is done is Seattle.

Expanding the radius from one mile to two miles would reduce bus riders; however, it would require more crossing guards. The district also would need toconsider certain neighborhoods and bad weather on longer walking distances.

Yet another proposal would involve a partnership with STA to provide more high school students with bus passes. However, some neighborhoods lack easy access to routes, and the district would need to address potential risks of students riding with the general population.

The final short-term proposal would explore alternate options for students in Choice Programs, including those at the Libby Center, Montessori, Pratt Academy and Apple.

Also affected would be students served by Excelsior as well as those served by Express programs.

The board also may discuss long-term proposals, including an “evaluation of proposals and contract models,” as well as consideration of full or partial inhouse transportation.

The latter might take the form of some co-op model with surrounding districts, though it’s unclear how that might work with similar bell schedules. Jim Allen can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at jima@spokesman.com.

Survey: Drug use declines, mental health issues persist for teens in state

By Arielle Dreher

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Washington teens continue to struggle with mental health, but substance use has declined among teens in the past few years, a statewide survey conducted by several agencies found.

State agencies on Tuesday published the new Healthy Youth Survey, which compiles data from sixth-, eighth-, 10thand 12th-grade youth statewide in Washington to gauge teen behavior, substance use and overall health every two years.

The pandemic delayed the survey by an additional year. The last time the survey was conducted was in 2018.

More than 200,000 students participated in the 2021 surveys, distributed through school districts statewide. The data can be separated by educational service district and county. More than 2,500 Spokane County 10th-graders participated in the survey.

Since 2018, fewer teens in Washington reported using substances like alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.

Many teens were stressed, anxious and reported feeling hopeless in 2021, however.

Of the more than 9,000 10th-graders surveyed, 38% reported feeling sad and hopeless in the last year, so much so they stopped doing their usual activities, and 20% of respondents considered attempting suicide. In Spokane County, 40% of 10th-graders surveyed felt sad or hopeless in the past year, and 22% considered attempting suicide.

Even more 12th-graders reported feeling sad or hopeless, with 45% of that group saying they felt that way in the past year.

Well over half of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders reported feeling anxious or nervous in the past two weeks when they were surveyed.

The survey highlights what service providers have been experiencing since the pandemic began: More children and teens are in need of mental health resources and services in the state.

State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah called these reports “worrisome” in a news release.

“Mental health is a part of our children’s overall health and well-being,” Shah said. “It is imperative that we all continue to work together to fully support the whole child by providing information and access to behavioral health resources to youth and the trusted adults in their lives.”

Student participation in the survey is anonymous and voluntary.

“Being a teenager these days can be difficult. Not many people are asking how we are really doing and what they can do to help,” one survey participant wrote.

To find mental health resources for you or your family, the Department of Health has compiled a list of resources for families.

The 24-hour suicide prevention lifeline is (800) 273-- 8255.

Arielle Dreher can be reached at (509) 459-5467 or at arielled@spokesman.com.

####################################################

KHQ

Spokane shops say requests for repairs following catalytic convertor thefts are ‘daily'

SPOKANE, Wash. - The theft of catalytic converters continues to be a major concern in our community and statewide. Multiple local repair shops KHQ spoke with on Tuesday say they receive "daily" requests for fixes after their cars were targeted.

One recent victim knows all too well the stress and expense that comes with having the part stolen.

"This is a huge issue right now," Kai Holquist said.

Kai's thieves didn't just target her once, but twice as her vehicle was parked mere feet from where she was working inside. Last week, they got the catalytic converter partially off, but something must have spooked them before they could remove it completely.

"They got close, extremely close," she said.

A family friend welded it back on. Days later, her Honda was hit again.

"They came right back, recognized my car obviously, and took it right off," she said. "It was easy."

Kai says she knew as soon as she turned her vehicle on that something was wrong due to the noise. She was quickly able to confirm the part was gone.

Muffler shops like BJ's in East Spokane say this problem is happening all too often. They say catalytic converters can go for anywhere from $5 to hundreds when it comes to resale. They say right now, larger body Hondas and Ford vans are frequently being sought out by crooks. They say the cost for a fix if this does happen can be upward of $500, if not more.

Kai and her loved ones reached out to our Help Me Hayley to ensure there is awareness out there on just how big of an issue this has become.

"We need changes," she said.

Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson told reporters earlier this month that he couldn't agree more.

"It is an obvious, right in front of us issue that (impacts) every corner of the state," he said. "We've seen an increase, as I have stated before. Just since last year...a (more than) 1,300% increase of catalytic converter thefts."

HB 1815 is currently on the desk of Governor Jay Inslee to potentially sign into law. The bill would ensure more documentation is required before the purchase or sale of catalytic converters. It would also help police with funding to ensure more resources can be spent on finding those responsible.

Kai is hopeful Inslee does sign it, and soon. She fears it could be any of us who are hit next.

"This is really hurtful to think, this is our city," she said.

Muffler shops say there are devices you can buy to try to protect your catalytic converter, but they have seen the part removed by determined thieves.

SPD encourages drivers to part in well-lit areas whenever possible. Kai says she does always try to do that, but says her thieves came in the middle of a busy Saturday.

SPD also recommends engraving your vehicle identification number on your catalytic converter to help make it easier to identify in the event it is stolen and ultimately recovered.

####################################################

The Inlander

Experts say safe smoking supplies could reduce harm of fentanyl

Samantha Wohlfeil

As fentanyl use explodes, alternative harm reduction may be needed.

Fentanyl usage is reaching epidemic proportions, as more people tell community health workers that they're intentionally using the powerful opiate. At the same time, the number of people overdosing with the drug in their system is rapidly increasing.

In a survey of needle exchange users across Washington state in September and October 2021, 42 percent of the 995 participants said they'd used fentanyl in the last three months. That's up from 18 percent in 2019. What's more, two-thirds who reported using fentanyl said they had done so intentionally, and most of that use involved pills, which are often smoked.

Such a swift rise in popularity of a drug that was hardly known in 2015 has been surprising, says Caleb Banta-Green, the syringe survey's co-author and principal research scientist at the Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute in the University of Washington School of Medicine.

"The fact that people are smoking is really important," Banta-Green tells the Inlander. "You have a wonderful syringe services program at the health district [in Spokane]. But now we have something like probably half of the people who are dying [of overdoses] are smoking drugs — fentanyl or methamphetamine — and we don't really have robust harm reduction programs for that."

Fentanyl contributed to or caused 11 deaths in Spokane County in 2019 and 28 deaths in 2020, according to the 2020 annual report from the Spokane County Medical Examiner. That number exploded from Jan. 1, 2021, to March 8, 2022, when the medical examiner's office saw 127 cases in which fentanyl contributed to the death, with another 87 cases still waiting on toxicology reports to see which substances may have been involved, according to the ME's office.

For decades, syringe programs have been helping people get safer supplies to reduce the spread of diseases and infections and to get people in the door so they can meet social workers and potentially access medication-assisted treatment and other services.

But Banta-Green says there is little to nothing offered when it comes to safer smoking supplies, which means people aren't coming in the door to access those other services. And many new fentanyl users are younger people who've never injected drugs, he says, meaning they may not think to access needle exchanges.

"We are seeing a decrease in clientele," says Samantha Carroll, an overdose prevention specialist and case manager at the Spokane Regional Health District needle exchange. "We used to have a line out the door, but now people are smoking the pills instead of injecting, and we've seen our population decrease."

Now, public health workers across the state are working to figure out if safer smoking supplies could be the next step in harm reduction for those suffering from substance use disorder.

HARM REDUCTION

When many needle exchanges started up about 30 years ago, largely in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, people were skeptical about whether the programs might cause more harm than good. But Banta-Green says the evidence is clear now that the programs not only reduce infections and the spread of diseases, but they also help case workers earn the trust of people who've often faced a lot of trauma. Once in the door, many of them get medication-assisted treatment, medical care and more.

"Supplies are often what bring people in, but what keeps people coming back are the people," Banta-Green says.

There's evidence smoking supplies could offer the same entry point. In a pilot project, the Tacoma Needle Exchange distributed smoking supplies at one of their sites starting in late 2020. Over the course of a year they saw 1,146 unique people, including 742 who were totally new to the needle exchange, according to a January 2022 report on smoking equipment that Banta-Green helped write.

"Providing smoking equipment allows a person to become engaged in a healthy relationship that could lead to things that would reduce overdose risk," Banta-Green says. "It's a public health harm reduction in the short term, but it also helps people who are super traumatized and rightfully untrusting."

Like syringes, safer smoking equipment can also reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis, Banta-Green says. But there are legal barriers when it comes to handing out items used to do drugs.

While Washington updated its laws in 2021 so that personal possession of paraphernalia is no longer illegal, distribution of that paraphernalia is still a civil infraction.

Washington syringe exchanges were originally enabled by a 1992 court decision involving Spokane's health district, which held that health officers have broad powers to stop the spread of diseases such as HIV. But whether that same legal standard would apply to smoking equipment such as pipes, foil and other tools is unclear, according to the January safer smoking supply report.

Currently, staff at Spokane health district's needle exchange aren't even allowed to give out fentanyl test strips, which were very popular with clients. Even though a pilot project to give out test strips was spearheaded by the state Department of Health from 2018 to 2020, Spokane health district's legal team has since told staff that it isn't legal to keep doing so.

"We're kind of in a bind right now, it's like the law versus ethics," needle exchange case worker Carroll says. "The only two weapons we had to combat the overdose crisis were fentanyl test strips and Narcan. We're still handing out the Narcan, but this is a definite crisis."

Hallie Burchinal, executive director of Compassionate Addiction Treatment in downtown Spokane, says that many of the people who drop in for services every day find out they've got fentanyl in their systems when they voluntarily take urinalysis tests. Some wonder where they may have been exposed, while others are also voluntarily switching to fentanyl due to its availability and cheap price.

"We've seen a number of people that were struggling with heroin use have switched to fentanyl use," Burchinal says, "which is really a hard path, because it's so much more difficult, the withdrawals are so much more difficult."

WHAT ELSE MIGHT HELP

Law enforcement agencies continue to try to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the state as blue pills that are sometimes mislabeled as Oxycontin and cause accidental overdoses for users who don't know what they're taking. But for those who do know what they're using, health experts continue to focus on helping those with deep-set fentanyl addiction as they try to reduce their use.

While smoking supplies could get more people through the door to access other social services, it's not clear if smoking reduces or increases the risks of fentanyl use, Banta-Green says. With heroin, there's more evidence that smoking is better than injection as far as reducing the risk of an overdose, he says, but that isn't likely the case when it comes to smoking meth or fentanyl.

Another harm reduction tactic Burchinal says she'd like to see is a free Narcan vending machine, but finding the money to pay for that may prove challenging. As it is, Compassionate Addiction Treatment, which is provided Narcan through a state program, only received 79 doses for an entire year.

The organization, meanwhile, sees 60 to 80 people come through its doors every day, many of whom are homeless and may be there to access a variety of harm reduction services.

The 69 people currently in their medication program may be prescribed Narcan by the doctors overseeing their care, Burchinal says, but other subsidized sources of the opioid-overdose reversal drug may be hard to come by.

Burchinal, Carroll and Banta-Green all said they wish people understood how effective harm reduction programs are, and that substance use disorder is truly a health issue.

"People are suffering from a medical disorder, not a moral failing," Burchinal says, noting that she wishes officials would stop throwing people in jail for drug-related issues. "I don't know anyone who's made true significant changes in their lives through shame and punitive approaches."♦

RESOURCES

Syringe Services are open Monday through Friday, 3 pm to 5 pm, at the health district at 1101 W. College Ave., Room 155. People may drop in and don't need to turn in used syringes in order to receive clean ones.

Compassionate Addiction Treatment is at 112 E. First Ave. in downtown Spokane, and is open weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm (except Wednesday when they close at 5 pm). Medication treatment is offered from 1 to 5 pm, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.