3/29/2022
Spokesman-Review
‘CONSTANT BOMBS’ (ed. Note: I include this as an example of how other countries are sheltering their citizens experiencing homelessness)
KREM
KHQ
KXLY
The Inlander
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Spokesman-Review
‘CONSTANT BOMBS’ (ed. Note: I include this as an example of how other countries are sheltering their citizens experiencing homelessness)
Spokesman-Review reporter Eli Francovich is in Eastern Europe to cover stories with ties to Spokane. Francovich’s articles will appear throughout the week. His trip was paid for largely by Spokesman-Review readers who have donated to the Community Journalism Fund and through the newspaper’s Northwest Passages event series. To help support this trip and similar newsroom efforts, contributions can be made at www.spokesman.com/thanks.
By Eli Francovich
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
WARSAW, Poland – The first thing he noticed upon arriving in Ukraine’s shattered capital of Kyiv was the stationary train.
“One entire train of the metro isn’t even moving,” said Jared Malone. “And it’s because people are living on it. You know, all their kitchen supplies are in there, blankets, towels, people sleeping on the floor.”
Malone is a Marine veteran who now lives in Post Falls and works as a counselor. He arrived in Ukraine on March 22 and is working with a church in Lviv, a western city mostly spared from fighting. But on Friday he took an overnight train to Kyiv, with plans of bringing a family back west.
He knew Kyiv would be intense. He served two combat tours in Iraq so he’s familiar with war. But what he’s seen over the course of three days shocked him.
The streets of the country’s capital city are covered in glass, the consequence of shock waves from bombs. Residents leave their windows open so concussions don’t break them. The roads are nearly empty other than military checkpoints, one every 200 meters, he estimated.
“It’s like something out of an apocalyptic movie,” he said.
At each checkpoint he was interrogated, his passport examined, his motives questioned. Soldiers searched through his phone
Jared Malone, of Post Falls, stands in front of a destroyed apartment complex Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine.
COURTESY OF JARED MALONE
checking to see if he’d taken photos of buildings or fighters, suspicious he was a Russian spy. All this happening to the drumbeat of artillery and bombs exploding on the city’s outskirts, the noise making it seem as if everyone was whispering.
“It’s a very, very tense situation,” he said. “They’re ready for a battle. Defensive positions everywhere, everywhere.”
Malone had been in Kyiv for three days as of Monday, and he’s accompanied by two Ukrainian men affiliated with the Victory Christian Church. While in Lviv, the western city, he’s staying and working with that church although the churches’ main congregation is in Kyiv.
On Friday, Malone met with the main pastor in Kyiv to coordinate support and supplies from America. Malone has raised about $18,000 so far. After meeting with the pastor he contacted some families with disabled children trying to coordinate pickups and evacuation from Kyiv to Lviv.
He spent that night at the home of one of his Ukrainian friend’s parents.
The man’s parents fled Kviv about a month ago. Getting to that house was harder than he’d anticipated.
“When we pulled into the neighborhood we were immediately interrogated, and they were upset,” he said of the soldiers at the checkpoint.
The soldiers yelled at him and his two Ukrainian friends. Asked why they were there, particularly after seeing Malone’s body armor, they grew even more suspicious. This lasted for 10 minutes and Malone was getting “pretty scared.”
But then his friend spotted a soldier with whom he’d grown up. The solider vouched for them and they made it into the neighborhood. Snow fell that night and the house was freezing. They cooked eggs over a propane stove.
“Constant bombs here,” he texted. “Going to sleep in a freezing house with no electricity to the sound of explosions.”
He spent Saturday touring the city with his friends, documenting the damage to civilian areas, upon their request. That included a visit to the shopping center that was bombed on March 21, killing eight people. Shrapnel from that explosion sprayed upward, pockmarking the sides of nearby apartment buildings. He hopes his photos and videos will inspire more people he knows, through his church, friends and family, to donate.
“They want people to understand that civilian structures are being targeted,” he said. He also visited a children’s hospital that evening and spoke to overwhelmed doctors. On Sunday he went to a local grocery store and bought food for some elderly residents who couldn’t leave their home. Most grocery stores are closed, from what he’s seen, although one that’s located in a basement continues to operate and “seemed like it had plenty of food.”
Malone also continued to try and make arrangements with a stranded family, although phone calls started to fail Monday afternoon. As of Monday evening he was still deciding whether to return to Lviv or wait to connect with a family ready to leave.
“It’s heartbreaking thinking we may have to leave without reaching people. I’ve been angry and frustrated most of the day. One family requested evacuation but they are in occupied territory and can’t get out. They have a sick daughter. We can’t do anything for them,” he texted.
“I feel like Kyiv is getting more tense by the minute.” Eli Francovich can be reached at (509) 459-5508 or at elif@spokesman.com.
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Spokane Riverkeeper Jerry White Jr. says the river is running high and creeping up the banks, which are home to wildlife and people.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane River is an impressive sight. Right now, 105,000 gallons of water is running by every second.
"It is quite dangerous, if you get up on the sides of the river, you can be swept into the trees, and the river is very, very cold right now," Spokane Riverkeeper Jerry White Jr. said.
White says the river is also running high right now, creeping up the banks, which are home to wildlife and people.
"We've watched kind of a social tragedy unfolding but it's also a pretty serious impact on the river," White said.
More and more homeless camps are dotting the banks between the TJ Meenach bridge and Felts Field.
"Poverty has an impact, we see these camps with no garbage service along the edge of the river and when we have these flows come up like this into where people have been living, garbage and other household items get washed right in the river and then they are garbage, they are pollution," White said.
White has found toxic chemicals, paint cans and excessive amounts of plastic.
"Which breaks down into micro plastic and then it gets ingested by all the wildlife," White said.
The cleanup never stops, as White says that 26,000 pounds of litter were picked up last year with over 1,000 volunteers.
"We are certainly watching the rise of people in poverty and people living along the banks of the river in our city, just as we're watching across the west coast," White said.
The camps pose a problem with no easy solution. When conditions are safe, White likes to put service providers in boats.
"We'll go ashore, folks from SNAP will get out, offer services, inquire as to whether services are needed, get back on the boat and then we get on to the next camp," White said.
The Spokane River is an urban river. White says you can't put the blame squarely on homeless camps.
"Everything finds its way to the river so we will find all kinds of litter that's not all attributed to homelessness," White said.
White is always looking for volunteers to come out for a few hours on the weekends to clean up the banks. For information on how you can volunteer, click here.
Gonzaga Family Haven, Catholic Charities' newest affordable and permanent housing, will help change the lives of 73 families in Spokane.
“Families and most importantly, children need a roof over their heads at night before they can think about anything else,” Rob McCann, president & CEO of Catholic Charities, said in a statement.
The affordable housing program will also provide families with on-site social services for adults, teenagers and kids. Some programs include access to health care, substance abuse counseling, a Head Start and ECAP Program after-school tutor lab and academic support programs.
“Gonzaga Family Haven will not only help families stabilize their lives but will give them options for a brighter future," McCann said in a statement.
Other on-site services include case management, personal health and wellness classes, adult education, employment readiness, food preparation and nutrition courses.
Gonzaga Family Haven plans to partner with Gonzaga University, Gonzaga Preparatory and St. Aloysius Parish to work with the community through student volunteering to help some of these services run.
The housing facility also includes some amenities, such as an early learning and childcare facility, a health clinic, a computer lab, an indoor recreation space, a 1/4 mile bike/pedestrian trail, a Splash Pad, a dog park, a community garden and more facilities.
The Gonzaga Family Haven is the 17th tax credit property that Catholic Charities has been awarded since 2012.
PHOTOS: Gonzaga Family Haven
"We believe the Family Haven partnership holds the potential for Spokane to establish a national model of community-driven change," Thayne McCulloh, Gonzaga University president, said in a statement.
A grand opening ceremony will be hosted on Wednesday, March 30 at 11 a.m. at 975 E. North Foothills Drive in Spokane.
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KHQ
The number of people experiencing homelessness who are staying in shelters across the country did go down by 8% in 2021 compared to the year before. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development attributes that drop to emergency pandemic spending, which many communities used to invest in their homelessness crisis.
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KXLY
Posted: March 27, 2022 1:05 PM Updated: March 27, 2022 2:25 PM by Will Wixey
Virrage Images // Shutterstock
SPOKANE, Wash. — If you’re looking for a job this spring, there are plenty of opportunities to work for the city!
Many local departments are promoting their employment opportunities right now. The city’s looking for people to fill spots in transit, parks and recreation, the city council, and more!
Spokane Transit has been advertising a variety of positions lately, including the benefits and bonuses available to its employees.
There’s listings for coach operators, safety coordinators, customer support, and many other jobs. Find what might work for you on Spokane Transit’s website.
Also, Spokane Parks and Recreation is looking for people to join their team.
Often regarded as “Spokane’s best kept secret,” Spokane parks and recreation employees can get paid for doing park maintenance at some great rates! There are plenty of part-time and full-time applications to look through online.
And last but not least, the Spokane City Council is also hiring.
Specifically, the city council wants individuals to help with funding distribution and calculating salaries. There are also vacancies for several local volunteer boards, commissions, or committees, so if you want to contribute to the city in a different way, check out the current vacancies here.
So if you have the qualifications and are looking for a job, consider applying to the city and providing service to the greater Inland Northwest community!
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The Inlander
A rendering of Edlen & Company’s 206 Riverside Ave. project.
Spokane's failure to build enough housing was a disaster even before the COVID-19 pandemic. There were so few vacant apartment units, with vacancies nearly nonexistent as early as 2017, when the Inlander dedicated an entire cover story to it.
Yet instead of this crisis sparking a surge in new housing, the number of housing permits was actually lower over the next three years: In 2018, the number of housing units in Spokane County permitted fell to less than 2,260 units — the lowest level in four years.
Part of the issue, Spokane Home Builders Association President Joel White says, is that, with rents still low and the market uncertain, few local developers were eager to risk committing the next few years to building a ton of multifamily projects in Spokane.
"Not a lot of people have the resources to invest in 144 units," White says. "They don't want to oversaturate the market either."
Longtime local developer Lanzce Douglass blames the Washington state business climate — a problem he says has only become worse in recent years.
"With the political environment in Washington, with the Legislature gutting the landlords' property rights, there's not really much incentive to continue to build in Washington," he says.
Why deal with the red tape in Spokane, when he could just hop across the border and build in more laissez faire Kootenai?
"We're in Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene right now, building some large complexes because of that," Douglass says. "If you go over to Post Falls in the Highway 41 corridor, you'll see all the big developers are over there."
Indeed, Kootenai County, despite having a much smaller population, actually saw 20 percent more housing units get permitted in 2020 than in Spokane County. But that's changing: 2021 figures show Kootenai County development slowing down — and Spokane speeding up. White says the easiest-to-develop land in Kootenai had already been snatched up,
"They're getting some political resistance over there, too," White says. "Infrastructure needs to get developed, and that takes time."
Meanwhile, Spokane County permits rebounded from its 2020 lull by leaping more than 40 percent to end 2021 with 3,400 new housing units permitted.
"It really didn't really take off until COVID, when you started to see people fleeing the West Coast," White says.
That includes a six-story 139-unit project in Spokane's University District; 48 units of Catholic Charities' supportive housing near Spokane Falls Community College; the "Marjorie at Aspen Park" with 226 units on the West Plains; and even a huge project from Douglass — the Quarry Apartments — in Spokane Valley.
And yet Spokane County still fell short of surpassing the number of permits issued for 2016, suggesting the pace still isn't nearly fast enough to make up for the tens of thousands of homes the area needs to accommodate its growing population.
"We just have stalled," White says.