7/16/2022

For a one-year period, the interim zoning ordinance would permit duplexes and townhouses in all residential zones as well as triplexes and quadplexes citywide.

Dubbed the Building Opportunity and Choices for All initiative, the goal with the one-year pilot is to make way for more housing now while working toward permanent future changes, said Spencer Gardner, the city’s planning director.

Members of the City Council and Mayor Nadine Woodward have endorsed the changes as ways to provide more flexibility for more housing stock during what’s been declared a housing emergency in Spokane.

“If we truly believe this is a housing emergency, then we need to be acting quickly,” Gardner said. “You don’t walk out of a building that’s about to collapse on you. You run.”

A public hearing on the proposed changes is scheduled for Monday’s council meeting prior to the vote.

Gardner said residents should not expect a sea change to their neighborhoods if the interim zoning ordinance is approved. He isn’t anticipating that people will suddenly tear down their homes to build duplexes, for example.

“Where I think you will see an impact is with vacant lots, underused property and also lots that are distressed and already subject to redevelopment pressure,” Gardner said during the council’s Public Infrastructure, Environment, and Sustainability Committee meeting last month. “Then the last is existing housing that used to be a duplex, or maybe a threeplex, that got deconverted at some point but could be reconverted back.”

When the Building Opportunity and Choices for All initiative was unveiled last month, it proposed to only allow triplexes and quadplexes within a quarter- mile of major transit stops and a half-mile of busier commercial areas known as center/corridor zones.

Councilwoman Lori Kinnear last week attempted to amend the ordinance to include that language. The amendment failed on a 3-3 split vote, with council members Jonathan Bingle, Michael Cathcart and Betsy Wilkerson in favor of allowing triplexes and quadplexes citywide.

Councilman Zack Zappone, who was absent for that Monday’s meeting, said he is undecided on where he stands with the amendment.

Approximately twothirds of the city’s residential land is zoned exclusively for single-family homes, Gardner said.

The ordinance accordingly reduces the zoning code’s allowable dimensions for townhouses, such as lot sizes and widths, as the current dimensions would result in financially impractical and “comically large” townhomes, Gardner said.

A difference between townhouses and duplexes/ triplexes/ quadplexes is how easily they can be sold. A quadplex, for instance, is four units in a single building on one lot in which the units can’t be sold separately. Meanwhile, a townhouse is usually a row of attached, individually owned dwellings.

While the zoning change would allow for more housing options, the city’s other development standards – such as the building code, lot coverage regulations and setback limits – would still apply, Gardner said.

Kinnear emphasized the move will not completely solve the city’s housing woes.

“I want to make sure people understand this isn’t necessarily an affordable option,” she said late last month. “Is it more affordable than single-family? Perhaps, in some cases, but not the blanket across the board.”

Gardner said the changes could lead to more housing at all income levels.

“As we provide more housing at the top, the opportunities then spill downward so that people at the bottom of the ladder also have more housing available for them as well,” he said. “So even though this isn’t really addressing the bottom rungs of the ladder directly, there is probably some indirect benefit.”

If the ordinance is approved, officials are anticipating a public hearing in September to see how the changes are going.

“As a pilot, this only lasts for a year,” Gardner said, “and if there are neighborhoods where we’re seeing disproportionate impacts, we have an opportunity to go in and adjust on the fly as part of our one-year work plan.”Greg Mason can be reached at (509) 459-5047 or gregm@spokesman. com.

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KREM

Council President Beggs, Councilmember Wilkerson ask city administration to start negotiations on purchasing East Trent Shelter

A previously approved lease agreement allows the city to purchase the proposed shelter building on East Trent Avenue.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane City Council President Breann Beggs and City Councilmember Betsy Wilkerson have drafted a resolution to purchase the proposed homeless shelter on East Trent Avenue, according to the council agenda for Monday.

Resolution No. 2022-0066 asks the Spokane City Administration to "enter negotiations" with the owner of the building on Trent so the city can purchase it.

Council members previously approved a lease agreement for the proposed shelter on June 27. The lease includes a reduction in the monthly management fee from previous drafts as well as a possible option for the city to buy the building in the future.

According to the resolution, the council is requesting to buy the property so the city does not end up paying for needed improvements to the building, which would increase the purchase price.

The resolution also states, "the city is poised to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars" on property improvements that will "greatly benefit the owner of the property."

The city has identified three potential funding sources that could be used to purchase the shelter space, according to the resolution: American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, Commerce Department Relocation funds and 2021 unallocated general fund budget reserves.

The total cost of purchasing the building will not be known until after negotiations have finished.

"The purchase of this property is not meant to be a singular solution to solving homelessness in our community but is one piece of the puzzle toward providing sufficient sheltering beds for those in our community who need them," Beggs wrote in the resolution.

The council is set to discuss and vote on the resolution during their meeting on Monday night.

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KHQ

From homeless to hopeful: Local Spokane business is built on giving back to the community

SPOKANE, Wash. - "The community supports us, so we'll support them."

Right off of Northwest Blvd. sits Mama's Take and Bake Dinners, a small local business that started less than a year ago.

"Seven months," clarified the owner, Jeff Crutchfield

Now this small local business is giving free lunches to kids over the summer, but this isn't the first time they've helped the community.

Run by the Crutchfields, it was a plan which started after the pandemic took everything from them.

"Our former line of employment, when the pandemic hit—it was gone. It was never coming back," he explained.

Jeff Crutchfield hasn't had the easiest life.

"My wife and I, we were homeless a while ago, and we know how hard it is to get back on your feet."

Knowing that so many people are struggling in our city, Jeff and his wife created Mama's Take and Bake Dinners to give back in any manner they can.

"So, we just started saving up," he said. "We just started slowly buying our equipment. It was used, so we'd buy it, fix it up, get it running good."

The cost of running and operating the building remains low, and what profit he does have goes back into the community.

"With a good enough plan, we're able to help the community back," he said.

In December, they reached out help the most vulnerable. They took enough materials to keep 300 people without a home warm and fed.

"We set our funds aside after our second weekend of being open to go help the homeless who were suffering from the cold," he said.

And in January, they set aside funds to help domestic violence victims.

"Whether it's a hotel or a fast ride out of town."

On Memorial Day weekend, they fed over 100 veterans.

And now, they are giving kids free lunches all summer. Originally, the goal was to make lunches for 50 kids twice a week.

"The first day it was over 150," Catchfield recalled.

And in two-and-a-half weeks of the program, "We counted over 1700," he said.

For Jeff, he says it's not about the money and never has been. "When I see the smile on these little kids' faces, it makes it worth it."

It's about making the community better, one smile at a time.

"You ever watch that show 'My Name Is Earl?' I'm Earl. I got a lot of giving to do, and I'm doing it," he said.

This program is running all summer from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 2-6 p.m. on Saturdays.

Jeff is looking to open up a second storefront in the coming months and will continue to help support the Spokane community.

If you want to help out, visit the GoFundMe page HERE!

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KXLY

'I don't know': People at Camp Hope don't want to live at the Trent shelter. Will the City compromise?

July 15, 2022 6:27 PM

SPOKANE, Wash. — People living at the largest homeless camp in Spokane say they don’t want what the mayor’s offering, but the city may meet them in the middle.

Mayor Nadine Woodward is standing behind the new city-run shelter opening at 4320 E. Trent Ave in East Spokane.

Even though, in a recent survey done by Jewels Helping Hands, only 51 out of the 601 people living there said they would use it, although many living there want housing.

“Housing, that’s number one,” said William Seat. He was at the city hall protest back in January and moved to the camp in East Spokane when they were forced to vacate city property.

Seat says stable housing is what he wants, but not if a new shelter is his only option.

He says he won’t go to a new shelter “because The Guardians will be taking over that one too, and I will not be anywhere there is a Guardian employee.”

He doesn’t trust The Guardians to run a shelter. Others living at the camp also have concerns.

“Stable housing would be my ultimate goal in some sort of way,” said Kytrinka Shaw. She moved to the camp in March.

She says she wants to leave this camp but is worried about the new shelter.

“I don’t know,” she said. “If it’s not overcrowded, that’s the problem I had with the other ones is I’m not a people person so yeah I don’t know.”

The mayor knows people have concerns.

“I think maybe in their mind right now, they’re thinking of just that large warehouse type of environment,” Woodward said. “That’s not at all what we’re trying to create here.”

She says the 33,000 sq. ft. floor plan is full of opportunity.

“We’re talking about lots of different options. Because the space is so large, almost 33,000 square feet, it provides a lot of flexibility,” Woodward added. “We’re talking about allowing pallet homes there.”

Those tiny homes are something 601 people surveyed by Jewels Helping Hands say they want and could be another possible solution to help people like Kytrinka get on their feet and off the street.

On top of opening the new shelter, the mayor is also working to secure $25 million from the Department of Commerce to relocate people at the homeless camp. She says a lot more outreach still needs to be done to truly understand what those living there need.

Camp Hope grows to small town population, many stuck without a choice

Posted: July 14, 2022 6:11 PM Updated: July 15, 2022 8:00 AM by Esther Bower

SPOKANE, Wash. — In a field just off I-90, a community has grown from a few tents to a population bigger than a lot of small towns in the Inland Northwest.

New details have surfaced about who is living here and why. It’s a reality check for the city of Spokane as it hopes a new shelter will clear the lot.

Camp Hope is becoming a political football, and while the city and advocates disagree on what to do about it, more than 600 people are calling tents and run-down RV’s their homes.

Of the 601 people living at the camp, only 51 of them said they’d go to a shelter, even though, for many of them, living there doesn’t feel safe at all.

“We lost my apartment, me and my puppy,” said Jessica Chavez. She moved to the camp in June and says it doesn’t feel like home. “Scary, as in at night time there’s fighting. There’s people yelling during the day. It’s just very scary. I’m not used to it.”

But she says she still can’t leave.

“What’s keeping me is my social security. We’re trying to fix that. I guess I don’t qualify,” Chavez said.

Barriers like this are what’s keeping most people at the camp. Jewels Helping Hands oversees Camp Hope and asked people, “why are you here” and “what would get you to leave?”

Ninety-nine percent of those living there say they need a new form of identification needed for jobs or housing, which costs money to get.

“My backpack got stolen about a month ago or so, now I’m back to scratch getting my ID again,” said Kelii Pawlowicz, who also lives at Camp Hope.

Pawlowicz has been homeless for three years and is still unable to get back on his feet.

“I don’t have a disability, I don’t have a job,” he said. “It’s hard maintaining a job for me even though I have good work ethic.”

Homeless advocates say those living at Camp Hope don’t have necessary life skills.

“The reason they’re still in the camp and their biggest obstacle for getting out is no life skills,” said Maurice Smith, a homeless advocate.

So for now, they’re stuck, all 600 of them, each with a unique story, in a community that’s growing bigger by the day.

“I would like to get housing and get my own place to get me out of here,” Chavez said.

Seventy-seven percent of people say what got them into Camp Hope were family issues followed by loss of income. So, where would they go if they don’t want to go to a shelter, and if or when this camp is cleared?

According to a new survey, every single one of them would go to a tiny home, something the city and county don’t offer.

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Spokane Journal of Business

In housing shortage, mobile home values soar

Washington state leads US with most expensive manufactured homes

Karina Elias

Manufactured homes historically haven’t been known for appreciating in value.

That’s no longer the case, Spokane-area lot owners and real estate agents say.

Multiple Listing Service data provided by the Spoka ne Association of Realtors show a steady uptick in sales value during the past two years. The median price for a mobile home rose 26% to $87,300 in 2021 from $65,000 in 2019, according to MLS data. Mobile homes on land sell for substantially more, and those sales follow an even steeper trajectory.

Robert Cochran, property manager at Contempo Spokane Mobile Home Park, attributes that trend to the onset of the pandemic and a short supply of homes in recent years.

Cochran says one person who leased a lot at Contempo had bought a manufactured home there for $25,000 six years ago and recently sold the home for $90,000 without performing any improvements or repairs. Just a few years ago, that home would have sold for the same or less than the original purchase price.

“There must really be a shortage if people are willing to pay so much,” he says.

Cochran contends that many people are taking advantage of the inflated real estate market and downsizing to mobile home parks without doing much research, and they’re paying more for a used manufactured home than they would for a new one.

Washington state is the most expensive place to purchase a mobile home, according to a November 2021 study by Charlotte, North Carolina-based mortgage broker Lending Tree Inc.

The median mobile home value is $125,400 in Washington, which is the only state where the median is over $100,000, the study shows. Nationally, the median value of a mobile home is $53,300.

The study found that single-family homes in Washington appreciated in value by 46% over a five-year period, while mobile homes appreciated in value by 62%.

Jody Henderson Boutz, a real estate agent with Windermere North Spokane LLC, compares manufactured homes on rented lots to motor vehicles in that they don’t come with a conventional deed but with a title similar to that of an automobile.

Boutz says she used to advise her clients that manufactured homes on leased land don’t appreciate in value. That advice, however, hasn’t held true recently, she adds.

For example, one of her current listings features a 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom manufactured home in the Shenandoah Forest Mobile Home Park north of Spokane for $163,000. Seattle-based real estate tech company Zillow’s price history report shows that home sold for $59,000 in 2016.

Boutz says she had an offer within two hours of listing it. Two days later, the sale was pending for full asking price.

“It’s one of the more popular parks,” she says. “It’s a beautiful setting in the Mead School District and well taken care of. Some (parks) are really run down.”

Spokane County assessor Tom Konis says he’s noticed the rising values of manufactured homes on leased lots for the past couple of years, and he also attributes the rise to the housing shortage.

“The prices are astronomical,” he says. “Manufactured homes selling for $150,000 on rented lots. There’s such a housing shortage. It’s crazy.”

Cochran’s parents bought the Contempo park in 1976, two years after it was built. Located at 1205 E. Lyons, in the Nevada Lidgerwood neighborhood, the park has 220 lots of varying sizes on 29 acres of land. Monthly lot rentals there average $500. Rent includes water, sewer, and garbage services, says Cochran.

Mobile homes and manufactured homes are two terms still used interchangeably, explains Cochran, who is the former president of the Manufactured Housing Communities of Washington, a statewide nonprofit.

Mobile homes originally were homes built on steel frames that were easily moveable. They were created to supply quick and efficient housing in the U.S. following World War II, he explains.

In 1976, federal regulations took effect, and new manufactured homes were required to meet U.S. Housing and Urban Development building standards.

Modular homes, he adds, are distinct from the category of manufactured homes. A modular home, unlike a manufactured home, isn’t shipped fully assembled. In addition, mortgage lenders finance modular homes the same as built-on-site homes.

“In the eyes of the state, (manufactured homes on leased lots) are seen as personal property and don’t qualify for real estate loans,” he says.

He adds that if the manufactured home is on the homeowner’s land, it can go through a process in which it becomes attached to the property, more like a conventional house.

“Lending on homes that are on leased land is different,” he adds.

Data from Spokane’s Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service shows the median price of a manufactured home on owned land was $295,000 in 2021, up from a median value of $199,500 in 2019.

In Washington state, 30% of manufactured homes are communities in which the land is rented, and 70% of homes are on owned land, says Cochran. In Spokane, manufactured homes comprise 1.4% of all residential homes, while statewide that figure is 6%, he says.

Over the last decade or so, Concord New Hampshire-based nonprofit Resident Owned Communities USA has been helping residents buy their communities by leveraging financing from larger banks, Cochran says.

Takesa Village Homeowners Cooperative, located at 11705 N. Wilson Road, in Mead, 20 minutes north of downtown Spokane, is one example. The resident-owned community controls the rent and sets certain rules for its members.

Tina McKinstry, Takesa Village board president, says the community received $5.5 million in financing with assistance from ROC USA in 2016. The community has 215 sites with a few vacant spots quickly filling in, she says. Rent for each lot is $380 a month and includes water and sewer services.

McKinstry says, because manufactured homes don’t qualify for traditional mortgage loans, they often are bought with cash. She saved up for four years to purchase her home for $25,000 cash in 2014.

Cochran says he has tried to persuade the Spokane City Council that manufactured homes can be one tool in providing relief during the current housing crisis.

He says the city is most focused with the infill of small pockets of land and doesn’t show much interest in manufactured home communities.

“On 2 acres, you can have about 12 manufactured homes,” he contends.

Even with the growing housing shortage, Cochran says he doesn’t see the city including manufactured homes as an infill-housing option.

“I think there is still a negative connotation with manufactured homes, and, in general, people go, ‘I don’t want to live near poor people,’” he says.

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New York Times Times Daily Briefing (sent in by Barry Barford)

Today, we look at the causes of homelessness in the U.S. — David Leonhardt

By German Lopez

Good morning. America’s homelessness crisis is getting worse.

A homeless encampment in Los Angeles.Mark Abramson for The New York Times

A housing shortfall

America’s homelessness problem has the makings of an acute crisis.

Shelters across the U.S. are reporting a surge in people looking for help, with wait lists doubling or tripling in recent months. The number of homeless people outside of shelters is also probably rising, experts say. Some of them live in encampments, which have popped up in parks and other public spaces in major cities from Washington, D.C., to Seattle since the pandemic began.

And inflation is compounding the problem: Rent has increased at its fastest rate since 1986, putting houses and apartments out of reach for more Americans.

The crisis means more people do not know where they will sleep tonight. Living in the streets, people are exposed to more crime, violence and bad weather, including extreme heat. They can lose their job in the chaos of homelessness, and they often struggle to find another one without access to the internet or a mailing address. “There’s a certain posture that you take when you are homeless,” Ivan Perez, who lived in a tent in Los Angeles, told The Times. “You lose your dignity.”

Homelessness has become a particularly bad political problem for the Democrats who govern big cities, where it is most visible. It has played a role in recent elections, like the recall of San Francisco’s district attorney last month. More Americans now say they worry a great deal about homelessness compared with the years before the pandemic.

The origins of the current homelessness crisis go back decades — to policies that stopped the U.S. from building enough housing, experts said. Seven million extremely low-income renters cannot get affordable homes, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Supply and demand

No factor matters more to homelessness than access to housing. Poverty, mental illness, addiction and other issues do play roles, but they are less significant.

Many cities and states in the Midwest and South, for example, have higher rates of mental illness, poverty or addiction than other parts of the U.S., but they have similar or lower rates of homelessness. “What explains regional variation is housing market conditions,” said Gregg Colburn, a housing expert at the University of Washington.

Housing researchers use the example of musical chairs: Imagine there are 10 people for nine chairs. One person, weighed down by poor health, does not make it to a chair. Is the problem that person’s health or the lack of chairs?

Homelessness, then, is a supply-and-demand problem. Without enough housing, not everyone has a place to live. And the homes that do exist cost more as people compete for limited supply. So more people are priced out, and more end up homeless.

Policy failures

Policymakers have made the crisis worse, instituting laws and zoning rules that limit the number of available homes.

Consider California. Los Angeles County allocates 76 percent of its residential land to single-family housing, while the San Francisco Bay Area allocates 85 percent. Historically, this has made it difficult to build more housing: Most plots are reserved for only one family, instead of duplexes or apartment buildings that can house many more.

Homeowners also often protest proposed housing, effectively blocking it. They fear that more housing, particularly for low-income families, will change the makeup of their communities or reduce the value of their homes.

In San Francisco, for example, protests recently stopped a project to convert a 131-room Japantown hotel into housing units for homeless people.

The combination of zoning rules and local protests has added to a housing deficit year after year, as growing populations have outpaced new homes built. Now, California has 23 available affordable homes for every 100 extremely low-income renters — among the worst rates of any state.

What’s next

Some cities and states have begun confronting the issue. California and Oregon passed laws in recent years to effectively end single-family zoning. But homelessness took decades to get to this level, and it will probably take years to fully address.

And while homelessness is largely associated with Democratic-run cities in Democratic-run states, that appears to be changing as more Americans flock to the Sun Belt and the West. If traditionally red states in these areas repeat the same mistakes as their coastal counterparts, they could set themselves up for a crisis in the future.